Damp footwell drivers side (now rear too!!)

[kangaroo 0]

Was giving my C a hoover inside today when I noticed it started sucking up water from the drivers side footwell. The dampness seems to be isolated to the area directly below the accelerator pedal, at the bottom of the pastic foot-rest thingy on the right hand side.

 

My initial thought was that water may have run down the bonnet-release cable (happened in my old Mk2 Golf), so I'll seal that up as a precaution. There's no dampness around the fuse box area though, so I don't think its dripping down from above... Any other thoughts?

 

I need to get the rest of the carpet up first, but I can't remove the trim along the door edge. How is this held on? with araldite? It seriously feels like I'm going to break it when I try to pull up on it :(

 

Cheers for any advice.

[VR6 0]

It's held on with clips - you just have to prise it up and they should pop out.

[Jim 2]

Could be the door skin?

[Mike Edwards 0]

2 possiblilities to check:

 

Waterproof membrane on the driver's door is missing/damaged;

The grommet for the bonnet release cable has come out letting water in the plenum chamber in.

[biggrim 0]

Could be the vent-type bit under the dash coming from the engine bay. Somethime it gets clogged up and water gets in to places where it really shouldn't.

[kangaroo 0]

Okay, I got the trim off eventually, boy was it clipped in tightly.

 

Mike Edwards, the grommet for the bonnet release was my first thought, I'll check it with a hose tomorrow. What's the plenum chamber though?

 

biggrim, the only vent I know of is the big one on the passenger side for the blower system, there isn't that sort of vent on the drivers side though. Are they any others I don't know about?

 

Will also check the door skin. Cheers guys!

[biggrim 0]

DOH! My bad matey. Getting confused a little here. Sorry :oops:

[kangaroo 0]

No worries biggrim. I still don't know my way around the 'rado fully, having only had it a couple of weeks. For all I know there could have been another vent on the drivers side!

[kangaroo 0]

Okay, I have found the source of the leak. But the plot thickens... :scratch:

 

There seems to be a small rusty hole on the side panel, right near where the electric cables come in from the door and just to the right of the fuse box support. (I have included an annotated picture for your reference).

 

Now, when I pour water down the drain hole in the top left of the engine bay (the one that dumps it out of the wheel arch) I get a small trickle coming out of this rusty hole. BUT, directly the other side of the hole is another metal sheet, so I think the water must be trickling down between the two skins? Is this possible? (I'm afraid I don't know the structure of the chassis or body panels at all).

 

I'm going to seal the hole up with silicon sealant, but I'm rather worried why water's getting down there in the first place. Do you think I could investigate from behind the wheel arch? How easy is it to take off those plastic arch-thingies?

[kangaroo 0]

Help! After all the rain last night my drivers-side rear footwell has now flooded! With a good inch or two of water :cry: But strangely the front footwell is dry.

 

What could cause only the rear footwell to flood?

[dr_mat 0]

Sunroof.

[kangaroo 0]

Drainage holes I assume? How does it get from there to the rear footwell? No water on the roof lining as far as I can tell.

[dr_mat 0]

Not sure, I just know that an old Jetta had the same problem (huge pools of water in the rear footwells) and it was the sunroof leaking big style.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The front drain tubes exit the car down the A pillar and the rear tubes exit down the C pillar and come out behind the bumper. Neither have a route into the car, so if the leak is sunroof related, either the drain tubes are blocked or one or more of them has come off the subframe.

 

I'd say your rusty hole is a good indicator as to where it's coming from! And no, not *that* rusty hole :wink:

 

Have you also checked the seal under the leaf guard?

 

Dry that hole, treat the rust, paint it then plug it.

 

Dropping the arch liners is easy, just undo all the screws and pull it out. It's tucked behind the bumper and arch lip, so will need some negotiation to come out, but it's by no means difficult.

[kangaroo 0]

That rusty hole is definitely the cause of the front footwells flooding (and I'm gonna plug it up as soon as the weather calms down), but not the rear ones. This morning the front well was dry, but the rear was soaking, and only on the drivers side. Something else is leaking somewhere... :?

 

How about the rear side-window seals? Or perhaps door seal? Whatever it is a LOT of water has come in, and just overnight.

[Rossco 0]

When my heater matrix went on the bum my drivers side rear footweel was soaking, has your car been needed topped up with coolant lately?

[dr_mat 0]

Were you parked on a slope?!

[kangaroo 0]

dr mat, ever so slight slope, yes.. but not enough for it to trickle back from the front footwell, which is bone dry (i have the carpets up and can see the metal). i have a hunch it could be a door seal, but won't know till i get back this eve. and take a proper look.

 

Harry, my coolant's fine, the water in the footwell is not blue or sticky anyhow.

Its this bloody weather, thats what. It's been raining solidly for about 36 hours now, not to mention gale-force winds :mad:

[Andy T 0]

Does sound very much like the door membrane behind the door trim, needs to be absolutley watertight along the bottom edge. Worth checking if the drainage holes along the bottom of the door are clear too.

[kangaroo 0]

So, it was that little hole after all... What was happening was the trickle of water was running down the edge of the door frame and then falling into the rear footwell, (bypassing the front well entirely). Had me confused till I did another hose test and saw the path it was taking. Cunning little bugger.

 

It also seems that hole is slap bang in the middle of all drainage points to the front wheel-arch. No wonder the car filled with so much water the other day :roll:

 

So I applied lashings of silicon sealant (I always think it smells like salt & vinegar crisps, anyone else ever noticed this?) and I think its ok. Will take the arch liner out over the weekend and have a proper investigation from the other side too.

 

Cheers for all the advice and help guys. Much appreciated.

[kangaroo 0]

Okay, so just to wrap this one up (it gives me a sense of completion):

I took the arch trim off over the weekend and peered inside the wing. After much prodding and probing and running water tests I found where it was getting through...

 

It seems theres a small box section at the top of the wing nearest the door/windscreen corner, out of which the sunroof drain-hose terminates. Water was somehow collecting in this box section (probably because of a split drain hose) and sitting there till it eventually rusted a hole though the inner skin and into the car. Very silly design.

 

Replacing the sunroof drain hose looks like a job from hell, so my solution was to drill a drainage hole at the bottom of this section of bodywork. I also liberally coated the area in underseal. Let's hope it doesn't leak anymore...

[buttles 0]

Keep the area at the rear of the engine bay clear of leaves and crud. If that area is full it will direct any water straight down the air inlet for the fan. This showed as a wet passenger footwell

[whiteee 0]

loved the annotated pic... without the notes those pink fleshy coloured things could of been anything!

 

and to answer your question... i have noticed the silicon sealant smell too...