I pulled the plugs today and for some reason mines were put in the opposite way so fell inside. Got one back out the other is lost in the mush somewhere. I got soaked so defo need to get this done and will find the other plastic plug in the process 😂 

just to say thanks for this guide, literally had buckets of water coming out of car, complete removal of carpet and form, left to dry for a week before refitting and resealing everything!

I still think ford should be make more aware of this problem and they defiantly should cover what is clearly a manufacturing problem.

Hi, new member here, I have a 63 plate Focus Ecoboost 125 MK3 and I can add my name to the flooded boot and water ingress problems mentioned above.

At first I noticed some damp carpets in the side of the boot and passenger side rear foot well, I initially thought nothing of it and assumed I had possibly left  a window open. Then I started seeing lots of condensation on the insides of the windscreen and windows, until a few days ago I opened the boot and noticed some mold and a weird kind of fungus / mushrooms growing out of the carpet in the corner where the carpet was damp, yuk! So, as I was cleaning up the boot I then discovered a few litres of water sloshing around in the space where the spare wheel lives, I have no idea how long water had been getting into the boot, but probably many months and possibly years!

Hence straight onto google, I found this forum and various other videos etc advising on the cause and solution. Sure enough, I took the rear bumper off and the vents were loose, both sides full of water, and the sound proofing saturated. So I`ve sealed the vents with liberal amounts of silicon, cleaned and dried everything up and am hoping this is now the end of water finding its way into the boot, less the drying time the job took me about 60 - 90 mins, so quite straight forward and fairly easy for a competent DIYer, there is certainly no way I would be paying those chancers at Ford around a grand to do the job. 

I also sealed around the holes for the light cluster fixings as water can also find its way in through there, also be careful not to trap the wires when refitting as this can compromise the seal and let water through. Fingers crossed this is the end of the problem. 

This is an awful design flaw from Ford and they really should be fixing these for free, baring in mind that damp, mold and stagnant water inside your car is surely a health and safety issue. Thanks to the contributions on this thread which has helped me identify and fix this problem (hopefully).  

Thanks again, and stay safe out there.

Just wanted to post to say thanks, found my 62 plate Focus soaked when I started trying to track an intermittent electrical fault.

Ended up stripping the interior almost entirely, am the way forward to the polystyrene formers in the FRONT footwells!

One hell of a job, but all dried, demoulded, freshener and put back together again 👍🏻

A few photos of my "journey" attached 😬 

Mouldy side carpet in the boot, and traces of mould on the original sealant...

Bungs out, lights & bumper off...

At least the filth highlights the water path quite clearly!

Carpet out and making the most of the sun...

Naked interior ready for mould removal, treating & drying!

Replacement sound material, I know plenty of people don't bother, but since I managed to buy some of the material I made some new using the old ones as templates.

Fitted in nicely;

Resealed vents;

Even the headrest stems had tarnished from the damp! A few grades of wet & dry, and some metal polish got then back though (the top one wasn't done yet!)

Brilliant and thanks for the images.

Hi! I had same problem with my 2013 Focus! Seems there was water being sucked in via the cabin vents situated behind the sides of the rear bumpers. They are supposed to vent through one-way flaps, but if the flaps fail then water splashed up against them is admitted to the car. Had to take it to have them re sealed and since then no problems. That was 2 1/2 years ago so seems to have done the job! 

 

 

 

Before I start removing parts from my wifes' 2008 Focus hatchback, would the leaky vents problem apply to this year of car too?

Boot carpet is saturated, mouldy, and has ruined what she had in the boot. Can't see any leaks from higher up on the cars body. Any other areas we should be looking for leaks please?

Are most of these hatchback related as I have an estate with water leak 

I had a 5 Door focus titanium 1.6 duratorq... boot was soaked everytime it rained! The spare wheel well filled with water, resulting in condensation, damp, mould! 

 

Everytime I braked, the water used to gush under the back seats, resulting in mold growing in backseat foot space, and under driver and passenger seats....

Then I lifted a little lip in the carpet in the driver side foot space and the foam there was wringing wet! All my electrics, windows only worked now and again, lights even went off at one point whilst night driving, had to call for recovery! I'm sure the water, damp, whatever had something to do with it!

 

I have an ST diesel now... no problems yet

On 5/14/2021 at 4:42 PM, gibbo1471 said:

Are most of these hatchback related as I have an estate with water leak 

I have a MK3 estate and today discovered the wheel well full of water. I didn’t do my research properly and went hunting for the leaking vents, not knowing the problem was hatch-only (see here). On finding the vent cavities (of which there are only two on the estate) dry, I siliconed them anyway and put everything back together, hoping that maybe they had dried out as it’s been very hot here recently.  Basically I was a bit baffled and hoping for the best. I also tightened the boot strut bolts which were loose, again hopeful that this had been the problem.

However, on testing, of course it still leaked. Being a bit more methodical this time, I poured water from various points and concluded that it was coming from below the light clusters. Took the bumper off (again) and found the sh*tty little soggy sticker covering the hole next to the lower bumper fixing screw. I’ve replaced this with electrical tape and silicone. Will test it again tomorrow but hopefully that’s the job done! 
 

In short, MK3 estate boots can fill up with water, but at least in my case, it is due to a crappy little sticker that Ford use to cover a hole next to one of the bumper fixings. 
 

 

Excellent thread and what originally brought me to this forum, when I first acquired my Focus earlier in the year the water in the boot was an issue though not nearly as bad some of the examples shown here. Thanks for much detailed information on what is happening here and the method of fix, I’ll be onto this soon.

Luckily my vehicle is now garaged when not on the road so once I’d mopped up and dried up the existing water in the boot I’ve had no “reoccurrence” of this problem but obviously it still exists.

