DB9 water sloshing in the dash

[mike-2txrc]

I have been away on business for 4 days, come to used the 05 DB9 today and first corner I went round there is water sloshing about inside at the windscreen/dash join.

I have seal the whole windscreen before so can't be getting in there so my next thought is drains as it's fresh water.

My issue is I can't find the front water drains. Where are they?

Also has anyone had this issue before?

Cheers

[Glassman]

How did you seal the windscreen?

[EVR]

Might be tied to also this problem, maybe?

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[mike-2txrc]

Glassman said:

How did you seal the windscreen?

Bit gash but I injected tiger seal into it and that stopped the previous leak where it came down the A pillar but this is above the windscreen lower level and the weird thing is is that carpets aren't wet.

[mike-2txrc]

EVR said:

Might be tied to also this problem, maybe?

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Cheers for that. I will have a look at the drain holes to see if it backing up some how.

[Simpo Two]

Maybe the DB9 should be nicknamed the Aquarium...

After more than a century of development in car-making, how can they make car that leaks like a damaged submarine?

[Panamax]

Does the car have a sun roof? Is it regularly parked outside? Sun roof drains tend to run down inside the A-pillar and, if blocked, will fill your car with water. Similarly if the front scuttle drains are blocked water may flood in through the heater. These are general observations, not specifically about Astons.

I've sworn I'll never buy a car with a sun roof again unless it's parked under cover.

[mike-2txrc]

Panamax said:

Does the car have a sun roof? Is it regularly parked outside? Sun roof drains tend to run down inside the A-pillar and, if blocked, will fill your car with water. Similarly if the front scuttle drains are blocked water may flood in through the heater. These are general observations, not specifically about Astons.

I've sworn I'll never buy a car with a sun roof again unless it's parked under cover.

No sun roof but I have been looking today and the original sealant I used for the windscreen had failed so it has been re done in sika flex 221 for a temporary solution until I can get it sorted.

[Glassman]

mike-2txrc said:

No sun roof but I have been looking today and the original sealant I used for the windscreen had failed so it has been re done in sika flex 221 for a temporary solution until I can get it sorted.

If the windscreen is leaking, backfilling the gap is not going to solve the issue. This is down to two reasons. Firstly, and most pertinently, the windscreen is held in by (polyurethane) adhesive. This is under the glass (think of the adhesive as the sandwich filling). On an Aston, the paint on the pinchweld can fail and separate from the metal. The windscreen will need to be removed to address the issue. It may also be down to insufficient preparation of the glass and there is adhesion failure on the glass. Again, it's a glass out job.

The second reason backfilling won't work is that the contact surfaces do not offer a good substrate. To seal, you need the surface to be coated or treated with an adhesion promoter. The gap you're attempting to fill will have years of contaminants sat in there which will affect the curing mechanism of polyurethane.

[mike-2txrc]

I've used this technique on a few cars now, one being my VW T5 and it's lasted 9 years so far but that's a known issue with them.

I generally heat gun around it and remove all moisture (as best you can in the UK) cleaned the surface in all the gaps with ipa, then added where I could with a small artist brush some adhesion promoter (was eBay stuff) between the seal and body.

I then did it two stage, open the seal to the body and force inject 221 into that and then once that is done and still wet, go over the rest of it masking the screen and body. I would say this would last a few years but not great as a prestige car. I was aircraft fuel tank sealer so ice spent years ensuring nothing leaks.

The last one I did was literally to stop it as it was forecast rain for days and days and didn't have a cover but that failed due to the UV shrinking it.

As you say, the bead fails and then starts to corroded and then lets water in. As I said it's a temp fix until I can get the windscreen sorted but currently out in Barbados so it was a temp fix until I'm back. Funnily enough. Not spotted one Aston over here ,?

Edited by mike-2txrc on Wednesday 25th February 18:18

Edited by mike-2txrc on Wednesday 25th February 18:24