Water in boot lid

[Rolfe]

I just merged this thread in with that one to keep it all together, as it's a recurrent issue.

 

[gazza487]

This might be a public service announcement as I'd no idea my car had a leak. Maybe next time you open your tailgate you should check yours.

Yesterday I needed to lift the boot floor on car. I was very surprised to see a puddle, loch, lake of water lying in lowest part of the boot. The attached photo shows what I'm talking about. The shiny bit is the puddle of water which was left after I'd taken the tray with the finilec, compressor, tools etc out. The boot floor carpet was obviously soaked where the water had collected but there wasn't any other wetness I could find. View attachment 38304

Anyone else had this problem? If yes, did you find where the water was leaking in from?

4 attempts at 2 different dealers with the final visit being a week. Exactly the same situation. There is a service bulletin to apply sealant to a panel (didn’t fix it). There were many many clips replaced getting to things but the leak was fixed.

1st gen SE

 

[Rip Van]

Thanks. Was it replaced under warranty?

No. I pulled the seal out a bit and it's been fine since. Couldn't be bothered with the dealer and the potential crap.

 

[Dick Dastardly]

I noticed today that there’s water collecting in my boot floor — probably a couple of pints or more. The entry point seems to be around the driver’s side storage pocket, as that area is soaked while nowhere else is affected.
Car is a 2023 Trophy.
Has anyone else experienced this issue?

 

[Rolfe]

Another merge, to keep it all together.

 

[dave99]

oh, never noticed any dampness before (over 3 years) but just joined the party.

 

[siteguru]

I suppose I should really take out that padding stuff and look at mine, some day.

But ignorance is bliss.

 

[dave99]

dealer couldn't look at my water issue while it was in today (not unexpected), they will need it for 2 days to investigate and they have no courtesy cars for 3 months Oh, and rubber seals are out of warranty after 3 years so if it turns out to be the boot seal it won't be covered and the £160+ investigation fee will be payable - what a joy MG are. Best get my dehumidifier out and see if I can rule out the boot seal.

 

[Lovemyev]

Dry the boot out, then use a hose pipe and starting from the lowest point of the car !.
Use the hose and slowly working from one side, progress to the the other side of the car.
Make at least two passes across the car at the same level and stop.
Have somebody checking for any water ingress.
When you are happy you have no leak, then repeat the process one one time, then raise the level of the hose pipe and make two more passes.
Now pause and check again.
Repeat the process systematically until you have reached the roof level.
Remember to bring the hose around each side, onto the rear wings.
Why included the rear wings ?.
Because behind the the rear bumper cover ( on both sides ) there are vents flaps, that allow air to escape when the doors are closed etc.
These one way vents / flaps have a habit of not closing properly when they age.
Therefore water ingress is allowed into the boot.
This is a common problem on many cars.
A relative of ours complained that he could hear, what sounded like water swishing inside the car in his 5 year old Ford Focus.
When it went into the garage, the boot had over an inch of water !.
The vent flaps had deteriorated and was allowing water into the boot, the frame distorts and allows water to pass behind the plastic frames.
Here is a photo of the vents / flaps on the Focus.
If you do a quick google search, you will see plenty of owners with this problem.

 

[Ian Key]

Dry the boot out, then use a hose pipe and starting from the lowest point of the car !.
Use the hose and slowly working from one side, progress to the the other side of the car.
Make at least two passes across the car at the same level and stop.
Have somebody checking for any water ingress.
When you are happy you have no leak, then repeat the process one one time, then raise the level of the hose pipe and make two more passes.
Now pause and check again.
Repeat the process systematically until you have reached the roof level.
Remember to bring the hose around each side, onto the rear wings.
Why included the rear wings ?.
Because behind the the rear bumper cover ( on both sides ) there are vents flaps, that allow air to escape when the doors are closed etc.
These one way vents / flaps have a habit of not closing properly when they age.
Therefore water ingress is allowed into the boot.
This is a common problem on many cars.
A relative of ours complained that he could hear, what sounded like water swishing inside the car in his 5 year old Ford Focus.
When it went into the garage, the boot had over an inch of water !.
The vent flaps had deteriorated and was allowing water into the boot, the frame distorts and allows water to pass behind the plastic frames.
Here is a photo of the vents / flaps on the Focus.
If you do a quick google search, you will see plenty of owners with this problem.

