General Argh.....A FLOOD!!!!!!!!

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General Argh.....A FLOOD!!!!!!!!

jonesei88

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Jul 2, 2006
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Leasgill, Near Kendal
Got into my lil sei today to tootle off to work and to my surprise the drivers footwell was flooded, like soaking wet! no idea where it came from or anything, the passenger footwell was wet but not soaked. The seats remaind completly dry though. I was on a slight slight slope faceing down and again slightly to the drivers side. So 4 questions for all my fellow FF'ers today:
1. Where to look where its coming from, any common faults with sei's etc?
2. How can i find where it is coming from?
3. How can i clean it up, already using newspaper but its not doing a good enough job?
4. How can i fix the said problem?

Cheers

Jonesei
 
I am thinking along the lines of the colant. cheack your coolent levels and listen for gurgling noises. i am sure it has a heater and the heating rad is inside the car so check under the glove box on the passenger side and if you have water ontop of or inside of the glove box.

also check the wires around the heater blower motor. behind the dash. if there wet its definately the heating rad inside the car.
 
It won't be coolant. It sounds like there is too much and it is too clean.

I have no idea where it is coming in, but you'll have to take the carpets out to dry off a flood like that. The carpet fabric, not the pile, is quite waterproof and there is acoustic padding under that. That accoustic padding will be soaking and there is no way to dry it out with the carpets in place. If you don't take the carpets out, it will grow mildew before it drys out.

I've had a couple of cars flooded. One got stuck in a ford and filled with water. The other had a window left open in a downpour. Both needed the front seats taken out, to let the carpet be taken out. The carpets dried quite quickly when hanging on the washing line.
 
yeah but the seats are dry arnt they? I find that a hot air blower for drying out houses is perfect i think there about £40 for a weekends hire. you just take the output nosle and shuve it under the carpet it blows out that much warm air it lifts th carpet. still needs the seats taking out mind. but at least you ahavent got to refit the carpet and stuff.
 
EXACTLY what happened to me last sunday....check the pics and video i have attached.

Basically, one of the seals in the sunroof was gone and one of the drainage holes was slightly blocked....the exact same symptoms were there in my situation, angle of car, where the water went..etc.


Remove the sunroof, very easy when you know how, see below. Clean and flush all 4 drainage holes...then for good measure unscrew the 4 screws that hold the lifter and the 4 screws on the on two slots for the front of the sunroof.

Pull down the roof inside at the front and remove the plastic holders...pull of the old seal, and liberally apply translucent silicone sealant around all the seals of the 3 pices you removed. refit, silicone some more, screw tight, silicone the screw heads, and refit the roof.

Let it stay dry for a bit to set, then every day after bialing out the majority of the water with a cup, drive around witht ehheater on full, ponted to the foorwell, and the window slightly open, to remove the moist air. After 3 days of travel to work and back, it it now dry and saved pulling up the carpets. Your feet will be very warm though lol.



Sunroof Removal Guide
Close the sunroof
Turn the little silver screw on the inside approx 90 degrees, don't force it any more than it wants to go
Push quickly on the rear of the sunroof from the inside, it will pop up
Holding it up, you will see a little catch ont the right if looking to the rear
Release the catch, and raise the sunroof out of the car
Refitting is reverse of removal...for help though, when turning the crew back up, get someone to push down on the sunroof the help it meet the thread



Hope that of some use :D
 

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Cheers for your help, after many hours of faffing around a alot of back ache (lying upside down on my seat looking under the dash) i found where i think its coming in. There is a metal bar which run from one side of the car to the other, it sits just under the dash slightly above the back of the CD player, in the middle of said bar there is a hole (its a drilled hole not a rust hole) at the bottom of it where water appears to be coming out of. From what i can see this bar is only a support bar for the dash so don't really see where the water can get into the bar?

Only noticed this as my mate saw a single drip drop onto the floor (this was in dry weather) it drops right in the middle of the centre console just behind the plastic ashtray bit, so parking on a slight angle caused it to roll off to the drivers side. Luckily the water is being soaked up by lots of newspaper and at least the mats are easy to dry so im getting there slowly. It happened once more since i last posted and both time it has rain very hard!

