Not a great day - more new problems than solved ones! Wet footwells - why??

I put today aside as a 'car' day (after 3 weeks of trying but never having the time!) so I cleaned the beemer, cleaned the missus' 206, and then started on the Range Rover.

Started on the interior and here's where the first problem arose - hoovering the car I lifted up the front mats and underneath was soaking wet! :doh: The thick foam sound deadening is soaked through, but looks very difficult to remove as all the wires are cable tied to the edge (not damp there). Checked the passenger side and same problem.

So, two questions: firstly, what is the most likely cause of all this water? And secondly, how best to get rid of it? Currently I'm chucking loads of copies of the FT either side of the sound deadening which is helping, just have to keep changing the paper over. Remarkably, the floors are solid - bit of surface rust in the passenger footwell but nothing serious - so that is good news, and I guess means the water isn't coming up from underneath - but I doubt that amount would!

Anything else I can check?

After that I washed the car and it looks great, so thought I'd finish the day on a high by applying the new "Range Rover/Vogue SE/V8" graphics I'd bought for the tailgate. All went on well but, peeling the top layer off to reveal the letters, the bloody paint started coming off! Fortunately not in big chucks, more tiny little speckles, but looks like the idiot who resprayed it didn't put much (if any) lacquer on! :doh: So, another fail.

Determined to finish "on a high" and not be defeated, I then set to fixing the drivers side electric seat - could tilt the backrest back but not upright again, and I caught it the other week and put it back too far to be comfortable! So, I dismantled the switch and, before I got in too deep, sprayed some WD40 in there and VOILA! It worked! So at least something went right today!

Really want to get to the bottom of those wet footwells if anyone has any ideas....I'd love to hear them!

My suggestions would be that you've driven past a garage, seen the price of fuel and ****ed yourself (might explain why the seat electrics went wrong as well)
or you've got a leak.

Heater? How's your coolant level?

Door seals? Try a hose over the roof, not directly at the seals, that's not how rain arrives.

Windscreen? Same again with the hose.

Mike dont know anything about classics but I flooded my p38 a while back just enough to soak the carpets but not enough to knacker the becm I set up a heater on an extension lead after blotting up as much as I could and left sunroof in the tilt position dried out in about 3 hrs hope this helps

My bet is coolant.

well... on my classic, my wet front carpets came from rust holes behind the side panels, just in front of the doors. there's a little plastic extension of the wheel arch cover that was probably designed to stop water going up there, but on mine they just retained a 1/2 pound of permanently wet mud.
I also had additional holes higher up on the drivers side where someone had blown some holes welding a new inner wing on.
To get the rubber under mat out whole, you have to take the console out I think.
I ended up lifting the carpet out of the way and cutting the rubber matting just below the wiring run - so now mine's in 3 parts, two of which come out when they're wet.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Weird thing is, the water doesn't smell of anything - so I doubt it's coolant and it doesn't smell musty so may not have been there long either. Heating works fine and car warms up OK, if a little slow - but I think that's down to a lazy thermostat!

Think I will take a stanley knife to the plastic and sound deadening, as it needs to come out to get it really dry I think. Then can see if there are any holes higher up than I can see at the moment, or to the sides.

No sign of leaks from either the windows or sunroof - and when washing the car, water came to the front of the roof, through the drain holes and down the outside of the windscreen, so I don't think it's that, but you never know!

At least the seat works

At least you've found a good use for the FT.

When were pollen filters last changed? If the plastic covers on these aren't 100% they can soak up water and leak like a sieve.....worth checking!! Also the filters themselves can get completely blocked as many people don't remember to change them - its worth looking there.

Pollen filter covers leaking or aircon drains blocked.

OK, no idea on either of those - where are the pollen filters located? I'll be honest, I didn't even know it had them on the Classic - it is 20 years old!

I haven't tried the aircon since buying it, but I guess that could have leaked spectacularly as well, but will check the pollen filters first. Can they be cleaned or will they need to be replaced?

You would have saved us all a lot of time if you had told us that it's a classic at the start. Just ignore everything that has been said as we were all refering to P38's.

Datatek said:

You would have saved us all a lot of time if you had told us that it's a classic at the start. Just ignore everything that has been said as we were all refering to P38's.

