Possible Mk3 Boot Leak?

[Neffy]

Thanks WEZ, ur are a life saver! I have exactly the same problem on my ST 2013, I first thought it was the rear light when I had a boot full of water and that then reached the front passenger footwell, so I sealed the light up but still kept getting some water in the boot so now have just removed the Bung in the cavity and it was full of water! So my next job is to remove the rear bumper and seal the vents. Thanks ford 23k well spent, I was hoping to upgrade to the new RS but think this has put me off now. 

[artscot79]

ford should recall all cats or fix it for free but they wont till people complain this car was tested over millions of miles in extreme conditions apparently yet can't stand a bit of British weather after my mk2 ill not be buying a ford again either...incidently the 2014 c max my father in law has has got a misted up dash cluster traced to poorly bonded windows from the factory

[james_60]

Surely this constitutes a Guide as it is well informed,

 

Jamie

[Pete G]

Thanks wes180, i have exactly the same symptoms on my 2013 zebec S, i read your article and released the bung and sure enough water poured out and there is evidence of water tracking down behind the l/hand rear light cluster so i now will remove the bumper sometime this week and address the vent seals. Thanks very much for your very descriptive article i have had the inside panel off and dried it out twice in the last two weeks and just couldn't work out where the hell the water was coming from. i will keep you informed.

[MJR86]

This is happening to me too. Had the car less than a year (12 plate) and found water under the spare tire at the weekend. I was stumped until I read this post, and as other have mentioned when I removed the plastic grommets I got wet!

Just waiting for the weekend to arrive so I can get the bumper off and investigate further. 

Excellent post!!!

[craigy331]

Sorry to drag up an older post but thanks for the info 

had a mk3 zetec-s estate and he t went back to ford with 4 separate water leaks. Finance company forced them to take it back. Ended up with a juke nismo for a year but wanted another focus as I like them. Anyway bought a 2013 hatch this time and discovered water in the boot the other day. It's out of warranty so I guess I need to fix this one my self following your posts. Cheers for the info 

[craigy331]

Guys I am stuck here. Got thI whole back end apart but can't get the blinking vents out. It's a mk3. Anyone help ? 

[JW1982]

The vents have retaining tabs at the back which makes them very difficult to remove.

My experience is that the vents at the back of the car should be removed first. these can be removed using a combination of appropriate force and a small screwdriver to unlock the retaining tabs. When the vents at the back are removed you can put your hand throug the opening to unlock the retining tabs of the vents at the side of the car. It is doable but definitely not easy. However I strongly advice to remove the vents to seal them properly.

Another point of concern are the bumper brackets. The bumper brackets are pop riveted onto the body of the car. On several cars I also found water/rust marks at the inside of the pop rivets.Because of this I strongly advice to also remove the bumper brackets and reinstall them using some sealant and new pop rivets.

 

Below are some pictures of my car:

All vents and grommets removed. I removed the bumper brackets at a later stage after I found out the water marks at the inside of the pop rivets. Renoving the bumper brackets also makes resealing the vents a lot easier.

 

These holes and plugs allows water inside the cavity to get into the boot.

 

I used a water and weatherproof polyurethane adhesive to seal all vents grommets and bumper brackets.

[Shaunwilliams]

On 30/05/2015 at 4:40 PM, WES180 said:

Right, here we go again! Went out this morning and the boot was dry but when i pulled the grommet out underneath the car it was full of water again!!!

This called for some more investigation so off came the back bumper. Turns out the vents fitted behind the bumper were a poor fit so they were not sealed properly. You could see where water had tracked down from the roof past the lights etc and then onto the top edge of the vent. Once the vent was removed it was obvious that was where the water was getting into the cavity as it was full of dirty rain water residue between the clips highlighting that the seal had failed.

I cleaned all the surrounding area and dried the cavity and insulation out with a hair drier, this took some time as the insulation was saturated. You can see through the body cut out in the pic above where the underside grommet is removed to let the water out. This was replaced when everything was reassembled.

Once that was all clean and dry I siliconed around the open edge of the body and also the back of the vents for good measure before clipping it back into place and smoothing the silicone around the edges. I did this to both side vents and both rear vents to be on the safe side.

