I noticed a bit of mould in my boot (2013 vintage Focus), lifted the cover and there is mould underneath (offside only) and the spare wheel well is damp.  I think this is the sign of the wet boot problem?

Anybody in the Edinburgh area know of a decent place to fix it?  I don't have space at the moment to work on the car.

I've carried out the rear bumper removal and sealed the rear vents and found it wasn't as daunting as I was expecting. It took me a couple of hours. There are a few useful videos on YouTube which document the job. It's just not good weather at the moment to attempt the job and get the car dried out.

29 minutes ago, Bxzx16v said:

I've carried out the rear bumper removal and sealed the rear vents and found it wasn't as daunting as I was expecting. It took me a couple of hours. There are a few useful videos on YouTube which document the job. It's just not good weather at the moment to attempt the job and get the car dried out.

I’m tempted to pull the bungs out, leave them out, and just let it drain and dry. Carpet on the driver side rear/front is damp but not soaked.

I saw that you said that you don't have space to work on it yourself, but have a look at this example video. My understanding is that water leaking around the rear vents is the common issue on mk3's, and it looks very easy to fix. A Handful of torx screws and clips to deal with to get the bumper and light clusters off; pull the four vent covers off; dry things off; put some silicon sealant around the vents; put it back together.

 

Trickiest job is removing the vents without breaking any/too many clips. Not a bad job too undertake if the weather is on your side.Problem with just removing the bungs is that the white sponge will be soaked through and I found it nigh on impossible to pull it through the hole when the bung was removed so it will be constantly soaked through.After removing my rear bumper I'm pretty confident I could have done it in less than an hour and a half if was to repeat the task.

As above, you don't need 'space' to do this job.  Car doesn't have to be jacked up.  And you only need about a foot behind the car.  I did mine in Feb 2018...the plastics were brittle and the water/mini duvet were frozen solid!  I'd definitely recommend doing it while the weather's still mild if you can.

Thank you, that video is very helpful.

My bumper has historical "damage" from before I owned the car.  One clip at the top corner does not clip and the whole bumper doesn't sit properly at the top, so I hope I can get it on/off OK (perhaps it might be easier if some clips are already unclipped!).  I'll hope for a break in the rain today to at least pull out the bungs from underneath to drain the water away then try to dry the inside as best I can and order the stuff to seal the vents when the weather is warmer.  The forecast from tomorrow here is cold weather but at least without the bungs it won't get any worse.

2 hours ago, Bxzx16v said:

Trickiest job is removing the vents without breaking any/too many clips. Not a bad job too undertake if the weather is on your side.Problem with just removing the bungs is that the white sponge will be soaked through and I found it nigh on impossible to pull it through the hole when the bung was removed so it will be constantly soaked through.After removing my rear bumper I'm pretty confident I could have done it in less than an hour and a half if was to repeat the task.

I've just pulled the bung from the driver's side and water poured out for almost a minute.  Then went to unbung the passenger side...and it's already been removed!  I've obviously not done it so either it was done before I got the car (in 2017) or during a service and the garage never said anything... needless to say the insulation in the passenger side is saturated though no leaking into the boot from that side.

It does look a daunting job when you view the above video but in reality it isn't. I actually enjoyed removing mine and sorting out the leaking vents. If the weather is on your side 🤭 I'm sure you could sort it. The most useful tool I found was a mini ratchet and bit set for the wheel arch fixings. Everything else was plain sailing.

5 minutes ago, Bxzx16v said:

It does look a daunting job when you view the above video but in reality it isn't. I actually enjoyed removing mine and sorting out the leaking vents. If the weather is on your side 🤭 I'm sure you could sort it. The most useful tool I found was a mini ratchet and bit set for the wheel arch fixings. Everything else was plain sailing.

Did you keep/dry, replace or throw away the white stuff?

The weather is foul here now but at least I know the water won't build up again.

I threw it away, I know some people do replace it with new but I didn't think it would make much difference where it was.

I wrung mine out and then dried it in the bathroom for a few days.  Anything to reduce all the road noise from the back of the Focus!

4 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

I wrung mine out and then dried it in the bathroom for a few days.  Anything to reduce all the road noise from the back of the Focus!

I thought it was just me that had a noisy Focus rear as it's got the 18" alloys on. Guess their all noisy. I did consuder soundproofing the hatch area with Dynamat or similar.

On 1/15/2023 at 1:00 PM, TomsFocus said:

I wrung mine out and then dried it in the bathroom for a few days.  Anything to reduce all the road noise from the back of the Focus!

I just turn the radio up!

35 minutes ago, nitten_traveller said:

I just turn the radio up!

Pardon?