Hope someone can explain how it is gettin in and i can sort it out soon any input would be greatly welcomed :D

Cheers

Jonesei
 
Right, the flood is back so i pulled up the drivers side carpet (seat out etc) and the insulation was SOAKING like it had been throw in a pond! so had to get rid of that and put newspaper in its place temporarily, but with the carpets up i found that the rear insulation (from the rear footwell) was wet but not as wet but i kept that in as it wasnt as bad. With this as abit more insight into the soaking any ideas where it could be coming from?

Another thing is that it only floods in heavy rain.

Cheers

Jonesei
 
Get everything dry up front, get some talcum powder and a "puff" and dust lots of the car up front. Roof, glass, paint, plastic etc. Till everything has a light coat of talk.

Get a hose pipe and try to simulate natural rain, blasting at seals etc won't help. After 10 mins, get back in and if it has leaked/dripped, then it will be obvious where.

Also try feeling around the roof lining etc and look for light staining.

Leaks can come from anywhere and be a pita, on one of my parents old cars, there was a front leak, caused by a blocked boot drain! Hopefully will be easier on a small sei though.

Also just sit in it when someone else sprays it, or get it cleaned in a drive through car wash :p

Kristian
 
Just had a similar problem myself. Can anyone tell me how much I should be paying for a second hand sunroof from the scrapyard.
 
One thing I've noticed on Puntos is that the drain from the air intakesz (in front of the windscreen) can get blocked by dead leaves, etc. If it gets completely blocked (access is through the insulation on the engine bulkhead) you may get a huge puddle which will eventually overcome any grommets and leak into the footwell.
 
I had this the other day in my Cinq, I left it facing a slight downhill aswell, It's not done anything like it before, the sunroof isn't leaking and the door or window wasn't open either, it was only in the drivers footwell :S I just put an old towel down and left it for a couple hours and it was fine. lol :)
 
check the drain holes for the sun roof, they are at the bottom of the sill around half way under the front door, poor water down the sun roof drain hole and it should come out of the bottom of the car if not you need to clean it out, this recently happened to me, the water was coming in just behind the rear front-seat mount.
 
This happened to my wifes. Our problem was, under the windscreen on the drivers side is a vent, where one of the cables (speedo I guess) goes into the car. Around where it goes in is a big gap. When wet, water runs into this vent, down the cable, through the hole and into the drivers footwell. What I did with ours is cut a bit of old ice cream tub out and siliconed it halfway across the vent, making sure to cover where the cable is. Hey presto, leak stopped. Then bought a caravan dehumidifier from Halfords, put it on the dash, and the car dried out. This isn't a pretty fix, but it does the job!
 
EXACTLY what happened to me last sunday....check the pics and video i have attached.

Basically, one of the seals in the sunroof was gone and one of the drainage holes was slightly blocked....the exact same symptoms were there in my situation, angle of car, where the water went..etc.


Remove the sunroof, very easy when you know how, see below. Clean and flush all 4 drainage holes...then for good measure unscrew the 4 screws that hold the lifter and the 4 screws on the on two slots for the front of the sunroof.

Pull down the roof inside at the front and remove the plastic holders...pull of the old seal, and liberally apply translucent silicone sealant around all the seals of the 3 pices you removed. refit, silicone some more, screw tight, silicone the screw heads, and refit the roof.

Let it stay dry for a bit to set, then every day after bialing out the majority of the water with a cup, drive around witht ehheater on full, ponted to the foorwell, and the window slightly open, to remove the moist air. After 3 days of travel to work and back, it it now dry and saved pulling up the carpets. Your feet will be very warm though lol.



Sunroof Removal Guide
Close the sunroof
Turn the little silver screw on the inside approx 90 degrees, don't force it any more than it wants to go
Push quickly on the rear of the sunroof from the inside, it will pop up
Holding it up, you will see a little catch ont the right if looking to the rear
Release the catch, and raise the sunroof out of the car
Refitting is reverse of removal...for help though, when turning the crew back up, get someone to push down on the sunroof the help it meet the thread



Hope that of some use :D

Turn the little silver screw on the inside approx 90 degree. What way is lock and unlock please?
 
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