Basically what was happening was the water was tracking down behind the light cluster and getting into the body of the car via the poor seal on the vent. This caused the cavity to fill with water and then when driving the car and going around corners the water was spilling over into the boot floor area through a hole about 20mm up from the bottom of the cavity.

I hope this helps somebody as I couldnt find any information regarding boot leaks on mk3's anywhere and Ford were useless as seals are only guaranteed for 12 months!

I will remove the grommet again next weekend to make sure it is finally 100% sorted but all the signs were there to suggest it is. Im just hoping there is no secondary leak point!

Hiya,I seem to be having the same problem with my focus. Noticed some mould coming in the boot on both sides and upon further inspection the Spare wheel well was full of water,both boot side panels are soaked,along with both passenger foot wells. Few months back my gf reversed into next doors car,we had there car repaired but as our only had a light scrap on it we didn't do anything. The impact was on the lower corner of the bumper directly under the right rear light,which looks roughly where the vent is. Been all day now hoovering out the water from the carpets but can't get behind the boot side panels to get at the insulation so was hoping to stop the leak and let them dry out in time. What would be your first steps to resolve this issue as you seem to have tried everything and came out on trumps. Any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks,Shaun 

[DrewP]

 

Hey, Thank you so much for this thread, I bought a 2012 focus Zetec S, which I love but there was a funny smell coming from the boot, lifted up the carpet and the boot is socked and the carpet up the side was wet, some one before me had taken the bug out which made me wonder what was going on? it was even all going mouldy, had a look around and come across this thread so popped out the bung under the car and they where full of water and the insulation was ringing with water, so had ago at this fix today.

These were just soacked

All siliconed together and back in

I am so chuffed with my self that I managed to do all this, I really thought I would get stuck at getting the bumper of, but it took all day and did it, I will leave it a week and take the bung out and see if there is any water. Fingers crossed.

[Checkers73]

Well i too am glad i found this thread as the same problem has occurred on my 2012 Focus with water in the well where the spare wheel normally sits. Towards the end of last year i noticed the windows steaming up which hadn't been a problem before and after some investigation found the issue to be mainly on the drivers side. Last weekend took the rear bumper off, removed lights, etc and found the white insulation to be soaked. Did damage the vent in trying to remove it but will ignore that for now. 

So this weekend need to finish this off so would i assume the problem will go away if i also silicone around the vents as others have done?

[WES180]

On Monday, February 13, 2017 at 9:44 PM, Checkers73 said:

Well i too am glad i found this thread as the same problem has occurred on my 2012 Focus with water in the well where the spare wheel normally sits. Towards the end of last year i noticed the windows steaming up which hadn't been a problem before and after some investigation found the issue to be mainly on the drivers side. Last weekend took the rear bumper off, removed lights, etc and found the white insulation to be soaked. Did damage the vent in trying to remove it but will ignore that for now. 

So this weekend need to finish this off so would i assume the problem will go away if i also silicone around the vents as others have done?

It will only solve the leak if thats where waters getting in but it most probably will be there. Remove the vent and apply sealant to the body and the rear of the vent for a good seal rather than just smearing it over the front. I greased up the seals on my light clusters too for added protection. If you refer to my pics you will see where the locking tabs are located on the vents. I just used a long thin screwdriver to release them.

[Alison w]

We also have this problem with our 2011 focus surely this is design fault

[DrewP]

I bought some new vents as well as siliconeing and it worked a treat.

[Pdooley1]

Hi guys, exactly the same issue here. 12 plate focus, first noticed a damp smell in car. Spare wheel well had water pooling. Also the footwell behind the drivers seat is saturated  (possibly only drivers side due to being parked on the kerb overnight) no idea where it's coming from or how it's getting from the spare wheel well to the foot well but it needs fixing. After reading these posts I'm guessing it's coming from these vents behind the bumper. Do I just need to take these out, clean them and silicone them or does anyone have other advice, thanks.

 

Also, where are these bungs located to drain the excess water

[Bigdave38]

Thank you so much ! Had major damp smell in car, found that boot was wet, but didn't know where it was coming from! 

 The vent cavitys were full of wet the insulation was wringing wet, dried all of it out resealed everything insight with PU Sealer! Just going to leave it for few days without carpet in as that's hanging up to dry after being washed 🙈 Fingers crossed 

[njkmr]

Hi Guys,

new to the forum and found it when searching for a solution to the water leaking into boot.

