Hi guys.
My partner has recently purchased a bmax, after heavy rain overnight we noticed this morning that there were damp patches in the boot, upon closer inspection the spare wheel well was flooded with water. When looking around the car i noticed that the carpet in both rear foot wells, and the drivers foot well are all absolutley soaked to the point you can press the fabric and water comes out like a sponge (passenger footwell is dry). There are no signs of water coming from higher up anywhere in the car, seats...around the doors...upper sections of carpet in the footwells and boot are all dry, it is literally just on the floor of the car.
I have had a little google search, i can find info on why one foot well or the boot may be flooding, but absolutley nothing on flooding in such a large area of the car.
Does anybody have any ideas as to why this could be happening?
I have the same problem (water in the boot, 40mm in wheel well ) and while I was having a service / MOT yesterday at the dealers I was trying pick there brains about this problem. the service manager said they never had any B-Max but they had Focus's with water in the boot and they said it was the rear vents under the bumper (see the photos in the above link for the B-Max vents).
I have taken the NSR Plastic panel off below the quarter light and sealed with silicone mastic each fixing point (a lot) .
I did not remove the rear door runner, I cleaned it well on top and at the back and then filled it with Silicone mastic, rear lights are another leaking place , seal them when you put it back.
I have reduced my water ingress but still more work to do, my next place to seal are the two Cable/ rear window washer pipe, rubber ducts that go from the boot lid and the roof gutter, you can see them when you open the boot lid.
Then if that does not stop the leaks I will look at the 2 rear air vents under the bumper.
My water is coming into the boot on the LHS, if you follow the details in the link above, then once you have removed the LHS interior panel I noticed some black sticky tape over a hole in the body panel, just about level with the boot floor, the stick tape was wet so I pulled it off and more water came out, I also pulled out of this small hole (5p size) so sound deadening material that was soaked .
Not sure were your water in the foot wells is coming from, you have more than one leak.
Hi Perky,
Follow Gremlins link to Berlin BMax’s post, I’ve been tracking down a similar leak.
I park my car with the RH side on the kerb, on a slight downhill gradient, the water will leak in via the LH rear vent (behind the bumper), Soaks through the bit of sound deadening material in the corner cavity, seeps through the bit of sticky tape (ala B-Max-Mike above) runs along the metalwork and puddles in the LH rear footwell. If I park the car facing the other way, it runs into the spare wheel well.
When I first started investigating, I had water down the entire LH side footwell, front to back.
I stripped out the front seats and removed the carpet to dry it out, it was so waterlogged it weighed a ton! My first thought was that it was condensate from the AC, but after I had baled And dried out the footwell it started raining so I packed up for the evening, next morning there was another 1.5L of water in the footwell (this disproved the AC condensate theory).
I proceeded to strip all the rear interior trim and back seats out of the car, I could then identify the point of ingress ( through the tape) and follow the Stream along the side of the rear wheel well then down the sloped floor where the rear seat mounts and into the footwell at the rear.
Today I succeeded in removing the rear bumper, I removed the vents and cleaned and dried everything before applying silicone sealer and refitting the vents, I’ve refitted the rear lights and am now typing this, fingers crossed that if it rains tonight, all will be well (not that type of well) tomorrow morning.
A bit of a ramble I know but if it helps others........
Apart from checking the seals you have checked, the seals and tightness of the rear lamps is also worth a look for anyone with a wet boot. I recently replaced a brake light and had to make very sure the cluster was very tight.
If you look at the two photo's in the above post, look at the bottom RHS corner you will see a piece of sticky tape over a square hole, put there during manufacture .
That is my source of the leak !, On the LHS vent the tape was coming off and the RHS vent the tape had gone and a open square hole was there, both letting water into the boot.
I cleaned well around the vents and put plenty of silicone mastic around them and sealed the two holes up.
To make it easier to remove the fasteners in the wheel arches I removed the wheels.
I gave myself a day to do it.
Good design Ford, you leave holes for the water to get in .
Hi B Max Mike, sorry for the slow reply, been so busy lately. Further to what's been posted, See attached. 1st 2 pics show the retainer that holds the sides in.
The other pics show general stuff and how the smallest drops of water would be channelled straight down the side of the vent and straight into the car interior.
These were taken the morning after the reseal operation, hence the rear lights are in place.
Still in the process of refitting the interior, the carpet has been dry as a bone since.
Regards to all you happy B Max owners
(and the not so happy ones).
Ian
NOTE:
Not sure why the pics are on their sides, not done this sort of thing before!!!!
It seems we have the same problem! See my post on a similar issue...
