Pond in my trunk

So I came home the other night and I noticed the back window of my trusty E30 was all fogged up on the inside. It had been somewhat rainy all week here. So I went out today and opened the trunk. The inside of the trunk felt really damp. Much to my surprise the left well where the jack is stowed was completely filled with water to the point it was overflowing into the well for the spare tire. Spent 2 hours taking out everything soggy in my trunk. What I discovered was the left drain hose from the sun roof had detached from the the plastic side drain and was merrily filling the well with water.

The great thing about these cars is the learning never stops!!!



alan

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alanrw
..Spent 2 hours taking out everything soggy in my trunk...


alan

Time to get some shelves or storage boxes in the garage isntead?!

There are plastic plugs on the lower places of the trunk,
Sometimes they are hard to spot in the dirty floor of the wells, but looking from below the car you cant miss.
Pull them up to the inside, water and dirt will fall to the ground.

You may drill a small hole in them and water will drip instead of collecting inside the trunk.

My car (the MBw124) collects water below the driver carpet, and I have no clue where it comes from. Perhaps the sunroof drain...

Maybe through the ventilation system?

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Michiel 318iS
Maybe through the ventilation system?

Nah, sun roof models have a drain hose that runs into the trunk and out a side vent with a rubber flapper. Somehow the hose got disconnected from the side vent and was just draining into the left well. I did double check the gaskets around the tail lights but they were tight and dry.

alan

In the wells there are small 'D' shaped openings. Usually these get plugged when the cars get undercoated. With a good light you can spot them from the inside then just clear them so that any water that does leak in, has a place to leak out

I know this because it was one of the first 'repairs' I had to do on the iX.

Haha, I was trying to help out Jose with his MB W124

For a split second, I was gonna throw a few goldfish in and take a picture

alan

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Michiel 318iS
Haha, I was trying to help out Jose with his MB W124

Thats a classic, plugged drains and watter rises and eventually leaks inside.
I had those places below the windshield clean, perhaps not thoroughly enough, will look into it again.
We had somewhat better weather now, and guess waht is not leaking unless it rains.

I believe there is a drain hole with a rubber boot (to keep water from under the car from getting splashed in) in the jack well. If there is, run some lawn trimmer string through it to clear the debris.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2013 09:21PM by onager.