Water in boot compartment.

[HWMAX]

Recently aquired14 plate DS3 1.6. Yesterday we searched for damp in the car and found water in the boot area on the passenger side. Took out all the boot carpets etc and dried it up. It was raining yesterday so with the boot stripped bare we took it for a drive. On our return there was water in the boot but only on the surface immediately behind the rear seat on the passenger side (UK car). No water in the spare wheel well or on the tailgate area. Removed the 4 bolts for the rear seat base and pulled out the rear set base (two minutes job) and hey presto! There was a number of unused holes under the seat (about 5) and two of them had rubber inserts. Around the insert on the passenger side (the oblong one) there was water. This water was found to be running into the rear passenger side footwell as well as running back into the boot. Later today I will use silicone to seal this rather weak rubber plug and see if that does the trick. Pretty confident this is the solution.

We only found the problem because the missus (who is the main user) complained it didn't smell right. She compared it to her Fiat 500 so I took it as being a possible serious problem. That car had a soaked floor due to a detached air con drain, pushed tube back on a it was fixed. However the carpet liner had to be removed, the floor pan dried and treated with marine anti rust paint, the floor liner/insulation replaced and a lot of carpet cleaning. It had been that way for ages but we only found the extent of the problem when we decided to have a real serious look around the whole car. Took us the best part of a day to find the problem, thirty seconds to reattach the pipe and a week to repair the damage. This time I thought "Nip it in the bud mate. NOW!"

It is worth mentioning that as soon as we got the car we had to replace the passenger side rear light cluster to get the reversing light to work as there was water in it that had corroded internal components. This was down to water ingress through the foam seal on the light unit which is rather a pathetic item. This seal also stops water entering the boot area so is also worth investigating if you have a damp boot area. As the new unit cost £250 I now keep an eye on both rear clusters for water ingress. The seals on both sides have had grease applied to add an extra level of protection.

[HWMAX]

Update.

Very surprised to find water still entering boot area. Now the suspicion has moved to the spot welded seam between the spare wheel well and the rear seats. This seam is feeling damp. Solution will be to put rear wheels on ramps, power wash seam from outside, dry seam with heat gun (on low setting) from inside. cover outside of seam with underseal (the horrible bitumen stuff) and paint/cover inside of seam with silicone or similar.

Will update when done and tested at the weekend.

[HWMAX]

Waterproofed seam as described. Also applied silicone sealant to the internal seams for the spare wheel recess. No change. Water still getting in as before.

Luckily it was absolutely pouring with rain at the weekend so two of us sat in the car with the boot area cleared of all carpet and the interior trim pulled back on the affected side. Between deluges the missus heard a dripping noise and homed in on drips caused by water running down the wiring from the tailgate wiring harness. Closer inspection the following day (rain had stopped) revealed that when a previous owner had fitted a very good front/rear dashcam that also is a reversing camera, he routed the wiring incorrectly at the seal where the wiring leaves the tailgate and enters the umbilical shroud on its way to the car body.

The wires were passing outside the internal part of the seal which was not located properly. As a result where the umbilical should fit inside the insert the two parts could not locate properly and there was no seal. At the other end of the umbilical the two parts were not located properly though the wiring was routed correctly through the inside of the insert. The fact the umbilical was not fully located on the insert at this end again compromised the seal. This second position was most likely where the water was entering before running down the wiring harness.

We have rerouted the wiring correctly and made sure the umbilical is located properly at both ends. It rained a bit last night and the boot was still dry this morning so we are hopeful this is now sorted.

One thing regarding the locating of the umbilical shroud ends to the plastic inserts in the tailgate and car body apertures. When trying to get a proper seal on the tailgate end the plastic insert popped free and ended up completely inside the tailgate aperture. It was easy to pull it back out with a set of 45 degree angled needle nose pliers. This also happened at the car body end and the insert was pulled back out in the same way. Deciding my technique was at fault I got a telescopic mirror with a rounded end on the handle. The idea was to exert force on the seal without a sharp end penetrating the rubber as might happen with a screwdriver. Using this I was able to push the rubber part of the umbilical through the insert to locate properly without disturbing the insert. The resulting seal seems OK, though we might supplement it with some silicone.

[henrythom]

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[HWMAX]

Pleased to report success.

After securing both the umbilical shroud ends properly there have been no more leaks.

It has been about two weeks during which time the car has been used and parked up during heavy rain. Not a leak. In order to avoid having to be precious about the ends coming away from the inserts a SMALL bead of silicone sealant has been put around the joining surfaces but not on the actual internals of the join. From other owners we hear frayed wires at this point and other issues mean it is not a good idea to make too permeant a seal at these points. As it is, a quick application of a craft knife will see these ends fully free from the silicone if required.