Water Leaks

[shakermaker]

When it rains up here in the Gwent Gulag, boy does it rain and we’ve had plenty of it in the last few weeks. I wasn’t too surprised then last week to find the foot well carpet was wet, passenger and driver side. Not soaked but significantly wet. The car hasn’t been used much in the rain, so the leak or leaks are not coming up through the floor. It could be coming in through the hood seals, door seals, who knows, but I don’t really expect a hood to be totally leak proof in the driving rain we’ve had recently

I’ve taken the car out for a good blast with the heater on full to the point that it almost burned the skin on my ankles but it’s going to take a bit of drying out I think. I’ve ordered a few bags of Silica Gell to make up a couple of DIY dehumidifiers for the future, but in an effort to keep the rain out in the first place, has anyone tried a Sunmate from Mike Satur? They are out of stock at the moment but there are one or two similar hood covers on EBAY.

I’m beginning to think that that sign you see as you cross the Severn Bridge into Wales, the one that reads Croeso i Gymru roughly translated means Switch your Windscreen Wipers on Now

Cols

[petevick]

you'd be better off removing the carpet as the sound deadening matting underneath it will be sodden, remove that and hang it up to dry out. Your passenger side leak could be the heater air intake - forums.mg-rover.org/showpost.php?p=1253878&postcount=16. Drivers side may be this (pics are now dead unfortunatly ) forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=153429. More leak info here - www.mgf-tf-central.co.uk/tt-leaks.shtml

[Jerry & Di]

Mike Satur's Sunmate is good, I'm on my third as they get tired

The hood is normally watertight, it's seals round the window, the bit round the mirror (cheater?), and sometimes the heater inlet seals where it comes through the bodywork beside the brake servo.

All are fixable easily, just need some adjustment and TLC

[shakermaker]

Thanks for that. I it ever stops raining I'll investigate the heater box seal the other areas you mention.

Cols

[shakermaker]

It did actually stop raining one afternoon last week long enough for me to pull back the passenger side carpet, take out the sodden sound deadening and remove the heater duct.

I was relieved to see that the floor pan paintwork was still in good shape, no sign of rust, because I suspect this leak has been there since I bought the car. Condensation on the rear window is never a good sign, and should have alerted me to the problem long before now, but the over mats had concealed the wet carpet underneath.

There was no obvious sign of water entry, so I sprinkled a lot of talcum powder around the bulkhead and floor and left it for a few days. Checked yesterday and you were spot on Pete, it's the heater box seal.

Cols

[Jerry & Di]

If you have the heater box with the metal lid, the seal is pretty poor.
I swopped mine for the more "modern" all plastic box and made a proper seal which has been fine ever since.
I had to make a couple of new holes to bolt up nicely, but easy enough to fit.

[shakermaker]

Thanks for that Jerry.
I asked about hood covers earlier in this thread, not that it would stop this particular leak, especially the Mike Satur one. Has anyone had any experience of one from this company? www.coversshop.co.uk/outdoor_half_size_car_covers.htm

It looks neat on this TF but then it is a showroom photo

Cols

[Jerry & Di]

Jan 5, 2012 11:41:06 GMT shakermaker said:

Thanks for that Jerry.
I asked about hood covers earlier in this thread, not that it would stop this particular leak, especially the Mike Satur one. Has anyone had any experience of one from this company? www.coversshop.co.uk/outdoor_half_size_car_covers.htm

It looks neat on this TF but then it is a showroom photo

Cols

Wot I said above

Mike Satur's Sunmate is just that, a sun shield to stop u/v fading of the hood colours. It's not very good as a rain/weather shield, but it is easy to put on and has no nasty straps etc which need clipping onto the body/wheel arches.