Hi all,

I finally have the dreaded water leaks in the boot, drivers footwell and rear drivers footwell. I know this topic has been covered loads but just wondering whether there are the same suspect issue in the estate as there are in the hatch?

Rear bumper vents and body seam above the boot lid.

many thanks

2011 was the changeover Year between the Focus MK2.5 and the Focus MK3. So the main question is: Is it a late MK2.5 or an early MK3?

The fact that you mention the rear bumper vents strongly suggests that it is a MK3 since the MK2.5 did never suffer from this problem. The Focus MK3 Estate rear bumper vents/body compartments however do have a completely different design as the Hatchback. This problem basically only applies to the Hatchback and not to the Estate.

The MK3 Estate however has its own set of leakage problems.


Last Year I fixed a serious boot leak on my mother's 2012 Focus MK3 Estate. My parents bought the car in 2012 when it was two months old and have owned it ever since.

During summer the car is parked in a carport at the family summer estate. In winter, however, it is parked on a parking outside, next to a public road.

Last Year we discovered that the spare wheel well was completely filled with water. The boot lining was wet, the insulation was moldy, and even the floor insulation at the rear of the car was completely saturated.

I removed all the boot panels, the boot mat, the lining, and the sound insulation and took everything inside to dry thoroughly. With the boot completely stripped, I began investigating the cause of the leak. In the end, there were multiple sources:


1. Roof panel seam:
The roof panel is bonded to the side panels. The seam between these panels is located beneath the roof trim/roof rails. After removing the roof trim, I found that the adhesive at the rear of the vehicle was badly cracked. I repaired this by applying a fresh layer of body adhesive.

2. Roof rail mounting points:
   On vehicles without roof rails, the mounting points are sealed with plastic plugs containing rubber seals. None of these were sealing properly anymore. I removed the plugs and reinstalled them using body adhesive to ensure a proper seal.
   

3. Rear lights

   The foam washers sealing the rear light mounting studs had completely deteriorated. I replaced them with new foam seals.
   

4. Boot strut brackets

   The boot strut brackets were loose because their foam seals had deteriorated. I applied a layer of silicone sealant between the brackets and the body to reseal them.

5. Rear panel to side panel seams

   The rear panel is also bonded to the side panels. These seams are visible when the boot lid is open. All of them were severely deteriorated. I resealed them with fresh body adhesive.
   

6. Boot lid seal

   Although the rubber seal looked fine, this turned out to be the biggest source of the problem. The seal is clamped onto a flanged joint in the bodywork. Water was getting between the flange and the rubber at the top of the boot opening. It then ran down and entered the boot at the bottom. I fixed this by applying silicone sealant between the flange and the seal before reinstalling it.

I started at the top of the car and worked my way down. The main difficulty was that there were multiple leaks. Several times I thought I had fixed the issue, only to find the boot floor wet again after the next rain shower. It took several Saturday afternoons to track down and fix them all.

If you’re planning to tackle this yourself, I strongly recommend removing all boot panels, trim, lining, and insulation first. Do not reinstall anything until you are 100% certain the leak has been resolved. An empty boot makes it much easier to check whether water is still getting in.

Carefully inspect all the possible causes mentioned above and rule them out one by one.

Hi, thank you for your reply. It is a very early mk3. I do need to have a look at all of the body seams as I have noticed that the rear ones which are visible from the boot lid are cracked.

How do you remove the roof trim/ roof rails on the estate model? I did notice a while ago that my boot strut brackets were loose so tightened them back up but didn’t even give it a thought about sealing between them so will give that a go.