In the past 3 weeks we have received almost 7" of rain. Too much of that rain ended up inside my Jag; I just sucked more than 1/2 gallon (more than 2L) of water out of the drivers side. When parked nose-down on a slope there was almost 3/4" of water under the pedals!

I've sat in the car during more than one rainstorm recently and there was no water coming in around the windows that I could see, and I did look. By that time I was already aware that water was getting in.

After sucking up all the water I could I tried pouring water - 12 cups worth - into the cowl. It all appeared to end up on the driveway; there didn't appear to be any additional water in the car.

Having had experience with verts in the past (Miata and S2000) I'm guessing there is a drain down the A pillar and another drain or drains in the top well behind the back seat.

Does anyone have experience diagnosing this problem? I'm looking for advice on how to proceed.

Unfortunately I might have to pay a shop to work on it as I am having spinal surgery this week which means I won't be able to work on the Jag for weeks. And with the Florida rainy season finally getting started after a long, deep drought I can't leave this problem unresolved.

Well, I guess I could leave the car covered and drive HER truck instead after I have recovered enough! LOL

 

OLD TSBs but info for your investigation.

bob

 

Thanks Bob. I'll print them out to give me some reading during my recovery.

 

I had same problem, water in footwell and driving with air on off to stop the passenger footwell flooding. Read all the posts on this forum and its definitely possible to do this but it does require perseverance. I bought a £25 bore scope and followed instructions in the thread. On the xkr 2010, you have to locate the horizontal gap in the matting that covers the bulkhead and transmission tunnel. You need to get about 6 inches inside the gap to reach the duckbill, 8bits picture is exactly what you need to find. You will see a couple of screws coming through from the cabin, the duckbill is just past these. I moved the camera to get e decent view then used a steel tent peg with a point ground on one end to impale the rubber. When you pull the spike out, the friction will pull the duckbill apart as well as leaving a hole! Not satisfied, I taped a craft blade to the spike and sliced through the top of the rubber. I left the camera in situ and ran the air on for 20 minutes until a stream of water appeared. Never been so happy to see a puddle under the car.

About 6 inches length

 

Quick item to check is to make sure the bottom of the "bins" in the engine compartment are free of debris. I am talking about the containers for the brake booster/master cylinder and CPU. A straightened coat hanger wire poked through the bottom of these bins can ensure water is free to flow. Rising water in these bins will make its way into the cabin eventually. There are also 2 rubber funnels with a loop that need to be in place the right way to avoid leaks.

 

Look under the back seats..can be full of water from a leaking rear window ..when you brake it floods over into the footwell. Leak is at welded NOT seam at lower corner of rear window ..Coupe

 

A less than optimistic note for you: I've spent YEARS trying to figure out how water is getting into my parked XK8, reading through all the troubleshooting, and every time I think I've found a new way water might be getting in, there's quickly a rainstorm with lots of ingress to prove me wrong. I get much less water in there now, but still I throw a tarp over the car whenever extra rainy weather is expected.

If you've done the normal cleaning of the cowl corner drains and made sure the rubber boots are properly attached, your instinct about the A pillars might be on target. The rubber door molding has a very complicated series of channels through which water is supposed to flow from the roof down through the door, outside of its internal seal.

Sometimes, though, water will flow through a different channel and be deposited inside the car by flowing over the fuse box covers(!) and down into the footwell. It's always alarming to open the door and see trails of water going right over those covers. I spent months setting up contraptions to catch and measure water coming in that way, but even a garbage bag taped in properly can redirect that water somewhere safer.

Finally I believe I dramatically lessened the amount of water getting into my car by putting a wide strip of electrical tape across the entire front seam of the gasket sealing the top to the windshield. It looks like old and worn out, this rubber tube of a gasket no longer had the sealing force, leaving a tiny crack along the windshield that would direct rain into the wrong channel on the A frame.

Finally, I don't see mentioned often that there is also a central drain in the cowl that seems to channel rain down on top of the transmission, and that can get clogged with debris too. I don't know if clogs there would leave water getting into the passenger compartment too, but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Coupe?
My passenger side floor got soaked every time it rained. Water ran down from the A-Pillar inside.
I noticed the roof drip moulding was full of silicone [some lose] all the way down to the bottom of the A-pillar and upper door rubber seal also jammed full of silicone [the inner drain channels].
Removed the upper rubber seal and discovered half of the screws mounting the drip trim were missing. Someone's 'fix' was to fill the gap caused by the loose trim with silicone but the trim kept moving so teh silicone seal broke.
Uninstalled the trim and door seal, cleaned off all silicone and old gasket material [between drip trim & roof] and reinstalled with complete screw set [1/2" self tapping] and Permatex gasket maker sealant. All silicone removed from the seal inner channels and everything has been dry as a bone.
Regards,
Chris
1997 XK8 Coupe [accident last year and a write-off ]
Presently looking for / bidding on X100 XKRs

 

Subscribed; I get some water in the driver's footwell too but only after prolonged heavy rain. Not really enough to start pulling the car apart - yet!

 

Very interesting!
I've been so frustrated with my leaks over the years that I can completely appreciate why someone would get fed up and just throw the silicone at it

How does removal of the seal go? I was afraid to take that step figuring that if I tore the rubber then I'd definitely be in trouble. I believe I remember taking out a screw once and finding that the rubber was adhered kind of strongly to the car, so I backed out.

One of my suspicions is that water is getting through around the screws, since it looks like rubber has deformed around screw heads, so I would have liked to remove and reinstall it.

 

It was very easy to remove, clean and reinstall. I came across the videos linked below:
Took 10 mins to remove the rubber seal and the problem was obvious. I was missing many screws so I removed one [purchase sample], reinstalled the rubber seal and hit the auto parts store for same screw size and gasket sealant.
All done on a sunny Saturday [Sunday forecast sun as well just in case]. My rubber seal was in great shape [not dried out, no tears]. You could order a new one and do the project with new rubber trim on hand.
Very easy, very satisfying to have a dry floor.
Chris

 

Thanks! I hadn't come across that channel before. It's only around a year old, so relatively new, and it has a bunch of XK8 content of interest to people here.

Sadly, it looks like he started the channel AFTER he took the pieces off But I think I saw enough to see how to remove the seals. This is definitely something I'm going to look into.

How fragile were those pins at the bottom front of the rubber strip? One reason I didn't try to remove it was fear that they'd just snap off.

For the record, I have a convertible, but I'm sure that section over the window is identical.

 

The pins are those basic plastic 'tree' fasteners. Pry bar, flat screw driver or trim removal tools will do it. If the heads breaks...easy to find similar size at auto parts store. My concern was not to damage the rubber seal.
It comes off too easy. The videos show best way to reinstall to catch the channels [inner than outer or vice versa].
My 'proper' fix seemed easier than the earlier silicone solution and worked better.
Chris

 

A quick note for anyone coming across this: the three plastic tree fasteners in the rubber trim are replaceable, even the internal ones!

One reason I avoided pulling mine off is because I thought if I broke those internal fasteners I'd be out of luck. Turns out they have slits and pockets through which one can replace them if needed.

Changes everything for me!

 

many leaks occur right where the upper corner of the mirror body meets the glass and A-pillar seal. The evidence for this is a water streak on the side of the dash. Replacing my header seal this month to fix the problem.