Wet footwells

[zennorboy]

Very wet Saturday night at Stonor VW Show with roof up. Roof canvas dry when stowed. Very wet Tuesday on driveway with roof closed. Footwell carpets saturated this morning...at least I noticed it this morning! It's just the area immediately where your feet go, both sides. The area up under the dashboard is dry, the area under the seats is dry, the carpet between the seats is slightly damp. My VW man has checked all hoses, engine things etc, including the air con...no problem there.

Took out rubber mats (it's the area immediately under the rubber mats that's affected, which is why I didn't notice it), mopped the fitted carpet as best as possible and currently running around with air con on recirculate.

Any ideas as to what could have caused this? Water, obviously, but how did it get there?

Zennorboy.

 

[welshwestie]

Check windscreen seals for leaking.

 

[rookeryview]

....Both sides...., you say. Might be a clue.
Get inside, and have someone simulate a wet night with a hose, or better still place some dry paper all around the area and do it yourself. Make sure it's tucked right up under the dash and over the edges of the carpet if possible as I would guess that the water is draining through the carpet higher up and pooling under the mats.

Wait a while for any evidence to appear, maybe overnight.
Check again under the dash with a dry hand in case a single drip source is feeding the area which you may have missed. Could amount to quite a lot over a whole night from just the tiniest leak.
Also have a look under the bonnet for any evidence of water laying around. Might be a faulty seal or grommet missing or loose somewhere near the drainage channels.
Do the paper trick again if necessary when parked at home and bad weather forecast, roof up, and down possibly, but doesn't sound like a roof up problem from your description.

Good luck.

Landrover Defender owner!

 

[welshwestie]

Landy owner, there speaks the voice of experience. Used to get soggy seats, green steering wheel in my old type 2.

 

[WelshGas]

I think Land Rover are the only Manufacturer that have an Official Water Ingress Manual for the Defender.

 

[rookeryview]

You think he's joking?

It's absolutely TRUE.
Great bedtime reading.
Beats the VW equivalent - 50 shades of grey.....

 

[Titch]

I would have the drainage holes checked. I had the same issue and both front drainage holes were block and sending the water inside the columns by the windscreen into the air vents and down into the footwell dripping from the dash.
Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hotel California]

Check the drainholes from the roof , open roof and pull plastic caps off....
And read my sticky topic on the technical part of the forum

 

[Hotel California]

Check the drainholes from the roof , open roof and pull plastic caps off....
And read my sticky topic on the technical part of the forum


Sorry , once was good enough I guess

 

[zennorboy]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Nice spell of sunny weather at the moment down here on the south coast and everything is now dry. So far I have checked that the two large drain holes are clear at the base of the windscreen where the wipers live (is that called the scuttle?) by playing a hose over the windscreen.

What I did notice while doing this is that, as I have to park on a reasonably steep driveway with the front of the bus much lower than the back, the water was overflowing the scuttle before reaching the drain holes and cascading over the battery cover...cascading because of the direct volume of water I was drenching the screen with. I guess parking on a slope on a long wet night, water would collect in the scuttle, eventually overflow and slosh around in the engine bay getting up to all sorts of mischief! Worth noting should you ever have to park in San Francisco.

The bus has been parked nose down on the slope for two years now and the problem has never occurred before, so I'm not yet convinced that I have solved the problem.

The obvious answer is to park with the nose UP the slope I suppose or even better, dig out the front garden and park it on the level!

I still intend to try all the other suggestions provided by your good selves.

'Hotel California T5’...I can't find any plastic caps covering drain holes on the roof. Where are they? I can't locate your 'sticky' either.

Thanks again for all your helpful suggestions. Off to Belgium next week for the Waterloo Celebrations. If past experience is anything to go by, Belgium is the wettest place in the world and any leaks will become immediately apparent...I once had to open the cargo doors on my Samba to let the water out driving around Brussels!

 

[WelshGas]

This is the article by " hotel california".
If you scroll through you will see pictures of the drain holes etc:.

http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/cali-technical-tips-tricks.9457/

 

[zennorboy]

This is the article by " hotel california".
If you scroll through you will see pictures of the drain holes etc:.

http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/cali-technical-tips-tricks.9457/

Thanks for your very swift reply to my query.

