Water ingress

[Voltaire53]

Before I take it to be looked at professionally (it's due for a service soon anyway) I wonder if the collective can point me in the right direction.

Sadly my Chim must be left out in all weathers at the moment and whilst I understand it's probably never going to be perfectly dry after 48 hours rain (!) I am concerned that the carpet behind the driver's seat is considerably more damp than I'd like.
Footwells and other danger-areas seem OK as does behind the passenger seat - inside of door pillars a little wet but I think that's a tiny bit coming through the velcro bits where the roof 'seals' and not too much to worry about. :/

Any idea where to look for holes? Is this an "they all do that" or am I sitting on a potentially expensive problem (and should be searching out my warranty)?

Also there's an annoying drip from the front/top of the passenger window which made the seat rather damp ... it's not from between the window and seal but from between seal and 'hard' roof. I think where the rubber seal fits into the channel in the edge of the roof pannel it's not sealed somehow ... I've but some vaseline around the area where the rubber seal meets the hard roof as an attempt at a temporary waterproofing measure (and a towel on the seat incase it doesn't work) but are there any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[virtualfern]

I picked up my Chim on Saturday and it has been out in the downpours aswell. Based on your posting I have just gone out to the car and also found it damp behind the driver side seat (this morning I was quite chuffed as there seemed to be no wet anywhere)

Will Fabsil help or just using a car cap cover be the answer?

Thanks in advance too!

[shpub]

Waterproof the roof for a start. This often stops many of the "I can't see where the leak is" leaks.

[Voltaire53]

shpub said:

Waterproof the roof for a start. This often stops many of the "I can't see where the leak is" leaks.

The roof was Fabsil'd by Adrian Blythe as part of the pre-delivery and that was only at the beginning of August.
I know it may need 2 applications a year rather than 1 due to being outside at the moment but I hoped after 3 1/2 months it should still be fine!

[aaandy]

Mine also lives outside, and although I have been lucky on the water ingress front I made sure that my roof was fasil'd as a first line of defense.

I would also strongly recommend one of the roof covers that you can but. It must be better for the car as it covers the tops of the doors and the the grill between the bonnet and windscreen, protecting the roof from the elements (inclusing bird sh1t!)

I got mine from Leven Technology and although it is £150, it is very good quality. Plus I always feel happier with it on the car if I have to leave it on the street overnight.

[monkeypilot]

I had exactly this on mine. It tends to only happen in really heavy rain - like we've just had 2 days of. Monkey that I am I left mine out of the garage overnight and to my total lack of suprise there was a puddle in the drivers side footwell the next morning. I think it comes through the engine bay. Check the seals around the brake fluid res, the cable entries, the clutch master cylinder cavity and even the rivets that hold the vin plate on to the chassis. Give them a big splodge of silicone sealant. It vastly improved mine though I haven't cured it yet. Having said that, I recently did some work and didn't go back to check I'd fully resealed it.....doh!

[tonyrec]

Mine was also coming in through the top of the silver insulation which is stuck to the inside of the o/s inner wing adjacent to the engine.A little dab of sealant along the top of it cured it.

[Voltaire53]

monkeypilot said:

I had exactly this on mine. It tends to only happen in really heavy rain - like we've just had 2 days of. Monkey that I am I left mine out of the garage overnight and to my total lack of suprise there was a puddle in the drivers side footwell the next morning. I think it comes through the engine bay.

I've heard of the problems through the engine bay seals into the footwell but my footwell is fine and it's just behind the seat that the carpet is damp. If I was taller and had the seat a bit further back I'd probably not have known ... but I'm not and I do!

[jsr]

My car too is very wet behind the passenger's seat. Footwell and driver's side is fine however.

Only owned the car for 3 weeks, and these last few days have been continuous rain. Before this it had been ok, but we only had short light showers.

I had used a roof cover, but water has still entered the car. Where the roof meets the bodywork (the velcrow bits) it is a little damp, moving down it dries out, then about half way down, it gets really wet, and the area below the passenger seat is soaked.

I can only assume that the door seals are leaking about half way down the door itself. Whether or not the roof cover is putting more stress on the door seals i cant tell (ie. causing the rain the run straight in the seals)

I am seriously considering a full car cover now.

[Big Al.]

Keep an eye on this post too, Guy's,
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=13&h=&t=68651



>> Edited by Big Al. on Tuesday 25th November 10:45

[CMJ]

Can only sympathise
1. Look up water leaks/ingress/flood and every other version of wet feet on PH
2. Go out and buy every product recommended and work your way around each possible culprit. (BTW I bought Thompson’s for the roof)
3. Don’t forget the caravan thingy to go behind the seat to keep moisture abay once your leaks are solved
4. Full rolls of kitchen roll are fantastic at soaking up the water and leaving carpets damp rather than wet (Thank you fellow PHer )
5. As I was told on PH don’t despair you will cure it !!

