I'm new here so I'm sorry if this is wrong place for this post but I'm after any help or advice I can get. 

I've got a MK1 Focus and after going through a car wash recently I was sorting stuff in the boot when I noticed that a rag I had in there was soaking wet...removing carpet and tyre I found a good inch of water under there! I've located the general area (read wettest) it's coming in from, the left hand corner of the boot, the passengers side. Lifting the carpet from the wall I could see that the water was mainly pooling in the "corner section". There's a square hole in the metal and a lip where it's all pooling, in front of the body air vent. But I've also found the bottom of the boot floor carpet to be wet from the doorway of the boot all the way to the back near the seats but only along the edge. I've had the lights off to check in under there but I cannot for the life of me work out where it's getting in if it is the lights...all the seals look good and it was bone dry under there even after using a jet was on it! 

And now, just the other day, I've noticed that the same is happening on the right side...albeit nowhere near to the same extent, it's just damp as opposed to pooling. I am wondering whether it could be the body air vent? Are they supposed to have a rubber seal on the inside?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated...whilst a paddling pool is an interesting feature...I'm getting a bit fed up of it now! 

Thanks! Gav

 

32 minutes ago, Gav88 said:

I'm new here so I'm sorry if this is wrong place for this post but I'm after any help or advice I can get. 

I've got a MK1 Focus and after going through a car wash recently I was sorting stuff in the boot when I noticed that a rag I had in there was soaking wet...removing carpet and tyre I found a good inch of water under there! I've located the general area (read wettest) it's coming in from, the left hand corner of the boot, the passengers side. Lifting the carpet from the wall I could see that the water was mainly pooling in the "corner section". There's a square hole in the metal and a lip where it's all pooling, in front of the body air vent. But I've also found the bottom of the boot floor carpet to be wet from the doorway of the boot all the way to the back near the seats but only along the edge. I've had the lights off to check in under there but I cannot for the life of me work out where it's getting in if it is the lights...all the seals look good and it was bone dry under there even after using a jet was on it! 

And now, just the other day, I've noticed that the same is happening on the right side...albeit nowhere near to the same extent, it's just damp as opposed to pooling. I am wondering whether it could be the body air vent? Are they supposed to have a rubber seal on the inside?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated...whilst a paddling pool is an interesting feature...I'm getting a bit fed up of it now! 

Thanks! Gav

 

Yep one of the pleasures of owning a MK1 like I do.Could be many places.The two main  contenders in my opinion is the light cluster and air vent as you mentioned.Silicon  the rubber cluster seal and in my case the water was ingressing via the cluster outside screw.If the air vent is leaking the bumper needs to be removed and the vent popping off and siliconed.I’ve done both and now dry.👍

Williamweb, thanks for getting back to me! OK so on the picture I've uploaded, when you say outside screw are you meaning that furthest right hand hole before it gets to the actual boot space itself? In terms of the vent, is there a factory seal I can buy or not really? Is silliconing it the better option? With the outside screw did you silliconing that or is there a grommet or rubber washer that fits? Thanks again, I really appreciate it. As you can imagine not knowing where it's coming from is driving me mad. If I know I can fix it, but just seeing a puddle every time it rains is so frustrating! 

Yes the screw hole on the right was where the water Ingress was happening on my car.I siliconed the hole plugging it and surrounding area as well as the rubber cluster seal and screwed it all back together.I have a photo  of the air vent I siliconed somewhere I see if I can upload it👍

Brilliant! Thanks so much for this! I really appreciate it. OK and on the photo, the rubber cluster seal...are you meaning the black circular bit where the wires enter the body of the car? Oh yeah if you have a photo that would be brilliant! I'm thinking it might be the lights because the right hand side has started to leak and that never leaked until I touched the lights...typical! But if you could upload the photo that would be brilliant! Thanks again! 

After the silicon firmed up I trimmed the excess off👍

I didn’t silicon the rubber grommet there shouldn’t be no need if the out edge is sealed properly 👍

Brilliant! Thanks so much for this! That's my weekend booked up! When you say cluster seal are you meaning the seal around the light cluster itself that you can see on the exterior? How does the water get through the outer screw if there's a rubber grommet in there too? Do you know? Thanks again for this! 

I plugged the screw hole with silicon let it set solid and then smeared the screw thread with silicon before carefully fixing.Yes the exterior but from memory try not to get the silicon on any of the glass because it’s very messy to remove.👍

Right, brilliant! That's perfect, will try everything you suggested and hopefully that'll be the end of the water feature in the boot! Thanks for your help mate. 

3 minutes ago, Gav88 said:

Right, brilliant! That's perfect, will try everything you suggested and hopefully that'll be the end of the water feature in the boot! Thanks for your help mate. 

Let us know if it’s successful or not,it’s a process of elimination .I know it’s a real pain in the rear👍

Just to add I drilled a small hole in the silicon plug to make the fixing easier 👍

Yeah I was shocked when I read that there were so many potential points for the leak! When you say the silicone plug, do you mean the plug that's already in the hole for the right hand screw? If there's a plug in there any idea how the water is getting in? 

5 minutes ago, Gav88 said:

Yeah I was shocked when I read that there were so many potential points for the leak! When you say the silicone plug, do you mean the plug that's already in the hole for the right hand screw? If there's a plug in there any idea how the water is getting in? 

No by plug I mean block the screw hole up with silicon and surrounding area and let it set👍

OK will give it a go, and let you know how I get on! Thanks again! 👍🏻

No problem hope it works 👍

3 minutes ago, Gav88 said:

OK will give it a go, and let you know how I get on! Thanks again! 👍🏻

 

5 hours ago, williamweb said:

Yep one of the pleasures of owning a MK1 like I do.Could be many places.The two main  contenders in my opinion is the light cluster and air vent as you mentioned.Silicon  the rubber cluster seal and in my case the water was ingressing via the cluster outside screw.If the air vent is leaking the bumper needs to be removed and the vent popping off and siliconed.I’ve done both and now dry.👍

I wouldn't silicone the cluster seal unless it's a none setting type. I always seal the clusters with grease, it gives a watertight seal and allows easy removal of the cluster in the future if you need to change a bulb.

If you seal the cavity vent you don't need to apply so much silicone that it requires trimming back once cured. Apply it and then smooth with a wet finger, that's all I did below.

I had the same problems on my mk3.

On 3/19/2019 at 1:57 PM, WES180 said:

I wouldn't silicone the cluster seal unless it's a none setting type. I always seal the clusters with grease, it gives a watertight seal and allows easy removal of the cluster in the future if you need to change a bulb.

Tried that  it didn’t work for me but I get the point about changing bulbs because I had to start over again👍

Thanks both for all the advice, I really appreciate it! Fingers gets crossed that between you you've solved it for me! 👍🏻