WATER IN THE BOOT

[Southernboy]

It has occurred to me that some people have been struggling with finding the source of water in the car boot. Naturally we all look for water entering from the top and running downwards into the boot...Here's a new angle, if your boot spotwelds have popped, and you drive through puddles etc, the water will be thrown up by the wheels etc, and with the air flow whilst driving, it could find it's way into the boot between the gap created between the boot floor and the crossmember / sub-frame. As we all know, it isn't always obvious that those spot welds have popped by simply looking in the boot. One needs to get under the car and thoroughly clean around the sub-frame and underside of the boot floor joint to see if it's parted.
....Just a thought on the water in the boot issue....

[Robin82]

Interesting theory... and i bet this does happen. The pooled water around my battery came from boot rack holes plugged with something resembling blu tac... such an oversight

[Southernboy]

Those type of holes should be closed with a plate on the inside of the boot properly epoxied to the boot metal, and then filled from the outside, smoothed and painted.

[Robin82]

I do still intend to use the rack on summer camping trips, so i was thinking some 10mm rubber gromits might do the trick until i put the rack on?!?

[Eastsix]

After investigating bmws oem plugs for the roofrack holes, i opted for 5cm mushroom head galvanised coach bolts with rubber washers. Look essentially the same and have been perfectly dry all winter.

[Vic-Z3]

Water can and will get into the boot via a poorly waterproofed hood or if the bitumem that seals the bodywork
to the hood fails also there is a formed rubber channel that is stuck below the hood edge inside the car. If this
fails which it has on mine that lets water in to a series of holes along the pressed metal work that have direct
access to the boot area and also the pressed metalwork is not fully seam welded and water can get in here also.

[BladeRunner919]

One trick I've used on finding troublesome leaks on other cars is to take out the carpeting etc and liberally coat the area with talcum powder. As water leaks in it creates tracks in the powder which makes identifying the source much easier.

Obviously if you get stopped by the police and have a boot full of white powder, that could be an interesting conversation!

[Vic-Z3]

Nice trick ...............