What fooled us is that the wtaer was first discovered in the drivers footwell! ( Our driveway is on a slope)
I have just sat in a stripped out car in a rain storm and found the water is coming from the back of the boot all the way forward....even wicking up the soundproofing on the firewall.
I have yet to identify the source, but it's entering the boot from the lower of two small holes that go through to the area the vents operate in...even though our engineer taped those holes over last night!
Can anyone tell me how to remove the painted panel that sits behind the rearmost side window? It seems two mounting holes there may have deteriorated washers which are letting the water into the rear inner arch and from there it gets past a sticky black bit of tape and gets EVERYWHERE!
Our engineer can't work out how to get the panel off for fear of it breaking.......
This image apparently shows what is under this panel:
Yes I've read all the threads right through...I think.
Bit of an update...We've got those painted sidepanels off and the grey plastic criss-cross boards they mount on with. VRemoved the rear doo rails and masticed behind them and on top of them after refitting.
Holes into the boot masticed over and both vents mnasticed up too. Any holes that don't serve a purpose masticed.
The car still fills with water!
It hits the masticed over holes on each side so hard it pushes its way through eventually...the water making its way forward past the rear seat mountings and into the rear footwell. Parked on a slope facing downwards the water travels under two crossmembers and gets right forward to the firewall soundproofing that wicks it up.
It literally gets from one ened of thew car to theother under the carpets!
I've semi cured the problem by drilling several holes through the sloping metal INSIDE the holes that leak into the boot area and then chiseling them into one big hole to let the water drain out. I then used aquarium grade silicon sealant to close over the hole sinto the boot..the ones that Ford put a bit of black tape over.
I've removed all soundproofing wading and foam pads.
I even siliconed all around the edges of the painted rear panel next to the rear quarterlight...but STILL water is getting in and dripping through my newly created holes...just not into the boot anymore!
I siliconed around all the grey plastic in the boot aperture too, but I don't think this or the light cluster is the cause........the holes I created are through a panel of metal that goes way up above those....Lord knows how the water gets into there.
At least the boot is now dry and the car windows don't mist up anymore, but what I've done is just a bodge...the water is still getting in where it shouldn't....and didn't for five years........but now it's a quart everytime it rains, but at least it's not in the car.
Three months in and out of the garage....and it still isn't fixed. Why aren't Ford on this????
After all my work on mine I still have water coming in , When I get chance my next area to seal is around the two cable/pipe flexible ducts you can see when you have the boot open and look up to the gutter area in the centre.
Fairly easy to checxk those Mike...pull the boot aperture trim away and slide your hand under the roof lining....mine was dry.
But...I do have water getting into the boot lid itself....so maybe.......
It drips out the join between lower and upper boot lid trim at the extreme left and right edges....drips into the boot sometimes as you open the lid. if there's a breeze.
Yes, but to be fair to Ford I don't think anyone has had this issue from new. 'Something' gives after a few years. There again the water gets in to the boot passing a bit of sticky black tape, suggesting someone had an idea this would happen one day.......
Hi Nobby, I think you’re right about Ford pre-empting water getting in.
I suspect that the bit of material in the corner cavity / void behind the Rear vents is there to absorb any water that finds it’s way in.
The material is no good as sound deadening (too light and flimsy) and is more like absorbent wadding.
Then because of the natural (and designed) air flow through the rear vents , that bit of material will dry out ready for the next downpour. The black sticky tape was probably applied as a second barrier to water entering the car.
I was considering drilling a drain hole in each corner cavity when I had the vents out for sealing but seeing all the road dirt that gets washed up behind the bumper, I thought I’d give it a miss (unless I get more problems in the future).
All the best to all you (Happy / Not so happy (Dry / Wet)) B max owners.
So far...and we've had a few downpours..the car has stayed dry. The drain holes are working as puddles appear on the drive as she sets off....but how the water is enering the other side of those taped-over little holes is beyond me!
Drain holes have worked, along with replacing the little sticky tape squares with UV resistant silicon sealant ( Dow Corning 799 ) And I've got rolled up towels next to the silicon should it fail to seal...at least the wate risn't going anywhere then.
The thing is...water still gets to the 'outside' of that silicon, but I have actually sealed around every seam, bulb holder and window in the vicinity. How does it still get there?
I know it's a bodge but my wife was getting pretty upset by this...we've spent over £500 with an engineer trying to sort this leak out! So I went mad with the sealant.
Fingers croswsed it hold. Should you get desparate too...make sure the sealant has at least three feet of clear air around it whilst it cures...ar it won't! I had to re-do the nearside as the black trim was too near and it failed to cure before the next rainfall.
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