One quick question for everyone who has replaced the insulation – I’ve got a couple of slabs of rockwool lying around, which is proper soundproofing material, has any one used that to replace the standard issue Ford insulation?

I've not used rockwool, so can't comment on that, but this is the stuff I used to cut my new sections.

I thought quite a reasonable price as you get both sides out of it plus some spare.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/acoustic-insulation/8814557/

I've had a damp boot in my 03 MK1 for 10 years now, I've sealed everything I could find but not these vents, might give it  a try.

Hey people, it would also seem I too have joined the boot leak club, never had a problem with my previous mk3.5 but I do with my new to me ST. 
 

however I don’t think it’s the vents as mine is a high level drip coming from o think above the rear light cluster on the drivers side, I had the light cluster out yesterday and greased the foam washers and even added some weather stripping around the holes, no joy. I’ve also checked the grommets that attach the boot hatch to the car and they don’t seem compromised or wet underneath.

Drip coming from here

 

(sorry for some reason this image is landscape instead of portrait)

Any help and suggestions greatly appreciated

On 9/14/2021 at 10:41 AM, EcoboostMatt said:

Hey people, it would also seem I too have joined the boot leak club, never had a problem with my previous mk3.5 but I do with my new to me ST. 
 

however I don’t think it’s the vents as mine is a high level drip coming from o think above the rear light cluster on the drivers side, I had the light cluster out yesterday and greased the foam washers and even added some weather stripping around the holes, no joy. I’ve also checked the grommets that attach the boot hatch to the car and they don’t seem compromised or wet underneath.

Drip coming from here

 

(sorry for some reason this image is landscape instead of portrait)

Any help and suggestions greatly appreciated

Hi all, new on here but great information shared , @EcoboostMatt would love to hear have you had any luck locating the leak, having same issue seems to be as high can see a trickle of water but behind panels , Is there issue with small window seal, welds on frame where boot closes, etc very frustrating. 

 Has anyone left the sound proofing out after refitting the vents? Not much point having it in a bumper?

On 10/9/2013 at 8:37 PM, jimrex said:

Just going back to the OP, what is you average daily mileage and what sort of roads?

I have a daily 74 mile round commute of mainly dual carriageway and motorway driving, so never have the need to force a regen, but if your car is used on short runs most of the time then just a good run once a week at 70mph for 20 mins would surely do the job?

taking the vents out ? Surely you don't need it in 

11 minutes ago, Morty1977 said:

 Has anyone left the sound proofing out after refitting the vents? Not much point having it in a bumper?

taking the vents out ? Surely you don't need it in 

I replaced it with new stuff, purely because I figured it might do SOME sound deadening, and I'd hate to put it all together then find out I wanted it 😁

Figured for the price this stuff was ok:

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/acoustic-insulation/8814557/

 

On 4/4/2021 at 2:21 AM, Schmill said:

Just wanted to post to say thanks, found my 62 plate Focus soaked when I started trying to track an intermittent electrical fault.

Ended up stripping the interior almost entirely, am the way forward to the polystyrene formers in the FRONT footwells!

One hell of a job, but all dried, demoulded, freshener and put back together again 👍🏻

A few photos of my "journey" attached 😬 

Mouldy side carpet in the boot, and traces of mould on the original sealant...

Bungs out, lights & bumper off...

At least the filth highlights the water path quite clearly!

Carpet out and making the most of the sun...

Naked interior ready for mould removal, treating & drying!

Replacement sound material, I know plenty of people don't bother, but since I managed to buy some of the material I made some new using the old ones as templates.

Fitted in nicely;

Resealed vents;

Even the headrest stems had tarnished from the damp! A few grades of wet & dry, and some metal polish got then back though (the top one wasn't done yet!)

Mine are the same! What grade of wet and dry did you use and what metal polish?

1 hour ago, Morty1977 said:

Mine are the same! What grade of wet and dry did you use and what metal polish?

I'm afraid I don't know offhand, I took a "suck it and see" approach of starting with the finest & if it wasn't making much difference them went up a step.

Main thing was after removing the corrosion to then work your way back down through finer grades to remove any marks in the metal. After the finest grade I used a Meguiars metal polish (green & blue tub).

On 5/18/2017 at 8:57 PM, Phil21185 said:

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!

Hi, 

I know this post is old but did you get any advice on removing the bumper with parking sensors?

12 hours ago, DiSkeg said:

removing the bumper with parking sensors?

Tools required:

(1) length of rope approx 10ft (3M)

(2) Strong soundly rooted tree

Method:

Attach rope to bumper and other end to tree.

Action:

Drive off at a brisk pace

Result:

Bumper fully removed !

10 hours ago, unofix said:

Tools required:

(1) length of rope approx 10ft (3M)

(2) Strong soundly rooted tree

Method:

Attach rope to bumper and other end to tree.

Action:

Drive off at a brisk pace

Result:

Bumper full removed !

Don't forget to unplug the parking sensor connector first. 

Interesting issue to come across with Mk3 hatchback. Seems like something Ford should be sorting out though without all this hassle undertaken by owners.

Anyone heard of this happening with the 4 door saloon? I picked up a 2015 Mk3.5 there 2 weeks back. Was on a fence with getting the hatchback but now it seems like a better choice.

I had the same issue, 2 grommets removed the water poured out, insulation was saturated, took weeks to fully dry. I never put the grommets back, never had the issue since 🙄

Think I've now got this issue on my 2015 model - went to hoover it out and the rear passenger footwell was sodden but couldn't work out where the water had come from. At first, thought that one of the kids must have spilled a water bottle and just not said anything.

Having googled and got here, just looked in the boot to find water in the spare wheel and under the carpet, and when I've lifted the rear seat, its also damp under there with some mould having grown. 🤬