Tried all the light fixes and as WES180 had was getting mighty frustrated with leak still happening.

Most of the trim in the boot and on the boot lid is off and was scratching my head .

Each time thinking that will sort it.

Anyway after a couple of weeks was about to give up until I found this thread.

It all made sense when reading WES 180 description of what he went through and did to fix the leak.

I have spent a few hours this afternoon following the instructions and sealing every possible gap and I will report back in a week or so to let you know if it works or not.

I am confident it will work if it cured it for Wes 180 as the symptom's are identical.

Great write up and thanks for the advice.

Regards

Rob

[njkmr]

Hi Guys,

new to the forum and found it when searching for a solution to the water leaking into boot.

Tried all the light fixes and as WES180 had was getting mighty frustrated with leak still happening.

Most of the trim in the boot and on the boot lid is off and was scratching my head .

Each time thinking that will sort it.

Anyway after a couple of weeks was about to give up until I found this thread.

It all made sense when reading WES 180 description of what he went through and did to fix the leak.

I have spent a few hours this afternoon following the instructions and sealing every possible gap and I will report back in a week or so to let you know if it works or not.

I am confident it will work if it cured it for Wes 180 as the symptom's are identical.

Great write up and thanks for the advice.

Regards

Rob

 

Further to this guys , I can confirm the leak is still fixed. No water in the boot for the past few days and it has been throwing it down constantly.

I have now replaced all the trims and hopefully that is the end of the matter.

Although my sons girlfriends Peugeot 107 has now sprung a leak in the boot so that's the next one to solve. Wish me luck.

Thanks Again for the advice on how to fix the issue with the Focus.

Regards

Rob.

[Toonami]

Thanks Wes180.  I found a leak in my car last month and it's been doing my head in ever since.  It's also taken me this long to find your post.  I now know what I'll be doing on my next day off. :-)

[njkmr]

Be sure to let us know if the fix works.

Good luck

[Toonami]

Well, today I managed to do it, definitely the source of the leak.  It's not the tidiest looking but I went for a little overkill with the sealant just to make sure.  The most difficult bit was trying to undo the scrivets on the underside of the bumper.  Managed to put it all back together but I forgot to put the rubber grommits back in before sealing the vents back on.  At least if my patch doesn't work the water will drain away. :-)

 

Unfortunately I found that the heat shield by the exhaust had pretty much come away.  Three of the bolts are missing and the shield has corroded around the fourth.  I've managed to secure it for now but need to get some more nuts and washers.  Does anyone know the correct size they are?

[WES180]

Toonami, If you havent already done so then you can replace the rubber grommet from underneath. That was how i found the initial pool of water in the cavity by pulling it out from under the car.

[Toonami]

11 hours ago, WES180 said:

Toonami, If you havent already done so then you can replace the rubber grommet from underneath. That was how i found the initial pool of water in the cavity by pulling it out from under the car.

I'm planning to take the bumper off again next week and install parking sensors. I'll have a look again then. :-)

[Phil21185]

Hi, I've just registered just to say a massive thanks for this thread.  

Bought my '14 Mk3 yesterday and listened to the salesman at EH waffle on about how the mould on the rear seatbelts was due to them not being dried properly after it was valeted - I was a valeter for 3 years for a high-end manufacturer so I knew full well that was BS!

Went round the car with a fine toothed comb after that but before buying and couldn't find any signs of water in the boot and it smelled ok with no hint of mustiness beneath the Cherry Fresh!  Stumbled on this thread tonight after enjoying the car all day today and thought I would check it out so reached up and pushed the nearside grommet into the cavity (I couldn't get enough purchase on it to get it out downwards).  No pouring water (its been raining for days here and the car was outside for a while before we bought it), but reached in to give the insulation a squeeze and it was pretty saturated.

Haven't checked offside (and couldn't get the NS grommet back in) but will be tackling this this weekend with the help of this guide.  Thought I would ask, I'm fairly handy with taking things to bits but mine has rear parking sensors - has anyone else who has sensors on their car done this and is there anything I should watch for?

 

Thanks!

[JONATHAN_11_80]

Any signs of accident repairs at the rear of the car.  Water leaks are usually cause by poor repairs.