One Rear Footwell Wet - Usual Suspects All Fixed But Still Wet!

[ATK 140 1 Cars]

Now I know wet footwells/leaky 205's etc has been covered before but I've read pretty much every bloody thread and still can't find a solution.

 

Got in the car the other day and I have ONE wet rear footwell - behind the driver seat. Now, the wetness is only in the well itself - the carpet on the sides of the well is dry.

 

The carpet under the rear seats is dry, the carpet between the rear seat and the side panel (under the rear quarter windows) is dry, and the carpet along the door above the seatbelt rail is dry. Boot, under rear seats, headlining, sunroof, passenger rear footwell and everywhere else (including all of the front of the car, front footwells etc) is bone dry.

 

The usual suspects for this type of leak appear to be full sills, and rear quarter window leaks. But here's what I've covered so far in my never-ending quest to get my 205 bone dry:

 

Brand new rear quarter seals

Fixed sunroof drains

Sills are not holding water - these are clear and I also sealed up and PFTE tape'd the seatbelt lower bolt to make sure it could not come through there

Brand new door seals

Brand new windscreen seal

Brand new boot seal, and all boot holes (lock, locating point for panel, washer jet, spoiler holes, washer tube etc all sealed and checked)

Door holes behind the cards sealed up

Aerial sealed up

Cleared out the drain hole in rear quarter panel to rear sill - was blocked, even though it didnt look like the rear quarter panel had let in water anyway

Sealed up join between door sill and rear panel (below air vent)

 

 

Anything else for me to check and try as I'm out of ideas?

[dcc 855]

could be coming up through the handbrake while driving. is your heatshield there?

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

Think i'd be inclined to get the carpet out and try locate where the water originates from. Someone mentioned sprinkling talc around on another thread which sounds a good idea.

 

Do you drive it in the wet or is the water from washing it?

[ATK 140 1 Cars]

could be coming up through the handbrake while driving. is your heatshield there?

 

Good point, I'll check this tomorow but I think the heatshield is indeed there from what I can recall

[ATK 140 1 Cars]

Think i'd be inclined to get the carpet out and try locate where the water originates from. Someone mentioned sprinkling talc around on another thread which sounds a good idea.

 

Do you drive it in the wet or is the water from washing it?

 

Going to try all I can before stripping it out and using talc - that's my last resort but it may come to that! I do drive it in the wet, not sure whether the water has originated from driving it or from when it has been standing - it's not garaged.

[commievid 8]

Have you tried lifting the carpet from that area? I can only guess the underlay coukd be soggy? That said the carpet has a backing that usually isn't permeable, but a small split could put paid to that.

 

Better than the whole thing.

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

Door seals or rear quarter seals are my guess.

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

Taking the carpet/seats out isn't a big job, so don't let that put you off, if your seat bolts aren't seized you'd have carpet out and seats back in in a couple of hours. Maybe worth hitting seat bolts every couple of days with some sort of penetrating spray to get the stuff working in case you decide to go for it.

 

Do you use a pressure washer when washing it?

 

One thing that springs to mind is if the back seat has had a bit of use in its life, the backing on the carpet may be cracked in the footwell, and the water may only be showing up there but is getting in elsewhere.

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

A common fault on 205's is that the sealer splits away on the rear arch between the outer skin and the inner arch. Water tracks round this and can ingress into the cavity under the rear quarter window. This is where the drain holes should let it out, but quite often muck can get in there and block them. Also the water will drop down towards the door as this seems to be a lower point and why a lot of 205s have rusty sills and get that bubbling where the door corner meets the quarter.

 

I had to do this on my CTI (It was harder to get in the door apertures, so I used Tiger Seal in a syringe to be able to get into the opening)

 

And my 1FM (Waxoyl everywhere after sealing them up on both sides)

 

Fuel filler could be another culprit

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

What Henry's said is very common these days

[ATK 140 1 Cars]

Alastair, door and rear quarter window seals are new.

 

Dobboy, my seats will come out easy as they were only put in about 6 months ago so should be ok, will be stripping it out if all else fail!

 

Good shout guys, I'll also get in there and seal that rear arch up.