 

[Hotel California]

Have you found the drainholes in the opend roof , see WelshGas helpt you a fair bit , i am on the road in Norway on a trip so haven't been checking here that much the last coupple days....

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Think Zennorboy has a T4 not a T5 based Cali. We don't have the said drain holes.

Think likely culprits will be windscreen seal or door seal. Also check the drain holes at the bottom of the cab doors are not blocked.

Or a hole in the floor

 

[Hotel California]

Ok , thats why it's best to add info under your avatar....
And me reading better where it has been posted....
I always read , recent posts and not by subcategorie

 

[zennorboy]

Thanks for all your continuing help and advice...I've ticked off 'holes in the floor' as a likely cause (that would have been a worry) and still working my way through all your other suggestions. The windscreen seal LOOKS to be in excellent in shape, but I'm just going out to give it a good spray and see what happens.

Apologies to 'Hotel California T5’ for "not adding info under my avatar"...if only I knew what it meant!

 

[WelshGas]

On your Personal Details page, where you put your picture " Avatar" , below that you can select which vehicle you have, engine etc: With that information you might have got info regarding your particular vehicle quickly. Instead you had information regarding the T5 base vehicle which is different to the T4. Having that information enables Forum members to help you specifically .

 

[WelshGas]

Avatar

Vehicle Information

 

[zennorboy]

Done that...thanks WelshGas.

Not sure what was required under "status"...I know what the word means, just not in this context. 'Not PC literate' would be my guess!

Placed the bus on a flat surface yesterday and pumped litres of rain water at high pressure all over it...dry as a bone

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Status would be things like "thinking about buying", "on order", "kidney on ebay", that sort of thing I think.

Anyway none of it is visible on Tapatalk anyway...

Back to your problem, I just read the description again and something occurred to me.

Something we've seen is that in heavy rain and wind, water leaks through the tent (generally by osmosis where the tent rubs the H bar (which you won't have on a 2002 model)) and collects in the the channels that run length ways just inside the tent. The water then runs to the front/back depending on which is lower.

Is it possible that this has happened and then the pooled water has run down once you are home?

 

[zennorboy]

Thanks TOTF, I will have a look at that.

This is all still VERY puzzling. When I said first thing that the carpet was saturated I wasn't exaggerating. I have the fitted carpet, with a mat each side in the same material that 'clicks' on to plastic retainers, plus a rubber mat on top...yes I know that's a lot of mats! When I noticed it and removed the rubber mats both the carpet mat and the fitted carpet were saturated to the point where if you pushed your finger into it it formed a puddle, yet all the surrounding areas were bone dry, except for a very slight damp feel to the fitted carpet where the gearstick sits.

The cab area is now perfectly dry without the slightest hint of musty damp smell

 

[zennorboy]

Sorry, haven't finished...hit post reply by mistake!

My neighbour (a former long distance lorry driver) reckons it could be a build up of condensation under the rubber mats; a problem he had in one of his trucks apparently...but that's a LOT of condensation.

I can' think of anything else to do now other than keep an eye on everything and wait 'till it rains again...probably in Belgium next week.

 

[sidepod]

......heater matrix/hoses leaking?

 

[WelshGas]

It might be worthwhile leaving the carpet out for a while, at least until you've experienced some heavy rain and just use the rubber mats so that you can check easily!

 

[zennorboy]

Sidepod: I don't think it can be the heater matrix. I have experienced that particular problem in other VWs and the carpet up under the dash is always soaking when that happens...mine is bone dry. Might get my VW man to have a look 'tho. Thanks for the suggestion.

WelshGas: Yup, I'm going to leave as much stuff out of the front as possible. Have a short run to Bournrmouth tomorrow and the bus will be left on a friend's driveway overnight with thunderstorms and heavy rain forecast. Hopefully, that might shed some light (or water) on the problem.

I'll keep the thread running until the matter is solved in case it helps others in the future...the answer is out there (or in there) somewhere!