View attachment 43856

View attachment 43857

I had the same problem with my focus. The water used to run down the gutter surrounding the tailgate, get deflected by the light housing, down the side and onto the top of the vent where it made its way through the top of the now defective seal around the vent.
The cure was to remove the rear bumper and the vents, remove the now sodden sound deadening and then use a good quality adhesive sealant (I used Sikaflex 221) to stick the vents back in place.

 

[ReintjeWA]

Looks like purposeful design to me, keeps your spare tyre nice and clean for when you need it

 

[Lovemyev]

The vents must be in a similar location on the MG because if you bring the O/S/R door to close ( with all other doors closed ) therefore quickly trapping the moving air into the cabin, you can hear the door flaps working.

 

[dave99]

managed to uncover the right side vent - the area underneath was full of water which I dried out and was filling up again after a nights rain so looks like this is where the water is entering the boot. Not managed to get the hose pipe out on it yet though to confirm. Looks like the little pool fills up then overflows over the lip and into the main boot compartment. There is a rubber blind grommet in the bottom of this pool, so I could just remove that but doesn't feel sufficient

The vent is in the same place on the left side but that was dry, they both wiggle around though so doesn't look like they should be sealed unless there is a loose fitting gasket on the outside that should be providing more resistance, I don't really want to look into removing the bumper. I'm thinking water shouldn't be running over the outside of that vent in the first place, could it be the lights? Looks like I've got a good place to start with the hose pipe now though

yet

 

[Lovemyev]

Conduct your water test at the lowest point of the car first, then slowly work up the car.
If it does leak from around the frames of the boot vent, but you don’t want to take on the job of removing the bumper cover, you could consider using some clear silicone mastic and then seal around the inside of the frame.
It would be a neater job doing it from the outside of course, but the bumper needs removal of course.
You could seal around the vent, leave a couple of days and then water test again.
I guess there should be a sealing gasket behind the vent frame.
On the Ford Focus the frame distorts over time and when this happens, it allows the water to get behind frame and soak the boot space.

 

[ReintjeWA]

If you can identify the vents are at fault, then I think you’d have a pretty strong case for the dealership to rectify this under warranty. I don’t know if there is a limited warranty on these things, but to me it sounds like these cars are too young for you to have to fix such a serious problem yourself.

 

[dave99]

If you can identify the vents are at fault, then I think you’d have a pretty strong case for the dealership to rectify this under warranty. I don’t know if there is a limited warranty on these things, but to me it sounds like these cars are too young for you to have to fix such a serious problem yourself.

yeah I'd have thought so too, would just like to identify the actual cause because basically I don't trust the dealers to find it or tell me the truth I'm past 3 years so rubber seals are now out of warranty

 

[old fisherman]

yeah I'd have thought so too, would just like to identify the actual cause because basically I don't trust the dealers to find it or tell me the truth I'm past 3 years so rubber seals are now out of warranty

Or you could use a small smoke bomb to spot the leak, quick and easy.

check out link here :- Smoke bomb

 

[dave99]

ok, so dug a bit deeper - removed the rear light cluster to see if there were any seals but seemingly not. It just sits in this space, any water that makes it to the bottom just runs behind the bumper and presumably over/around the flap vent. Pouring water onto that bottom ledge above the bumper immediately sends a trickle through the bottom of the flap vent cutout, and when the light was reinstalled pouring water over the top edge of the light cluster also gives the same trickle.

Looking back to the passenger/dry side, if I peek through the flaps on the flap vent I can see drops of water but nothing is coming through to the boot - so I think there probably is a gasket that is leaking on the flap vent.

 

[dave99]

sent my findings to the dealer, response was it would be unlikely to be covered under warranty as seals/gaskets are covered for 3 years only.

 

[gary333]

sent my findings to the dealer, response was it would be unlikely to be covered under warranty as seals/gaskets are covered for 3 years only.

Are they saying it's covered inside this category?
*RUBBER COMPONENTS 36 months 45,000 miles

The "comprehensive" 7 year warranty is such a joke.