A very strange place for a leak part one

[dave3lions]

Hi all,

So I don't spend a lot of time in the back of my Kombi, but today I was messing around in the rear doing a couple of jobs and the heaven's opened. Having seen a couple of dubious pools of water in the past I decided to watch and wait to see if, or where the water was getting in. Now, to no surprise to anyone with sliding windows the water was rushing in on both sides. That explains why I have a patch of rust forming in the same place on both cills. I'll be following this thread to resolve next weekend (thank you @DaveyB) before the van goes in for rust repair and paint work in a fortnight.

However, to my complete bemusement I saw a couple of water drops landing at the bottom of the rear tailgate here...



I watched intently and I traced the source back to here... (the arrow points to a single water droplet that is being fed from somewhere behind and through the lining). I ran my hand all around the lining and it was dry except for the drip, drip, dripping in this location. I can't really feel anything behind it, but there must be a tiny hole in this location??



I'm going to be ripping out all of the lining soon as one of the previous owners did an ok, but not stellar job. I'll be replacing with fresh before it goes off to the Ply Guys for a full kit out. Obviously I need to resolve wherever the leak is coming from as I don't want to ruin the new interior when it goes in.

Has anyone got any ideas where this could be coming from? My Kombi is a 2017 T6 with roof rails and is a twin slider if that helps.

Thanks,
David

 

[JumpShip]

I had a leak in a similar position, turned out to be the rear door seal not quite pushed all the way home on the top corner .

 

[Badjamin]

As Jumpship says. Inadequate door seals are your first check. Pull it off and check the previous carpeter hasn't folded the carpet around the pressed edge. Outside that you should check your roof bolts are sealed and tight as they are a classic ingress point as the factory bolts seals can perish.

 

[drinfinity]

There is a hole in that location, so any roof bolt leaks or leaky grommets might come out there. You can see the holes here:

CandyVan conversion journey

First steps on the journey to our new camper. Base van is a new 4Motion LWB, delivered yesterday. Ceiling panels out, and first fix of the wiring along the roof lines, in preparation for the pop-top to be fitted next week.

www.t6forum.com

 

[Kind of Blue]

Hi all,

So I don't spend a lot of time in the back of my Kombi, but today I was messing around in the rear doing a couple of jobs and the heaven's opened. Having seen a couple of dubious pools of water in the past I decided to watch and wait to see if, or where the water was getting in. Now, to no surprise to anyone with sliding windows the water was rushing in on both sides. That explains why I have a patch of rust forming in the same place on both cills. I'll be following this thread to resolve next weekend (thank you @DaveyB) before the van goes in for rust repair and paint work in a fortnight.

However, to my complete bemusement I saw a couple of water drops landing at the bottom of the rear tailgate here...

View attachment 279734

I watched intently and I traced the source back to here... (the arrow points to a single water droplet that is being fed from somewhere behind and through the lining). I ran my hand all around the lining and it was dry except for the drip, drip, dripping in this location. I can't really feel anything behind it, but there must be a tiny hole in this location??

View attachment 279735

I'm going to be ripping out all of the lining soon as one of the previous owners did an ok, but not stellar job. I'll be replacing with fresh before it goes off to the Ply Guys for a full kit out. Obviously I need to resolve wherever the leak is coming from as I don't want to ruin the new interior when it goes in.

Has anyone got any ideas where this could be coming from? My Kombi is a 2017 T6 with roof rails and is a twin slider if that helps.

Thanks,
David

Have a very good look around the door seal near to the red arrow. it may have come away. Might be best to buy a new seal and refit.

 

[gazd]

I would check the rubber seals on the roof bar bolts

 

[dave3lions]

I've felt all around the tailgate seal and it's bone dry so I'll tentatively rule that out for now.

I've checked the roof rail bolts and I'm not sure of they're correct. Having prized the little plastic cap off, the pic shows the right rear fixing. Does that look right to you guys? I'm struggling to find replacement fixings or the rubber gaskets so I've ordered some blanking off bolts with gaskets for now and I'll run without rails until I can source some. Ideally I just need to know what I'm looking for so any pics are appreciated.



Thank you for the help so far.

 

[Badjamin]

This looks like an unsealed point of entry yes



Unbolting roof rails and siliconing the bolt holes and re attaching roof rails could work.

The holes are a threaded metal lug at the opening rather than the hole being just a threaded hole so you bolt into a lug but it isnt sealed round the edge. The standard caps have a rubber seal on so there's no issue but depending on the rail feet you have it is likely not water tight as below the footing for my rails was grossly inadequate.




So squeezing some silicone in and letting it go off just proud should solve yhe ingress or potential for it

 

[dave3lions]

Thanks @Badjamin I'm fairly sure this is the root cause. I'm going to take it all off, inspect, clean and reseat. I'll add a bead of sealant as you say just to be sure.

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