In case you are interested sealing roof with Thompson’s cured behind my drivers seat. Silicone on brake reservoir cured driver’s footwell. Had all windows raised 1mm and stuck down Velcro on drivers side flap to cure wet seat belt. Still not sealed the windscreen seal yet but I have a tube of Sikaflex in the garage ready and waiting !!

Good luck

[ATG]

Based on what I saw this weekend I'd suspect that you two, jsr and voltaire53, have already found the problem; the bit round the velcro. First thing to note is that a steady dripping, even if it seems quite infrequent, can move a hell of a lot of water given a few hours. (If you've ever stuck a bucket under a leaking roof only to find its full 15 mins later, you'll know what I mean.) The fact that that flap of carpet that covers the door solenoid doesn't feel too wet can be misleading.

Mine was leaking so badly through the velcro that I finally got a proper view of what was going on. The velcro acts like a wick and can most pleasingly lift water into the car through capillary action at a fair pace. Because the carpet is plastic backed and wool, it doesn't actually absorb water. Because it is vertically mounted water drains through it quite efficiently so it doesn't get water logged. Also, the water tends to run down the vinyl edge trim. Again vinyl is completely impervious so it doesn't feel wet to the touch even if the odd drop of water is running down it from time to time. Also check for a sneaky transfer to the seat belt for the final foot.

Net result is that you can see the velcro is full of water at the top and the floor behind the seat can be an inch deep in water, but the carpet on the side of the car feels only a little damp. The trick seems to be to stop the velcro bonded to the car from getting soaked.

p.s. Kitchen roll is an expensive solution IMHO ... unread copies of the Sunday Business, editorial pages of The Independent, or the Mail shoved under and on the carpet is very effective too.

>> Edited by ATG on Tuesday 25th November 00:16

[jtong]

FWIW, the last time I had water behind one of the seats, it was caused by water trickling down the door seal (as I think it's supposed to), but then at the bottom coming into the car instead of trickling out over the door sill.

There are two places on the rubber seal where it's been cut/flattened to allow water to drain out. One of these was not made correctly prevented water escaping.

J

[kenny320]

Its the velcro areas I'd guess... :S

A friend of mine bought a rather fetching chimaera (I wish it was mine) a couple of months ago which suffered from leakage. We put silicone sealant around the velcro areas where the roof meets the body and that seemed to solve the problem.

Unfortunately a fornight ago the battery went flat and we were locked out. The only way to get in was breaking the seal round the velcro and putting an arm in to get the roof down. We quickly resealed it but this time it kept leaking. Spent Saturday sorting it properly with the sealant so I'm hoping thats the end of the matter.

Its worth it though, cos its one serious machine

[Voltaire53]

Thanks to all and yes, I think it's the velcro bit since the side pillars do feel a bit damp ... but will check doors seals since I notice after I open the door water pours out of the drain hole as though it's being prevented until the door is open (spilling into the car?).

I will look into all the various solutions and see what works!

[tobeee]

Having read all these posts over the weekend I was feeling quite smug about my dry interior... too soon! Discovered a pool that ducks would be happy with behind the driver's seat. I don't use a garage so it's not surprising the rain came in eventually!

I'm hoping that a few coats of Thompsons on the roof will help, but I've felt all the inside of the roof panel and targa and it seems dry, which is a shame as I hoped I'd find an obvious wet patch.

[M@H]

I spent £120 on:

6 x 3x3" 8ft posts
4 x 1.5"x2" x 3.6m batten
3 x 120" x 24" clear corrugated sheet
8 x 4" M12 Coach Bolts, Nuts & washers
3 x Packs Screws and Fixings for Corrugated sheet
3 x Bags Coarse sand
1 x Bag Cement

And built a small "carport" in the garden for my Tiv for the winter, it only took a few hours and will keep the rain off it nicely.

Cheers,
Matt.

[Voltaire53]

M@H said:

built a small "carport" in the garden for my Tiv for the winter, it only took a few hours and will keep the rain off it nicely.

Now if only my Chim could jump the 8 foot wall into the garden this would solve all my problems

Sorry, just kidding obviously ... good idea but sadly not practical for me.

BTW does anyone know where I can get some of this silicone sealant that people have mentioned? Is is normal Halfords fare or is is normally not used for cars and is more a DIY product?
I assume from what's been said it won't damage the velcro in any way if, for some reason, I do need to undo and redo that attachment.

TIA again!

[Big Al.]

Voltaire53 said:

does anyone know where I can get some of this silicone sealant that people have mentioned? Is is normal Halfords fare or is is normally not used for cars and is more a DIY product?

It's called Sikaflex available from any Automotive factors i.e. Partco. Not cheap but the best. OH
Word of Warning, wear disposable gloves it's a SOAB to get off your hands.

[shpub]

Sikaflex is great if you want something to seal and stick. Silicone selent is great if you want something to seal but not be quite so sticky... I use both depending on what I am doing.

>> Edited by Big Al. on Thursday 27th November 12:47