(MK2) Common water ingress points? (Found a couple already)

[Ripp]

mine is doing it now ...and mine is a bigger problem ..as it never dries out because it has rubber floor covering.

all the best...mark

Oh no!!!! Do you know where yours is coming from?

[metalworker0]

No idea ..will have to pull the rubber floor up mid summer ..treat the rust ..so that any water that that lays there does no harm ..have a feeling that it may come from splashes directed by those open holes into the chassis ..as pointed out ...one job is to extend the wing liners a little.

i can only see this happening because there is a hole worn in the rubber where someone wore it out with their heel ..if that wasn't there ..it would fill with water unnoticed until the floor rotted out.

This may be happening on lots of connects, you noticed because the carpets were wet .....if you had rubber you would not know about it .. i don't have air conditioning ..and I'm not loosing coolant.

Tell you something else, i noticed when i had the grill under the window out a while back ..the whole lot seams badly designed ..and could let in water because of this ..i aim to take them off and see what i can do at the same time I'm working on the floors.

others transits in the other forums here also have water in the footwell problems..so its not unique to the connect.

all the best.mark

[Ripp]

No idea ..will have to pull the rubber floor up mid summer ..treat the rust ..so that any water that that lays there does no harm ..have a feeling that it may come from splashes directed by those open holes into the chassis ..as pointed out ...one job is to extend the wing liners a little.

i can only see this happening because there is a hole worn in the rubber where someone wore it out with their heel ..if that wasn't there ..it would fill with water unnoticed until the floor rotted out.

This may be happening on lots of connects, you noticed because the carpets were wet .....if you had rubber you would not know about it .. i don't have air conditioning ..and I'm not loosing coolant.

Tell you something else, i noticed when i had the grill under the window out a while back ..the whole lot seams badly designed ..and could let in water because of this ..i aim to take them off and see what i can do at the same time I'm working on the floors.

others transits in the other forums here also have water in the footwell problems..so its not unique to the connect.

all the best.mark

Oh jeez, well I hope you get it sorted because it's really frustrating, especially in the winter months.

[Ripp]

Another week of driving in the rain on wet roads and I've just pulled the rubber flooring up and it's bone dry under there. We did have a cold (ish) morning recently (1°C) which left a later of ice over the windscreen and the inside of it was perfectly clear but there was a tiny bit of condensation mist on the inside of the drivers side windows so I've ordered some plastic membrane and some butyl tape so I can make that door as weatherproof as I can under the door card.

We're probably not going to get any cold mornings now until next Winter so I doubt I'll see any more condensation anyway but I will keep checking under the flooring periodically whenever we've had a wet week.

[Ripp]

Well the condensation is back this morning, it was 10°C outside and that was enough to do it. I checked under the driver's seat flooring again where I initially found all the water and it's bone dry under there, that is a good sign I guess as it's been driven in a lot of rain lately but that means there must be more water somewhere else entirely on the inside. Not sure if I have the energy to spend another winter dealing with heavy condensation, ice on the inside of the windscreen and constantly pulling the interior apart. I will have a look under the passenger side flooring but every time I've looked there previously it's always been bone dry and I have some plastic membrane and bonding tape to seal up the inside of the doors so I'll do that as well but after that I'm at a loss with it.

Annoying I've just paid out to have the cambelt done and it's booked in for 4 tyres so I'll be annoyed if I have to sell it now.

[metalworker0]

Well I've just re-read the whole thread again ...there is nothing left

But you did dis-miss (well answers got lost when we turned to AC) a few times my idea of putting a coolant system pressure tester on it ..pumping it up and seeing if water comes out anywhere .....all my vehicles that had condensate problems like yours where caused by heater matrix leak ..and they were only loosing an egg cup full a week.
To test ..you would put the pressure tester on the header tank and pump up to 15 psi .

Other than that you have one thing left ...that is the pipes leading from the windscreeen washer tank to the washer jets .

As for getting rid ...my thoughts would be "The Devil You Know" and don't think to yourself because cambelts changed you're home and dry........because it has another belt called a wet belt ..hidden, lurking and waiting

Buying another vehicle, a lot of modern vehicles have age related faults these days not old either less than 10 years ..degrading plastics being one of the biggest problems amongst a lot of others problems all related to the new environmental tech on them ..

