Starting a new thread on water leaks.

Have had several leaks that have found their way into the cabin. One is through the condensate drains. Removed the footwell leather panels, providing access to the condensate drains from the top. Blew them out with compressed air. No more water from there.

Have consistently had water coming in at the bottom of the LH dash during heavy rain. Thought maybe some of this was coming from the windshield wiper area. Sure enough the LH side was blocked with dead leaves, etc. Cleaned this out. Thought I was good to go.

After the paint job, discovered water was still coming into the cabin through the windshield gasket when water gets under the LH side chrome trim. Due to the paint job, no longer feel comfortable removing this trim panel. Instead I siliconed up the openings. This shouldn't be a major issue as the convertible top covers the opening at the top of the trim, so for the most part it is nonfunctional. Also used windshield gasket sealer around a portion of the windshield gasket that looked suspect.

Heavy rainstorm today coming home from work. No water coming through the windshield gasket. Feeling smug, I felt around the bottom of the dash. Damp! What the heck!? There's also a steady trickle of water coming into the car through the LH door seal (my door cards are currently removed or I probably wouldn't have seen this).

Once home start messing around with possible water entry (again). Discover water is coming into the cabin when water is poured into the LH drain that is at the rear of the engine bay (obscured by the bonnet when the bonnet is shut). RH side no issue.

At first I think maybe there is a rust hole in there that is allowing water to exit into the dash. After pouring cups of water into the hole though, I discover that the water is coming out past the lower catch line that follows the contour of the door. There is a complicated series of drain lines the water has to come down before it falls out at the door hinge area. On the RH side there is a piece of plastic that causes the water to fall into the lower catch line and that routes water to flow out in front of the door hinge. On my LH side, the plastic is deformed and water just flows past, missing the lower catch line and coming into the back of the door card (if it were installed). I tried to bend the plastic to allow it to function as normal; it did not cooperate and broke off in my hand. After pulling back the door gasket, I also discovered that the seam of the body has a small gap here (gap does not appear new... I think it was here for the life of the car).

I think what has been going on is water has been flowing over the plastic stop, missing the lower drain catch, and been caught by the door gasket. The door gasket then diverts the water into the seam and it comes out behind the dash and onto my foot.

I don't know why the design has water take such a precarious path from the hood drain. I drilled a hole in the upper line to allow water to drain directly onto the lower catch, tomorrow I'll apply some paint to this hole by hand to prevent rust. I also applied silicone to the gap in the body seam, and the seam of the lower drain line where it meets the body. Hopefully this is the last of my water leaks!

Cheers,

- Will

 

Hi Will

There is a drain on each side of the top rail see where the screwdriver is in the pic. Both of my drains were blocked with seam sealer, this will allow the water from the roof to pool and find its way into the cabin.

DSCN00541.jpg?t=1343790954

 

@Warren

Photobucket pic is not displaying.

Makes sense that there should be a drain on that line, I'm interested to know where it is supposed to be. Mine is clearly clogged.

Here is a pic just prior to me applying silicone to the gap in the seam and the lower catch line. You can see where the plastic dingus was that broke off the car (was in the area that is black and was held on by the blue rivet). What I call the lower catch line starts at the center of the picture and leads out the left side of the photo. Above it you can see the bottom portion of the upper line that leads from the bonnet area... not visible in the photo is that upper line is open at the top; you can see the drain port I drilled out. The upper line is *not* open at the back and without a drain port water just pools in there until it overflows. Overflow was coming out too far to the rear and missing the lower catch line, then travelling through the gap in the body panel seam and into the back of the dash. Additionally the lower line is not totally flush with the body along it's entire length and alot of water was seeping past it and coming out below the door gasket and into the cabin/back of the door card. When I peeled back the door gasket the gap in the seam was exposed, but you can't really make this out in this photo. Yes, that is duct tape... I used it as a temporary fix to see if I could make a little 'cup' at the end of the upper line... in the event too much water comes in for my drain port to handle the duct tape causes the overflow to spill into the lower catch line. I'll mold up some plastic or fiberglass for a more permanent fix there.

All the white flecks are leftover rubbing compound...



Cheers,

Will

 

here is the link

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/.../DSCN00541.jpg

 

Just looking at your pic the drain in the pic on top of the door is not where the roof water goes. if you look at the pic I have circled where the roof water goes this is under the front guard.


DSCN00541.jpg?t=1343791293

 

Got it I think... Water from the roof isn't a major issue on the convertible. It doesn't pool up like on the coupe, and in any case the drains at the top corners of the windshield are entirely covered by the roof.

The drain that I was discussing is a separate line. It's for the water coming from the bonnet. The entry to this line is on either side of the bonnet, outboard of the windwashing motor screen on both sides. My RHS appears to function normally, but on the LHS the plastic dingus was either deformed, not positioned properly, or both. Additionally the lower catch line wasn't flush with the body, and the gap in the seam lined up to allow water entry from both these failures.

Cheers,

Will

 

Ok - water from the bonnet can still enter where the roof drain is in my pic.

The XJS usually rusts just in front of where I have circled the roof drain where the first guard bolt is, and if this is the case then the seal between the front guard and the top rail is obviously broken and water can enter here and find its way into the cabin.

Mine had a large rust hole on the RH side.

Another thought is that the door might not be sealing correctly.

I feel your pain I have been chasing water leaks for a year I think I have them all now.

 

Warren -

I came home yesterday in a very bad downpour and there was still a trickle coming through under the dash. Much less than before but obviously another leak somewhere.

The photo doesn't have an area circled, do you mean the area the screwdriver is pointing to?

Will investigate by pouring more water in from various points around the car. If it's leaking through that area, unfortunately for me taking that guard off is a case of the cure being worse than the disease. Do you think I could access that area by removing the shield behind the LH tire?

Cheers,

- Will

 

94 XJS water leak somewhere near the rear of the engine quite can't see where it is coming from. 2.0 engine, everything is dry up front.

 

Will,

There's a difference between the Coupes and Convertibles. The roof drain that Warrjon refers to does not apply to Convertibles as they do not have the concept of water draining off the roof behind the chromes.

The channel that you have sealed up is the "redundant" channel from the Coupes which served to drain water forward into the wing channel and thence to the front of the car. Water that drains into the wing channel is not really supposed to drain back towards the door hinge, it's supposed to run forward. However, if you've got the car parked facing upward, it might be that it drains back into this "Coupe" channel and then leaks into the car. However, if your door seal is intact, it should not be able to get into the car and should just drain down the A-post.

The water that falls on the outside of the windscreen chromes will fall into that top gap between door and wing. It then makes an attempt to fall into that flanged open channel and drain forward just in front of the hinges. However, it's just not set up to actually work at all well. So it just falls onto the top leading edge of the door frame and runs forward over the hinges. As it didn't work very well, in the last couple of years of production, they fitted that large plastic/rubber channel at the top of that door to wing gap to help the process. (I think that's the plastic bit to which you are referring. )





My own car doesn't have the plastic / rubber channels fitted but I've never had a problem with water ingress there. I may get around to fitting those late plastic channels one day anyway.

If the door rubber is not really great, then you might think about replacing that to stop water getting past that part of the A-post. I wouldn't seal up the back part of that redundant top channel as you may get water building up there which will eventually corrode through. Also be careful about parking nose-up as that will exacerbate your problem.

Hope that helps

Paul

 

Do you know what that part number is of that little rubber gutter in the photo is? Mine has started to perish.