Water leaks

[stumog]

So at the moment when it rains I get a soaking carpet on my 80 now is a GS with a after market sunroof which turns out doesn't have drains. Now I have sealed that up today.

So happy days you think. Nope. When fitting the baby seat in the back pulled out the nearside seat belt which is also soaking wet. I do have gullwings but any ideas where to start looking would be ace.

Stu

 

[essexpete]

Could the rear panel drain holes be blocked?

 

[Shayne]

I can't think how it would wet the seatbelt but theres an exterior runner under the rear windows or in your case gullwings with not much of a gasket to keep water out .
Open the rear side door and slide the runner forward to get it off if i remember correctly .

 

[Bodie]

Hi Stu,
I'm assuming grey ghost?..... if so, makes it difficult to pin point the gull wings, as it's was always stored, but that would certainly be a possibility. But based on the height of the rear seatbelt, you'd assume it needs to be coming in from the rear somewhere, so possibly the rear window drain holes.

 

[Bodie]

One other thought, have you got an internal water tank?

 

[stumog]

One other thought, have you got an internal water tank?

Water tank has been checked and taken out today just in case. The seat belt is fairly high up where I assume its mounted so not sure how water would sit there.

Could the rear panel drain holes be blocked?

The seat belt is to high for it to be this as I assume they are mounted ontop of the arch

I can't think how it would wet the seatbelt but theres an exterior runner under the rear windows or in your case gullwings with not much of a gasket to keep water out .
Open the rear side door and slide the runner forward to get it off if i remember correctly .

Is that behind the plastic panel?

 

[Shayne]

Outside like a window sill

 

[Shayne]

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Frankly I'm surprised its started to leak randomly at this stage. Its been stood outside for at least 5 years in all weathers without an issue.
It will be interesting to see what solves this. Did you take the roof rack off with the roof tent? if so I'd be looking at the condition of the gutters.

 

[stumog]

Hi shayne thanks for sending that over I will look.

Frankly I'm surprised its started to leak randomly at this stage. Its been stood outside for at least 5 years in all weathers without an issue.
It will be interesting to see what solves this. Did you take the roof rack off with the roof tent? if so I'd be looking at the condition of the gutters.

Yeah I am aswell. The roof tent is off for the winter. I have temporally sealed the sunroof with silicone for that part to check before I start looking for parts or something permanent.
Just need to sort the rear leak now

 

[Shayne]

Refitted mine with Sikaflex EBT because i can't think of a reason it might need to come off again . Of course Sika is not permanent but it may as well be .

 

[Bodie]

Just a thought.... I know this is like a "have you switched it on at the mains scenario"! But we all know how poor the electric windows are on the 80. So could you have a problem with one of the windows not closing fully?
We had that problem on one of wife's cars once, the window looked fully closed, but when it was windy aswell as raining, the water was running down the inside of the window! Also, a kinked or damaged door seal at the top would do it!..... just a thought!

 

[stumog]

Just a thought.... I know this is like a "have you switched it on at the mains scenario"! But we all know how poor the electric windows are on the 80. So could you have a problem with one of the windows not closing fully?
We had that problem on one of wife's cars once, the window looked fully closed, but when it was windy aswell as raining, the water was running down the inside of the window! Also, a kinked or damaged door seal at the top would do it!..... just a thought!

The windows on this one are fantastic. All 4 actually work like a normal car...

I will have ablast with shaynes trick tomorrow and hope for the best

 

[koos smit]

I have a 100, but might be something similar- had soaking carpets at second row seats. Eventually tracked back to the rear gulwing. The window seal itself was ok, but the black “plastic runner” on the outside was not sealing, so I removed and used silicone in the grommet fitting holes. That did the trick. Good luck!

 

[stumog]

So the good thing with working on a car in the rain is finding more leaks then you thought you had.

So sealed up the things under the gullwings ala shayne video so let's see how that goes.

Then felt the carpet as I was confident the sunroof sealing session was positive. Turns out carpet was wet again. Sunroof dry where was wet so half way there.

While in the car could see the windscreen also leaking in both front corners. More sealer

So fingers crossed I will have dry carpets again soon in a few days

 

[Dave2000]

One of the oldest tricks of the trade is to sprinkle suspected areas with talcum powder, when it rains it will leave a trail that sets pretty hard, this will help with tracking it down.

If all else fails you get a nice scented interior.

Regards

Dave

 

[SteveJB]

Might be best to do it like Clarkson May and Hammond when they filled the cars with water and see where it leaks from

 

[thelal]

Can be a slow process tracking it down. I've had both rear windows fail with molding "seal" going bad

 

[stumog]

Right I am hoping to close this one out. Although I stopped a leak from the windscreen seal it appears it was leaking in many areas.

So I got a PU type sealant from toolstation and went around both sides of the seal and seems to have worked over the last few days.

Now I would say that the windscreen seal seemed odd in a few places just past the top corners where the screen and the seal felt like it was quite the right shape but lets see

 

[felix2566]

How did you get the sealant under the screen seal? Wedge the nozzle under it and squeeze the sealant out? Mine appears to be leaking in the same manner.