well seeing as it has been raining for 25 hours now my car is starting to take on water, at quite some rate.

The passenger footWELL is exactly that now.

The battery tray was recently welded up, so i was wondering of any other common leaky points or areas that rot?

cheers.

 

Bottom of the screen?

 

i will add that to the check list 2moro

 

may well be the door rubbers,mine where knackerd

 

sun roof seal or the grommet from the door wiring
had this with my mk5

 

Right, thats a few things to check anyways. I will see how i get on and see if i can find the damn leak.

 

Mines doing the same both passenger and drivers sides!
Going to have to spend some time with the carpet out, a torch, and a hose pipe! lol

 

Could be the sunroof isn't quite sealing letting water into the drains, which drain into the sills. Maybe you've got a small hole in the inner sill?

 

when the water gets past the windscreen seal its usually rotten in the bottom corner and theres no lip left to keep the water out.

 

From experiance I'd be 100% sure that this is youre problem,rot at the bottom corner of the windscreen.Bastid of a job to check properly,dash out and windscreen out!!

 

this was mine

 

I have been told this by a few others today. I think i shal have to investigate.

shit the bed! that is unhappy looking.

 

Christ thats bad m8 what did you do with it???

 

Fixing it now

under the roof

 

what is that?must be an early xr3i or something is it?

 

g reg turbo, didn't look to bad untill i took the windscreen and dash out then i got a shock .

 

Well I found my passenger side leak....

Battery tray as expected...


A nice little matching hole in the floor underneath it too!


Now just to find the drivers side leak, fuse box area is mint and nothing wet above, looked like it was coming in from the door seal which should be easy enough to sort.

 

mine has a small hole at the top of the screen extending out past the rubber and a bit on the drivers side lower corner.it let water in when it rained so i knew there was something there as my fusebox and batt tray are mint.irrelevant now as i have broke the car for spares and the shell will be put into dry storage for a long time.good luck with the welding!

 

Well today I checked the battery tray, the heater surround, all around the door, the sunroof including welding wire through the drain pipes to see if they were blocked and there is aboslutely no signs of rot or anywhere it could leak?!?!
I started to think it might be the windscreen, however, i had the windscreen replaced a few months back and I remember checking for rot when the old window was out.
completely miffed as to how it can be taking on so much water!

 

is the car parked on an angle at all? for example half on the kerb?
mine used to be parked half on the kerb and it used to leak water through the heater box!
cuz iv got a strut brace fitted, the front front shroud from the heater motor has been removed. the water would collect in the corner and eventually come in past the motor!

 

If it keeps taking on water then be prepared to abandon ship!

 

THATS A HARSH VIEW MAN LOL. NEVER ABANDON THE RS!

POST UP SOME PICS DUDE U CHECKING THE AREAS THOROUGHLY? I THOT ID CHECKED MINE RIGHT AND LOW AND BEHOLD MY MATE SPOTTED THE WATER OMING IN STRAIGHT AWAY HOW THICK DID I FEEL

 

I cant do that, the car is too solid (after 2 years worth of restoration) I just got enough money to get it resprayed as well.

I'm gonna have to look everywhere on the front end of the car, only trouble is there is no rust anywhere from what I can see. behind the dash, around the windscreen rubber etc. The wierd thing is its just taking on so much water, its like there is no windows in it or something

 

didnt mean abandon the project,just the way you said its taking on water it sounded like a sinking ship.
never tried this before but was told years ago from a panel beater to sprinkle flour on the area where water is coming in then to spray a hose on the outside of the car.then you will see where its coming in from the marks left on the flour.does your car have arch inner liners?

 

have a look behind the foot petals mines got a nice hole there and below the fusebox, also take the headlining off because you can't see how bad it is untill you do.

 

im gettins scared now should of just bought a focus rs! my headlining is soming off soon heard so much bad reports about rust!

 

Its the passenger side that is damp.
There is no way it can be leaking through the roof I am sure of that now.

I think at some point i'm going to strip the front end down and use the flour treatment because I have checked all the problem areas several times and there is no signs of rot or holes anywhere.

 

you could have the dash out in 10 mins.bit pussy removing the sound deadening and that to see where its coming from.

 

Is there any loss of coolant as there could be a chance the heater matrix has a small hole and its running into the footwell, plus are the hoses to and from the matrix tight as i have seen it when the water is running from a loose hose and soaking into the sponge behind the dash and running in.

just a thought

adam

 

yeh did think of that but the levels havent changed. Plus the ammount of water in the footwell when I first noticed would have drained the system completely
Its got me really hacked off now. lol

 

Result! just found the leak!
There is a hole on the inner sill just behind/below the speaker in the passenger footwell. Its only visible when you put your head up behind the glove box and look down. Got the hosepipe on the car and the water is running off the roof and down the pillar to the top if the wing , and then running down the door shut and just creeping its way in a small hole which is then pooling on the floor.

 

get the welder and waxoyl out.least its not the screen frame and wont require any painting once repaired!

 

in trying to think where abouts th rust is? is that behind the dash?

 

its in the corner where the floor of the footwell joins the sill. near where the plastic speaker pod sits, however, its slighty higher up the the floor which is how i missed it before. its about 3-4 inchs up behind. I spose its about level with the back of the glovebox.

 

im gutted for you, i rebuilt my s2 couple years ago and nealy fucked it off when i saw all the rot, but i didnt give up,

 

atleast ya found it now tho mate

 

I cant give up now. only the front archs that need a little bit of attention aside from this small hole then that car is pretty much rot free now.

Yeah, taken a load off my mind as i was starting to worry about those hard to get to places. While I've got the welder out i'm gonna start preperation for paint hopefully! de-lock the doors, sort out a few dents, get the front archs sorted (only a bit of rot at the very bottom on the innner lip)

owned it for a few years now and i've wanted to paint it from day one lol. tired of looking at my pink/white bonnet