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Erm...my profile pic is of a Classic, and my signature states the model and year of the car too! :doh:

So I take it neither of these 'faults' apply to the RRC then?

MikeV8SE said:

Erm...my profile pic is of a Classic, and my signature states the model and year of the car too! :doh:

So I take it neither of these 'faults' apply to the RRC then?

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WTF do you think it should be up to others to decide what car you are talking about?

Datatek said:

WTF do you think it should be up to others to decide what car you are talking about?

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Err, whats with all the anger?

There's three models of Range Rover - Classic, P38a, L322 - regularly discussed in this forum. Admittedly I didn't state which model mine was in the original post, but why would you assume I have a P38 - because you do?

As I said, the model is very clearly stated in the top line of my signature, right next to my post - and my avatar clearly shows a picture of the car, which is clearly a Classic! It doesn't taken Poirot to figure it out...or more than about 5 seconds of looking 'around' the post?

So, whilst I appreciate all of the advise given on thie forum, plus don't get your knickers in a twist because you assumed it was the same as yours! I mean, the first thing I do when reading a "help" post is see what car they're on about, as most don't clarify as it's obvious to the OP what car they're talking about, so gets overlooked...as I did.

Mike,

Classic can leak like a sieve. Would suggest you check and clear the sun roof drains. Next, cut out sound deadening and remove the saturated stuff - leave to dry out before you put it back - this will take a while!!

Next remove the interior side trim to both footwells, you'll find relays and stuff behind them so gently does it - check very carefully for evidence of rust or water in the corners, also check all the seams in the floor - they leak, lots!! if you have a compressor, use compressed air under the car and feel for the draught of air inside, that'll indicate if there are leaks in the floor. make sure you remove the aluminium strips by the door sills, have a good look around the door apertures - thorough check for tin worm; RRC sills are known rot boxes.

Another usual place for leaks is around the windscreen, look for water tracks on the bulkhead, check the condition of the gromets in the bulkhead.

Another source of water is actually the doors. Remove and clean the drain bungs that are in the bottom of the doors, just carefully prise them out (push fit in but don't push them in too hard or you'll be taking the door cards off) - you might be surprised how much water there can be in the doors!!

Also check/clean the air con drain, you will find it lurking in the front passenger footwell. if it blocks, the tray under the chiller fills up and then water spills over.

If heater matrix is leaking you would smell it (assuming your engine has anti-freeze in it!

Hope that gives you some pointers.

Hi Kev,

Thanks for the tips - plenty to be getting on with! I think the sills are pretty solid - it passed the MOT just a couple of months back and has been waxoiled underneath, although this could just be to cover rust up, you never know!

Where are the sunroof drains? There's two holes on the leading edge of the roof, which just send water down the outside of the windscreen and then that runs off the slam panel and down the wings.

I did wonder about heater matrix/air con, but firstly there's no smell at all, which suggests plain water, and secondly both footwells were soaking, and I'd have thought such a like would only affect one or the other! Same goes for leaks in/around the sills I guess - you'd think one would go, but both at the same time is unlikely?

Anyway, will give everything a thorough going over - I take it an air line is the best way to blow out the drainage channels for the sunroof then?

If we have pollen filters its news to me mike!

those mats come out with some brute force, I spent all christmas drying mine out after the heater matrix event! :doh:

Yeah, I think pollen filters were referring to the p38's - before I got told off!!

Mats are out ok, just needed to unscrew them - will probably cut the sound deadening out but drying it out with newspaper at the moment! Will hopefully find the cause of the leak this weekend.

Where are the drainage tunnels around the sunroof, and how do I test they're clear and working?

MikeV8SE said:

Where are the drainage tunnels around the sunroof, and how do I test they're clear and working?

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There are two drain pipes which run down each C pillar into the rear wheel arches, and which clip to the back of the arch by the top of the mudflap bracket.

I am not sure if these are the only pipes, or whether there are a pair at the front too, as they don't show in the parts list or on RAVE.

Just shove a bit of wire up it and try filling the sunroof surround with water!


Pete

Thanks Pete - so where does it drain away, to the rear of the sunroof? At the moment the car is parked facing slightly downhill, so I doubt any is running off through to the rear of the car at present - will turn it round tonight, see if it makes any difference!