Hooray! Leaking rainwater in my footwells.
As you can probably tell I am absolutley thrilled to find another problem to work on :/
I kid, it is fun working on this car, was a good learing curve doing the doors.
Heres my problem, Rainwater comes through the top vent under the windshield, and leaks on both footwells.
I had a look around for others with similar problems, and have been told the same things, to check seals and such. What I don't get is that Its been in the rain before and never leaked, but what is more confusing is that when I went to check under the drivers and passengers footwell, I can see clear daylight coming through the top vent...that explains the wind noise when driving.
Now, I want to be able to drive my car and not get my legs wet when it decides to rain.
so any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Has your chrome air intake grill (on the outside) got a mesh under it to stop leaves etc. falling in. If not then the most likely problem is that the drain at the bottom has become blocked and the valley section has filled with water which then oveflows via the footwell vents into the car. Also this is the biggest problem area for rust on a B and is very hard to repair once rotted through.
First get a torch and have a look to see if it is blocked. If it hasn't and is dry then come back to me but even if it is dry I would recommend fitting a mesh to avoid this in future (typically £4-5 on eBay).
If it is blocked you will need the arms of an octopus as you need to reach down the gearbox tunnel, above the gearbox and slightly to the drivers side you will feel the plastic drain pipe-which has a bulb section on the bottom (like a pippet). If you are lucky a few squeezes of the bulb section will clear the blockage and let the water out. If this doesn't work you'll have to remove the grill and try to poke something down the tube from above to free things up or twist the bulb section off of the drain tube and then hopefully the obstruction will fall out.
I warn you that it isn't a nice job and if you have to do it once you'll definitely fit a gauze so that you don't need to do it again.
Let me know how you fair?
Don't think you should be able to see daylight from in the footwell!:o
The pipes to the vent at the vent end should be checked first to see if they haven't worked loose or come off at all, that would maybe explain the daylight you can see. If there's no obvious signs then it maybe just condensation build up in the pipe?
I had a similar problem but it wasn't the vents or pipes leaking. I'd already assumed it was until I checked and smelled the next puddle that appeared and it turned out to be a leaking water jet pipe.
Hope you solve the problem.
It is also possible that the heater matrix could be leaking but not as likely as the above..Like Phill says the fresh air vents don't sound as if they are connected but this wouldn't mean puddles in your footwells
Ok, Well I will check the drainage system for blocks, and I do not have any mesh on the vent, and will definatley get some now.
But altough that may be part of the problem, I am worried about seeing daylight though the footwell, the two air intake pipes are in place and connected (although not very effective)
But when I look down the vent the hole seems to be a lot further down.
Assuming the worst has happened and there has just been a rotted hole in it, how can I go about sorting this, short term and long term.
thanks
Can you post a picture of the hole?
Gimme a sec, I will see if I can get a few
Here are two shots from the grill view, the best I can get it.
and these two are from the inside, I had to take the flash off otherwise you wouldn't see the light from the footwell, I circled the light in red.
Ouch. That first pic looks like it has rotted through at the panel joint to the bulkhead. It looks quite crunchy, is it fairly solid? The only way around this if it's not solid, is stripping the car around that area to gain access and welding a patch repair to the suspect hole then swamp the area with the apropriate underseal or stone chip from inside the vent box. I think it would be wise to stop the leak getting to the bulkhead and floor panels with something (a mastic sealant of some kind) as a temporary measure until you get time to repair it. Good luck mate hope it's not too difficult to get at.
I think that unfortunately my diagnosis was right:(. Like phill said you'll have to get it repaired as I'm guessing that that is where your light is coming from. I would also make sure that the drain pipe is unblocked as it will help things even now.