The only vehicles that are free of most faults and soldier on, is the Toyota's that are made more than 10 years ago


all the best.mark

[Ripp]

Appreciate you reading through it again. I didn't see the point of pressure testing because I marked the header tank level and it's never gone down, and also all around and under the heater matrix is bone dry. In the interest of doing things thoroughly I will get it tested when the opportunity arises next though as it is a valid point.

Something I haven't looked at yet though is the water jet hoses so maybe there's something wrong there.

Other than the water under the drives side footwell that has since cleared up and dried out I couldn't find any other damp in the cabin under the flooring or up around the bulkhead even after taking out all the dash parts that I could get too fairly easily and shoving my hand right up into all the areas I couldn't see.

I do still have some UV dye that I've not tried, your supposed to spray it all over the outside of the body then hose the whole van down and return later on when it's dark with a UV torch and have a look all around the interior and see exactly where the water is getting in by following the UV trace back to the ingress point. I didn't get around to using it because the water inside dried up so I figured I'd have nothing to trace back to anywhere as it seemingly stopped getting in. So I guess I could give that a shot anyway.

[metalworker0]

well the heater matrix, when the water/ coolant leaks out ..usually evaporates and ends up as condensate ...that's why a leak would only show up under pressure. or only drip when you are driving ..and unaware.

and nothing wrong with dabbing fingers in it ..to test for sweet taste ..you are not gulping it down ..just dabbing fingers on to tongue and swilling mouth out immediately.


all the best.mark

[Ripp]

Good point about it evaporating, it smells fine currently and the level isn't going down but even so I will investigate that further.

[Ripp]

I finally got around to adding a waterproof membrane to the inside of the driver's door (as the standard polystyrene one had tears in it from when someone replaced the window glass in the past). Also checked under the floor again in the driver's footwell and again it's all still bone dry under there.

I did notice a little pool of water inside the nearside rear light cluster and after taking it off and leak testing it I found a small crack in it that's letting the water in to it. I've temporarily repaired it with super glue while I order a new one but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be causeing an issue, yes there was a little water in the lens but none of it could get into the cabin as the holes where the bulbs go all have very good tight rubber seals.

Next step is using the UV water dye I have all around the exterior to see if any is getting in anywhere. And yes when the opportunity arises I'll have the heating system pressure tested next time it's near a mechanics place for any reason.

[metalworker0]

Well i decided not to bother ripping the rubber floor out to check mine , the solution was to always have it pointing down hill in my drive ...i had been pointing it up hill so that i could see whilst leaving the drive.

but always found about a gallon or more of water poured over the screen when the van was level and I braked ...from being captured in the roof congregations.

Not very good design me thinks

Pointing down the drive ... only a cup full spills over.

Not good to have a gallon or more of water sitting on the roof.
Although i would like to reverse into my drive ..I'm not doing it any more because of this .

No water under the floor mat since .

Don't know if this design fault is carried over to the mk2 or if you have a drive that is sloped.

van parked correctly to stop water getting in.


all the best.mark

[Ripp]

Does this photo tell us anything? It's was 20°C outside this morning at 05:00 would you believe so I had the AC on low with it set to the windscreen, drive 15mins up the road and parked, then 20 mins after parking this is on the inside of the windscreen right next to two of the AC vents that blow on the windscreen.



Has this has happened purely because the windscreen is cold on the inside and warm on the outside (kind of the reverse of the normal condensation issue where the inside is warm from trapped heat the day before and the outside is cold over a winter night).If so where did the moisture come from? It's not all over the screen like it's condensated out of the air, it's just where two of the AC vents are. Does this mean the AC system is blowing moisture out into the cabin?

Worth noting that I still can't find any water or damp on the inside of the cabin anywhere currently. The AC seems to be functioning properly but I guess I need to check that the drain for it is draining properly so as it's nice and hot here at the moment I'll run the AC later on this afternoon and have a look underneath to make sure something is actually coming out of the drain.

[Ripp]

A/C seems to be draining ok so that should rule out a clogged drain.