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+--- Thread: Water tight!? - PAH! (/showthread.php?tid=4505)
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Water tight!? - PAH! - Rissy - 30 May 2014
I've been out in the horrible weather for the past week, all day on Monday from 6 am until 8:30pm and every day since after work for about 5hrs. Yesterday, it chose not to rain, so I got the hose out and soaked myself with that instead.
The reason?!
Leak hunting.
I've managed to source and fix the majority of leaks.
I'm left with four now it seems. Two at the front, which I think I know how to fix now, and two at the rear, which are the most confusing ones for me; hence my question here.
The rear wheel arches are cloaked in some sort of brown cardboard wheel arch shaped cowl. Water is getting in somewhere near the top of the wheel arch and running down under this cowl and into the drivers safe on one side, and the battery box on the other side!!!??
Has anyone any experience of this? Anyone know where the water could be getting in? The car is not moving. It's in pieces in the drive and has been for weeks. So it's stationary ingress. Because lex is an early car, she has the pressure equalisation holes in the tub behind the rear speakers. The problem is not there. These two holes are completely filled over tight with dynamat and water tight. I've fully pressed it in tight round the edges of the holes to make sure.
It's driving me crazy! Please help.
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Dangermouse - 30 May 2014
My car has a lot of clear window sealant at the bottom of the rear window where it meets the fibreglass, whcih would indicate that there was a leak there at some point in the past. Would that tie in to where you are seeing water?
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Rissy - 30 May 2014
Cheers for your thought. Unfortunately not though. My rear windscreen is tight. If it was coming in there, then it would probably drip and fall. This is a stream. I can see the wet "snail trail" of where the water is coming, but it disappears under lots of dynamat and carpeting etc, meaning I cannot find the origins of the water trail...?!
The trail of wet comes down the front edge of the rear wheel arches on the inside near the crevice of the arch meeting the more flat portion of the tub. This crevice leads directly into the back corner of the drivers safe and the battery box for the other side. Both are doing the same thing, so this tells me it's a common flaw or something. Something the same on both sides?
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Rissy - 31 May 2014
...it's ok now. Figured it out. Finally. It WAS the big bored out air equalisation holes.
Gonna fill them in properly over the weekend. I'm hoping I'm now finally drawing a close to my water leaks.
...we shall see.
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Chris Williams - 31 May 2014
Quote:It WAS the big bored out air equalisation holesWas there nothing to stop it flowing in then? a flap or something similar? never looked myself but you would have thought that there should have been something to 'channel' the water down rather than allowing it through.
Chris
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - stunned_monkey - 31 May 2014
The panel is meant to push up against some foam seals that mean water can't run down onto it.
It's important that these holes are not totally blocked but have, for example, a loose fitting flap of polythene glued around them on three sides but not the bottom
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Rissy - 01 Jun 2014
It was tricky to detect these as being the problem because there was crap just outside the hole (old leaves and mud etc) so what was happening was this would first soak up a lot of moisture before depositing it into the hole and then from this point forward it was on the inside of the tub. Then it had to collect and pool in a little crevice until over flowing, then it would start trickling down the "v" of the front of the wheel arch. All the way down the "v" has sponge right down the length, which is glued to the brown shaped leather inner liner under the carpeting covering the wheel arch. So this sponge was soaking up the water, but due to gravity, this would slowly soak down through the sponge, finally, at the bottom of the spong, it then hits another shelf at the top edge of either the battery box or the drivers safe (happens the same way on both sides). Then after pooling at the top of the shelf, it would then eventually trickle down into the bottom of the car floor. This whole process takes between 30-40 mins after first soaking, so when testing with a hose, it took some time to understand the leak process.
Phew.
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Rissy - 01 Jun 2014
...I've fixed both sides now. Simply fibreglassed them right over and painted them black. Done.
(It's only early vins which have these holes. Once decided it was a STUPID idea, completely unnecessary, they stopped butchering the tubs in this way and left them alone (and more water tight)).
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - andyd - 01 Jun 2014
stunned_monkey Wrote:It's important that these holes are not totally blocked
Why so Martin?
Cheers
a
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Starglider - 02 Jun 2014
I thought those holes were to prevent an unpleasant spike in cabin air pressure when a door is closed - which turned out to be completely unnecessary.
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Rissy - 02 Jun 2014
They ARE air equalisation holes. The fear was that in a flip over, a highly sealed cabin with more positive air pressure on the outside of the car might prevent someone from kicking out the windscreen to escape. Since this is simply not the case (due to air pressure differences - good luck kicking out your Delorean windscreen with or without air pressure equalisation holes!) they then stopped drilling out these 3" holes on either side on the later cars. Only the early cars have them. I'm not sure up to what vin they have them, but compare the tub of an early car to a late car and you'll see only the early car has been drilled.
Look at the explodaview poster car tub. No drill holes.
They were drilled (when drilled) just below the bottom of the "B" pillar and back a bit just in front of the wheel arch. You can't see them through the air vent grill with the stainless panel mounted on the tub. You have to remove the inner trim panels (as if you were replacing your rear speakers) to see the holes from the inside.
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Rissy - 10 Jun 2014
Apologies for reigniting this thread, but just wanted to bring a close to it officially.
I've now cured lex of all her water leaks (it seems - can never be TOO confident)
I've fixed 16 leaks in total since I've had her (nearly 5yrs now)
After a full on hosing down for the last time yesterday and checking thoroughly afterwards, everything was still bone dry.
Very pleased. As long as it remains that way while MOVING! Ha-ha!!
I can put my clean carpets etc back in now... Yey!
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Chris Williams - 10 Jun 2014
Quote:I've fixed 16 leaks in total since I've had her (nearly 5yrs now)You going for some kind of record! :wink:
Chris
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Rissy - 10 Jun 2014
...oh I'm quite sure others can beat me on that! Ha-ha!!
Besides, I miscounted. It was 17. 8)
Re: Water tight!? - PAH! - Chris P - 11 Jun 2014
Water leaks don't bother me…..I never get it rained on!