All the possible leak locations for lake in footwell

[cleverusername]

My epic quest for a dry car continues, I have sealed the passenger side and I hope I have got the drivers side dry as well. Since I must have had every possible leak, I thought I would list them here.

First thing to do is clear the drain holes, in the Dollys defence they hardly the only cars to suffer from this design flaw. My Rover 75 drains block just as easily, drowning the ECU in the process. If you're lucky that will cure the problem, if not you need to look elsewhere. Next thing I would check is that all the rubbers around the wiring loom and various cables are presence and in good order. I found water tracking in along the accelerator cable and the aerial cable.

If you have done that the next place to look is the windscreen, especially the corners. Water tends to pool there and can seep via the inside of the rubbers around the glass. This stuff might fix that https://captaintolley.com/, it is a sealant that creeps into small cracks. It works, as long you make sure the screen is dry when you apply it and you use a bit of heat.

Don't forget to check the sealant around the windscreen wiper motor, mine was life expired and that was letting in the rain. Another thing to check is the sealant in the gutters, if that has dried out and cracked, it could be letting in water.

If that lot doesn't work, I am afraid my money is on rot, which means you need to strip out the interior to find out what is going on. Once you have the dash out you can have ago at watching how the water tracks in when it rains but it can be very difficult to find how it is getting in.

I found that I had to rip out all the sound deadening on both sides to find the true condition of the bulkhead, which was shocking. A highlight being a repair done on the nearside wheel arch, where a so called professional hadn't bothered to weld the repair to the bulkhead or the floor. Leaving both floating. As well as rot in multiple places on the bulkhead I found more rot on the windscreen surround and the scuttle panel. Much of this was well hidden under the paint, the only clue that there was a problem was the pools of water in the wells.

Anyway fingers crossed that I have finally beaten the problem. Either that or I will have to give up and drill drain holes in the floor.

[Bumpa]

Mine used to fill up on the passemger side. Eventually I traced the problem to an imperfect seal round the gearbox cover. The water came out of the bulkhead drains ok but then ran down the metal and found its way passed the cover seal. I guess the cover has been off so so many times it no longer fits perfectly. Once I had made the seal good the floor stayed dry.

[cleverusername]

Mine used to fill up on the passemger side. Eventually I traced the problem to an imperfect seal round the gearbox cover. The water came out of the bulkhead drains ok but then ran down the metal and found its way passed the cover seal. I guess the cover has been off so so many times it no longer fits perfectly. Once I had made the seal good the floor stayed dry.

Not an issue on mine, I have no gearbox cover. Though I have found yet more leaks. The nearside grommet around the wiring loom is life expired and letting in a ton of water and it appears to be getting in behind the accelerator pedals. Which makes me suspect more hidden rot or water creeping around the bolts.