Hi I believe on mine, water is coming in through the rear lights, the driver side is fine but the passenger side front is damp and passenger rear is, I recently changed a bulb in the light on that side but maybe didn’t do the plastic screws up tight enough?

On 8/12/2017 at 1:23 PM, Fred Smith said:

Can anyone help. I have a leak in the boot of my Mk3 Focus. I have traced where the water enters the boot compartment to an access hole to the left of the near side wheel arch (small hole above the cables in the photo) but I'm not sure how it is getting into the compartment between the inner and outer skins. Can anyone tell me where the water is entering the bodywork from the outside.

Hi I am having the same problem, I get water where the spare wheel is, I’ve dried it out several times but it comes back, I have already done the vent job by taking the back bumper off and running a bead of silicon around the vents, I’ve been told that it can come in through the lights, the welds on top of the boot hinges or the roof guttering?

cheers

22 minutes ago, Tommi97 said:

I’ve been told that it can come in through the lights, the welds on top of the boot hinges or the roof guttering?

Yes all of those places can leak. Try sprinkling talcum powder about in areas that you think water might be getting in and wait and see what happens when it rains.

Hi everyone, looking for some advice if possible. I've just bought a 2013 focus mk3 and prior to buying, I picked up on the well known water ingress in the boot and rear passenger footwell. The garage agreed to carry out the repairs (bumper off, vents emptied and resealed)

 

It's been about 1-2 weeks since the repair had been done and I've not bought the car. I've noticed a damp smell appearing, although I used one of those air bomb sanitisers with the AC left on.

 

Ive noticed today after some rain, a blob of water sitting inside the polystyrene boot cover as I removed the fabric boot cover last night when dry. 
 

does anyone have any idea where the water may be coming in from? I will run a watering can down the back of the boot lid when dry tomorrow to try and find out but wanted to know if anyone else has had this?

thanks 

On 5/16/2024 at 5:30 PM, Chrismcgee89 said:

Hi everyone, looking for some advice if possible. I've just bought a 2013 focus mk3 and prior to buying, I picked up on the well known water ingress in the boot and rear passenger footwell. The garage agreed to carry out the repairs (bumper off, vents emptied and resealed)

 

It's been about 1-2 weeks since the repair had been done and I've not bought the car. I've noticed a damp smell appearing, although I used one of those air bomb sanitisers with the AC left on.

 

Ive noticed today after some rain, a blob of water sitting inside the polystyrene boot cover as I removed the fabric boot cover last night when dry. 
 

does anyone have any idea where the water may be coming in from? I will run a watering can down the back of the boot lid when dry tomorrow to try and find out but wanted to know if anyone else has had this?

thanks 

I found where the water had been coming in from (just under the boot lid on the wing), there was a drop coming in due to the welds which appeared to be aged. I've re-sealed these with some caravan weld adhesive and cleaned out and removed dirt from both plastic roof cover trims. I've also re-applied adhesive along there too. We're due for heavy rain in Liverpool tomorrow, so praying there is no water ingress! 

I have 2013 Focus with water in the spare wheel well and around the bottom of the boot side panels. A mechanic explained that if the rain is getting in when driving it is likely to be via the vents behind the rear bumper. If it occurs when stationary it's likely to be through badly sealed light lenses. In my case it was neither. He found that the water ingress was from under the brackets to which the tailgate gas struts are attached. The brackets located in the tailgate channel allowed water to get in through location holes and bolt holes, under the brackets, as the seal had become degraded. Resealing the joint faces with Hilomar cured the problem.

Winter again and my carpets are soaking wet to the point where putting anything on the carpet leaves a wet impression.

I removed the black plastic bungs under the boot and around a litre came out both sides. Plus 3 litres in the boot well.

- What's the quickest way to dry out the carpets? 

- I've seen videos of removing the tail lights to remove the bumper, is this required? My front headlight wires are ageing a lot and sidelights cut out occasionally due to the terminal connector, I don't want to end up damaging the rear wiring.

6 minutes ago, mburdett555 said:

Winter again and my carpets are soaking wet to the point where putting anything on the carpet leaves a wet impression.

I removed the black plastic bungs under the boot and around a litre came out both sides. Plus 3 litres in the boot well.

- What's the quickest way to dry out the carpets? 

- I've seen videos of removing the tail lights to remove the bumper, is this required? My front headlight wires are ageing a lot and sidelights cut out occasionally due to the terminal connector, I don't want to end up damaging the rear wiring.

Removing the bumper is required to seal the rear vents and dry out the sound deadening behind the vents.  Those vents are where the rain usually flows in.  If the wiring condition is so poor it's likely to break from a routine light cluster removal then the car is a fire hazard and should probably just be scrapped on safety grounds.

Quickest way to dry 'loose' carpets at this time of year is to take them indoors.  They won't dry outside.  For the fitted carpets in the footwells then best option is to wetvac them.  If you don't have a wetvac then just run heat and AC all the time you're driving and they should dry out eventually.

On 12/21/2025 at 10:19 AM, TomsFocus said:

Removing the bumper is required to seal the rear vents and dry out the sound deadening behind the vents.  Those vents are where the rain usually flows in.  If the wiring condition is so poor it's likely to break from a routine light cluster removal then the car is a fire hazard and should probably just be scrapped on safety grounds.

Quickest way to dry 'loose' carpets at this time of year is to take them indoors.  They won't dry outside.  For the fitted carpets in the footwells then best option is to wetvac them.  If you don't have a wetvac then just run heat and AC all the time you're driving and they should dry out eventually.

Can I use interior sealant on this with the vents? I assume it's all the same...it's only one I've got lying around, says antifungal properties etc.

Turns out the sponges behind my tail lights are also soaking wet (next to the wing nuts), so this is going to be more work than I thought ......

25 minutes ago, mburdett555 said:

Can I use interior sealant on this with the vents? I assume it's all the same...it's only one I've got lying around, says antifungal properties etc.

Turns out the sponges behind my tail lights are also soaking wet (next to the wing nuts), so this is going to be more work than I thought ......

Interior sealant probably isn't designed for outdoor temperatures but you'd have to check the label.  I used gutter sealant on my own Mk3 vents.

Mine was less than 5 years old when I had a bootful of water but fortunately was just the vents in my case.  Sounds like you might have other leaks as well on yours.

Anyone know how the bumper vents are actually fixed in? I'm breaking my fingers trying to remove them, I thought they were just sealed/sit against the body... 

 

Edit - got them off, snapped some of it but I'm gonna have to seal around the existing sealant which seems bonded to the plastic. I'm just hoping it's gonna be worth it, I can't see anywhere else the water could becoming in...

So I've poured about 50+ litres of water around the nearside roof and tail light and I can't see any sign of water ingress other than condensation behind the metalwork I side.

The only areas that are significantly wet are the boot well and this matting on the near side. 

I resealed the bumper vents the other week and dried out the material within but the boot is once again very wet after a few days of rain driving.

(Bung holes left open to allow excess to drain from when I did the vents).

Is there likely to be anywhere I've overlooked around the rear wheel arch that could let water in?