E30 Vert wet rear floors and jack trunk pocket

[cWalk3r]

Why do I have some many wet areas in the car? I checked the elephant drain and it was clogged so i fixed that and it's all still getting wet.

There looks to be surface rust inside the rear left quater panel just not sure how the waters getting in there

[Semblance]

Lots of possibilities:
-Check the vent gaskets (under the bumper trim with the sidemarker in it on each side) - try hosing this down without even taking anything apart - Water gets through there surprisingly easy.
- third light seal, including rubber washers on all screws
- taillight gaskets
- antenna grommet
- trunk seal
- make sure the drains in the tonneau compartment aren't clogged

Not sure about water on the cabin floor in a vert, other than thru the top. Hose it down?

[cWalk3r]

The waters only on the floor. There's none on the trim or seats or anything! I'll take a look at the cover drains. Shouldn't be to hard to find

[TimeMachinE30]

Only place I did not see mentioned for likely place of intrusion is the top itself. Look along the union of the top and the windows. At times, the water's path is marked on the inside glass.

[GT BMW E30]

Look at the gap inbetween the rear window (back edge) and the vert bootlid. Water runs off top and tends to drip inside window area flowing to the floor. Your convertible top suppose to have a brush looking piece that covers over that section preventing it.

[cWalk3r]

That's probably it then! Would it also prevent water from going to trunk or is that a whole different story? I'll probably just duct tape it for now as I'm putting the car away this weekend for winter :( is there any other entry point that seems to leak?

[Das Delfin]

My car leaks through the top corners of the windshield unless I park facing uphill. From what I understand this is just to be expected as it's bmw's first attempt at a folding convertible top. The front main seal over the windshield also leaked until I improvised with a home depot window seal Water can also leak in through the outside window weatherstripping. You actually want to check all the seals and hit them with gummi pflege before putting it away for the winter.

Another place to check is where the glove box attaches to as that is just the other side of the battery tray in the convertible models. Battery acid vents out and eats through the metal, which lets rain water drip down into the carpet.

[rcsoundn1]

I have also heard of people slathering the rubber seals with Vaseline, ever tried that?

[cWalk3r]

One of the seals is pretty bad on the passenger side so I'll need a new of of those. But i think my actual top is leaking. Where the top folds to be exactly around the top of the window. I went through a car wash and water would spray in lol I was just glad that the hot wax didn't do the same lmao :P

[Das Delfin]

Wait so you took your convertible through an automated car wash and it was alright? I thought the canvas top would be toast let alone any leaks

[cWalk3r]

Yeah it was fine except it leaked around the top of the windows where the top actually folds. Like the pieces where there's a split in the weather stripping. I needed to get it washed and it was -5 not sure what that is in American lol so my only choice was a car wash. Top held up perfectly besides the weather stripping on top of the window. Also my weather stripping is bad on the bottom of the window but I sealed that up so no water would get in the quater panel

[allen_t]

Bringing this back instead of starting a new thread.

Pulled apart my interior to find a good amount water under my rear seat and on the carpet under / behind both front seats.

My tonneau cover seal is pretty deteriorated and missing a chunk of rubber on one side but not sure if this would cause all of that water to get in.


Any one have had this before and found fixes?

[cory58]

My understanding is there is a drain hole on each side that's not visible when the top frame is mounted. If you remove the a rear speaker panel, you will see a drain tube that is supposed to drain out through the rockers. This drain gets clogged and makes the rear floor wet.

I was getting a wet right rear floor and here is how I tested it: Made sure the rear carpet was dry. Took off the speaker cover. Slowly poured water around the right top frame mount in the boot. Did not see any water inside the quarter panel, but eventually the carpet got wet, starting out by the rocker and moving toward the center.

About the same time I sold an Alfa Spider, which freed up a garage space for my 'vert, so I did not have to deal with the clogged drain. I'm sure others on here have fixed the same problem.

Cory

[Das Delfin]

There's a thread somewhere on here which goes into detail about the drain for the convertible top compartment. My seal is trash too and I'm almost ready to just buy a new one

Also what's important is the vertical seals on the rear windows

edit... no pics but it looks like there are drains under the top frame brackets

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1545&page=5

[Semblance]

I posted a pic of the tonneau drains in this thread a while back:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=269900