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e39 water ingress...

homer90 · 2014-05-08 22:08:25

Following on from this Have the classic e39 water in footwell prob.( Passenger side ) Thought I had the problem solved after resealing the vapour seals and drying the car out. I had also put some tape along the bottom of the windows as some heavy rain of late . just to be sure But much to my surprise im back to square…

08-05-2014 11:08pm

#1

homer90

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Posts: 1966

Following on from this

Have the classic e39 water in footwell prob.( Passenger side )
Thought I had the problem solved after resealing the vapour seals and drying the car out. I had also put some tape along the bottom of the windows as some heavy rain of late . just to be sure

But much to my surprise im back to square one..

I know another known issue is the AC drains.. But AC not being used and the drains were checked and seemed ok along with engine bay drains, It has no sunroof.

So suggestions on what to check next ?

Door seals
Windscreen seals ?

Fark it...............

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Comments

#2 09-05-2014 2:28pm

rebel.ranter

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Hi,
what tape did you use to seal the vapour barriers? Unless it was something like the Wurth butyl chord then it won't last very long. Here's my write up on the same repair using butyl chord. If you want to buy a length enought to do your door I'd be open to a deal!

http://www.bmwhaus.ie/forum/showthread.php?tid=2774

If you have an e39 or an e46 or indeed many other cars (ford Mondeo also suffers with this issue) you may have come across the issue of damp carpets in the rear footwells in particular.
After a really bad rain fall they may become sopping wet. People's first instinct is to blame the door seal, which in most cases is incorrect.

The real culprit is the vapour barrier breaking away from the door. The vapour barrier is a spongy type of material that is in behind the inner door panel. It can also be an opaque plastic on some cars. The vapour barrier is meant to keep water that runs down the window in to the door inside the door & not run in to the car. the vapour barrier is stuck to the internal door using Butyl chord or tape. This is the black sticky stuff that is almost like a tar-like putty.
Over time the Butyl chord get tired & loses it's stickiness & the vapour barrier breaks away from the door. This then allow the water to drip down the inside of the vapour barrier & then in to the car.

Here is an example of some Butyl tape, I picked it up from Wurth, the have stores in Cork, 3 depots in Dublin & also Limerick:

Here is the damage that can be caused to the inside of the door panel if the vapour barrier isn't doing its job.

Check out the dirt in the lower corners. It also gets damp. This should also give a clue as to how water is getting in to the car.

Here's the tape in place with the plastic divider in place over the black tape. Note the grey material was from a previous attempted repair. I got nearly all the material off but I focused on where the tape was to meet the door.

Tape in place with covering off, note I doubled up in the corners where the leak was most prevalent:

Vapour barrier stuck in place:

I also ran a nice round headed screw driver along the edges to ensure it was firmly pressed down:

The obligatory "all finished" shot:

Supplier details: http://www.wuerth.ie/

One problems is the tape is quite costly, €50+ for the roll & you only need about a 10th of it for a door.

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#3 13-05-2014 4:34am

homer90

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rebel.ranter wrote: »

Hi,
what tape did you use to seal the vapour barriers? Unless it was something like the Wurth butyl chord then it won't last very long. Here's my write up on the same repair using butyl chord. If you want to buy a length enought to do your door I'd be open to a deal!

There was a good amount of butyl on the door where it had come free ( rear door) Re stuck it with a heat gun, seemed to make a good seal again.

I guess the point is, With the lower windows taped up, how would the water get through ? Leads me to think it may be coming through somewhere other that the vapour seals......

The door cards are bone dry no sign of water damage along the bottom of them..

Have again removed passenger, rear seat & door cards, hosed down the car. No water is breaching the vapour seal......

#Stumped

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#4 16-05-2014 6:14am

homer90

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homer90 wrote: »

................ Leads me to think it may be coming through somewhere other that the vapour seals......

Might as well update this, may be helpful to others experiencing the same prob, with the cause being something other than the vapour seal.

SO, After pulling the interior apart I have isolated the leak after some more downpours
Water is not being channelled away correctly from the windshield. Obviously something is blocked somewhere, water builds up and breaches the firewall and into the cabin. So need to figure out the plumbing so to speak.. to see what's going on......

Will update ......

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