Water Ingress - 147 5 Door

[Citroënbender]

Problem: Water has evidently been getting under the rear seat "well" in periods of heavy rain. The pressed metal seat bases are corroded and the felted underlay is cactus.

Questions: Is my likely culprit the aerial base or sunroof drain tubes? It seems equally damp/corroded on both sides. Boot (spare wheel) well shows no similar water issues and the hatch seal looks OK.  Car is parked more or less level but has full weather exposure.
Also, if I need to pull down the headliner is it urethaned or velcro'd or clipped on (2002 build)?

I'm dosing up the seats with Leatherique and discovered this as I pulled them out for treatment.

(I also discovered the driver's seat height adjuster is jamming on the down ratchet, but that's another story...)

[Seat Height Adjuster Repair moved to its own thread.]

[Citroënbender]

This has me stumped! I have the interior out, tried a good hosing in turn at the sunroof seals, the aerial base, the rear side doors and the hatch. None introduced water to the subject area.

I did however find the driver's foot area properly wet, it seems the sunroof may be the culprit - water is free near the bottom of the driver's A-pillar area and then drips/trickles readily to the floor.

[dehne]

Have you checked the drain in the engine bay, it's about the middle under the window mine got blocked and when it rained water poured into the car.

[Citroënbender]

G'day, no, not had the scuttle trim off this one yet. 

Good point, I'd been meaning to see if the wiper linkage was still the original "snappy" variety. 

Sort of glad I found this problem, but annoyed all the same.

[Citroënbender]

Still 100% baffled by the rear under seat wetness. Can't replicate it!

Front, more luck - sort of.  I popped the offside A pillar trim and hosed the sunroof.  It would appear the leak starts at the sunroof corner, give or take (can't see into the headlining). It then tracks down inside the inner lip of the door seal, dripping onto the floor where the door seal changes angle at the dash pad.

Looks like sunvisor off, pry down the edge of the roof lining time. 

[poohbah]

About 3 or 4 years ago, I had an instance when my 156 was parked in the open at the airport for a few days when Perth had its biggest winter down pour in decades. (like several inches in a couple of hours).

When I got back to the car, there was about an inch of water in the passenger footwell. It  appeared the water had made its way in via the door, most likely through bottom outer window seal and then by forcing the inner door card to pop its clips.

I completely dried out the carpet and underlay, popped the door card back on properly and it never happened again. I also made sure never to leave it out completely in the open if a big storm was forecast.

It's never happened to my current 156.

[Citroënbender]

I think you've nailed it. Had a good look at the wetted areas of the underlay, and noted them relative to the door seals. 

It seems well possible water is getting in via the doors (especially considering I have experienced a 147 rear door holding water due to blocked drains).

Front sunroof drain is another issue, no obstructions in the first part of it - expecting the scuttle is chockers with rotten leaves etc. 

[johnl]

A friend has an old Accord. Recently he had the rear footwell decide to simulate a small lake. Investigation found a leak in the boot had allowed a large amount of water to accumulate in the spare wheel well after days and days of torrential rain. When he drove the car, and used the brakes, much of this water had sloshed over the top of the wheel well and flowed under the rear seat before settling into  the rear footwell...

Regards,
John.

[Citroënbender]

Did he complain the Honda had "boat-like handling"? 

Sunroof forward drain tubes now cleared, I rodded them with a section of mains flex.  Passenger side didn't have a one-way valve in it, driver's side did and it was hopelessly clogged. I modified it slightly by nipping the fine tips off the closure.

Chuckled at finding wrecker's white pen marks on the wiper mechanism, evidently it has broken before. Rolled my eyes at the cracked scuttle trims, no excuse for the rough handling which has busted little parts of them both.

Refitted the underlay and carpet, looks a lot better with clean floors and has lost the mouldy odour.

[bonno]

Hi Citreonbender.
From your last post I assume you found the cause of the leak, being blocked sunroof drains??  I recently purchased 156 JTS and discovered also water under the  rear seat (DS), when removing  seats to establish source of fuel smell within cabin (dreaded fuel pump leak).   With the heavy rain in Sydney over the last couple of days it has entered from somewhere and will be attempting to find the cause of my water leak this weekend.
cheers
bonno

[bazzbazz]

The leak in the rear cabin is usually from a poorly sealing rear quarter window glass, it's a common problem.

[bonno]

Thanks bazzbazz
I will be checking for the leak tomorrow, as I just successfully repaired the leaking electronic fuel pump. I agree the rear door seal is the most likely culprit, as the water is confined in the DS rear seat well only. The car was parked on the sloping driveway over the period of heavy rain. Whilst the seats are still out, I will try to duplicate the conditions with hose/bucket of water. I suspect that the door seal is damaged or dislodged from retaining device that the water is entering.
Cheers
bonno

[bonno]

Hi Alfisti
Just an update on water ingress problem of my 156. Removed rubber seal located to the body around rear DS A-frame and was found to be fine. Checked for visual damage or construction defect around pillar and window area and also fine. First check involved pouring water over this area only and found no water leak. The second check involved water over the roof area including sunroof and guess what, water was found to be entering the same area virtually immediately. Hopefully it's only a blocked sunroof drain hole DS rear but will check all four just to be sure.
Cheers
bonno

[bonno]

Hi Alfisti
Well finally got to the root cause of the water ingress problem with my 156 JTS. From my previous post on the subject, it was isolated back to the sunroof. As I only had owned the car for several days, the car was parked on my sloping driveway and sat there during the period of heavy rain. Whilst undertaking repair to the electronic fuel pump leak, this is when I first discovered a pool of water located under the D/S passenger seat. Inspection/check of sunroof drain holes (2 only front location) found they were not blocked. Tried to see whether they have rear drain holes and Yeh you guessed it "NONE" were found. Research on the web has confirmed my suspicion and if you have a car with a sunroof do not park it on a slope greater than 15 degrees or it will leak. I have attached link to a Youtube video on how to clean drain holes. My recommendation is not to blow out using 100 psi as this may blow of the hose at joint around 30 psi is more than enough or simply do what I did and use a suitable length whipper snip nylon cord.
https://youtu.be/ymZNgKkEdXk
Cheers
bonno

[Citroënbender]

G'day, not 100% sure it's resolved but hopeful. Drove through some really heavy rain on the southern side of Sydney last Tuesday evening but not checked under the car seats since. Definitely, the roof stayed dry inside.

I can say from personal observation the 147 sunroof has drains to every corner, the rear ones on mine were also constricted.