Water leak behind front seats at front edge of boot floor

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peacocb

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6
Location
UK South Coast
My 2 week old Defender 90 is leaking water (yeah I know, it's a Landy and thus will leak) but this seems different to all other reports. The (muddy) water is appearing at the front edge of the boot floor just behind the front seats. Looking underneath it looks like the sealant has been randomly smeared on some of the joints, missing the corners where the brackets are.

Anyone else seen this ?

(Look at the 4 rivets holding the bracket on the right ... don't you love the random placement of the rivets. Clearly a hand made car after a couple of pints :)
 

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My 2 week old Defender 90 is leaking water (yeah I know, it's a Landy and thus will leak) but this seems different to all other reports. The (muddy) water is appearing at the front edge of the boot floor just behind the front seats. Looking underneath it looks like the sealant has been randomly smeared on some of the joints, missing the corners where the brackets are.

Anyone else seen this ?

(Look at the 4 rivets holding the bracket on the right ... don't you love the random placement of the rivets. Clearly a hand made car after a couple of pints :)

That is a disgrace, not what you expect from a brand new vehicle, would never buy a new one!

I'd rather rebuild one, a basic defender new is £18,000, imagine what you could rebuild with £18,000 :rolleyes:
 
Take it back to Land Rover !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .
 
I guess that's what you get when you don't buy a genuine land rover. Unfortunately, genuine land rovers haven't been made in a long time :(

If it were me, I'd be buying a £3000 90 from the early 90's, and spending the other 15k on sprucing it up and keeping it running for the next 20 years!
 
and btw, I'm actually pretty shocked at how little care has been taken with that sealant and the riveting - someone else should buy the rights to make defenders and do them properly.. :(

having said that, I had the boot floor out recently, in order to get good access to replace my rear cross-member, and I haven't done the best job in sticking it back in and sealing it up either ;)
 
Here's an update ... it went back to the main dealer ... except they outsource bodywork to a body shop so I took it there. They happened to have another Defender with "the same problem" in for repair and seemed to think it was a "common problem" ... which begs the question "Why didn't they fix it before they sold it to me ?".

Anyway, they "fixed" it on Thursday and ... IT STILL LEAKS !!!

I crawled under the car and they've put a small bit of sealer in a completely different place on the other side of the car !

So, I got my 10 year old son with a water pistol inside the car running water along the seam that was leaking whilst I was underneath ... and when the water started dripping on my face I knew EXACTLY where the leak was. It's at the END of the seam inside the wheelarch. The first photo shows the location under the wheelarch and the second shows the damp patch and also, the hole :)

I'm so tempted to fix it myself but that means the main dealer "gets away with it" and they are the ones that took my hard-earned money, so I'm gonna get them to fix it.
 

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i agree if you fix it yourself they get off without penalty, so take it back and make a real fuss over incompetence and inconvenience, do it on a saturday when their busy, they dont like a fuss in front of others have you contacted land rover customer services and told them about it
 
Mine is a 2005 and, got to say, never leaks. If yours is new and it does then hand it back and ask (tell) them to sort it out. You have the luxury of it not really being your problem to fix.

I think there is an entire LR guide dedicated to diagnosing various sources of leaks. Thank god, mine doesn't live up to the stereotype of the leaky windy old colliecarrier.

It's as dry as a bone and the heater could roast meat if not turned off in time.
 
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