Leaky Boot - Potential Contributor?

Hi,

This is the first autumn/winter I've spent with my car outside and (predictably) the cubby in the boot is wet.

Spent a bit of time investigating this morning. It's only the passenger side half of the cubby that's wet, the bit that's slightly deeper.

I took the trim panel under the rear door off and found that there's a bit of the anti-rattle foam under there that runs from the boot seal over the lip and down into the boot. One of mine was soaked. I think maybe it's been soaking water up from under the seal and moving it into the boot.

Anyone else found this?

I've removed the foam and silicon greased the seal. Maybe it'll be drier now?

Hi Yakko

You are going about it the right way; what I would like to do is remove the rear door card, and spray a load of water all over the seal edges to see where the ingress is coming from. It's a silly, annoying, and potentially damaging issue, whereby the answer isn't just to 'drill a hole in the cubby hole' as others have suggested.

My wife's 2006 5-door had a wet cubby-box for the first time a few months ago and while I initially thought it was going to be the door seal I found a dealer bullitin that indicated that the nylon screw inserts in the floor might be the problem.
These inserts have a thin neoprene gasket that seals between the floor and the lip of the insert and after I had removed a couple I saw that this might not be sealing as good as it might have been. New seals are of course available but for quickness I just used a smear of silicon around each insert before refitting it and here we are several (wet) months later and it is still bone dry.
Worth looking at because it is a very quick, easy & cheap solution.



"whereby the answer isn't just to 'drill a hole in the cubby hole' as others have suggested."

How right.
I can't believe it when people suggest that, I can only hope they are joking but unfortunately I know they aren't.

I have much the same issue & did wonder if it is the rear window not sealing properly....There is 2 adjusters that either pushes or pulles the window towards the weather strip....Its the 2 adjusters on the bottom of the window regulator runners.
I dont know if there is a setup process to check it tbh.....

highvoltage said:

I have much the same issue & did wonder if it is the rear window not sealing properly....There is 2 adjusters that either pushes or pulles the window towards the weather strip....Its the 2 adjusters on the bottom of the window regulator runners.
I dont know if there is a setup process to check it tbh.....

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's not the window (well, in my case anyway). With the rain we've had here recently I've had the opportunity to have a good look about. I discovered that the head-lining at the back of the car was sodden the other day which led me to have a look at the sealing strip at the top of the door frame. It seems that water runs through here into the head-lining and, in my case, down behind the hinge side of the door inside the door seal, under the carpet and into the cubby.

Litch said:

My wife's 2006 5-door had a wet cubby-box for the first time a few months ago and while I initially thought it was going to be the door seal I found a dealer bullitin that indicated that the nylon screw inserts in the floor might be the problem.

Click to expand...

Hi,

That's interesting - which screws are we talking about? The load securing loops and cubby lock screws?

Thanks.

The screws for the cubby-box lid and the turnbuckle fixings, they all use identical inserts so I removed & sealed them all even though I suspect that only one was leaking (there were traces of rust on one of the hinges).

Freelanders have MANY places to leak from. Mine was filling up the left hand box section behind the plastic on the n/s. I never did find out where it was comming from no matter how many times i put chalk in there and sat whilst somone sprayed with water from a 4" diameter hose at work. I did mind a little grommet in the bottom though so just removed that. No water anymore and after several inspections no water ingress from the removed grommet so i say its fine

Brief update in case anyone finds this during a search, since removing the sponge under the bottom panel - dry boot.



Something else to try when chasing leaks in the back of the FL.

Well, I replaced the door seal some time ago, at some considerable cost, but I still have water in the cubby......... one place I also found water, was along the rear headlining, it was / is absolutely soaked. I shall remove the lining and have a gander at some stage. I've read on the Freelander Faults site that it could be the three holes that the upper plastic trim fixes to, but I've sealed those when I fitted the new seal and reattached the trim. I'll keep looking.............