Help! Water in my side door

[Cau03208]

Hi, I'm looking for some help.

I recently damaged the plastic insert that sits in the side door footwell. When I took this out to replace it, I noticed that the floor/ wall lining was wet and the plywood floor was soaking. To the extent that there is a pool of water in the footwell.

If I dry it the footwell, and leave the van overnight it's damp again in the morning, with another pool. Originally I thought it might just be condensation, but the carpet and floor are too wet.

I've checked all around the door seal and above the door, which all appear to be dry........so I've no idea where it's coming from.

Has anyone come across this before, and if so, how did you fix it?

I am concerned that the wood flooring is starting to separate, and I won't be able to replace it.

 

[Dellmassive]

Roof Bolts . . .

what have you got up top?

post some pics.

if you have anything up there, you may need to remove the bolt an bracket,

use silicone, new washers and refit bolt.

 

[Badjamin]

Some possible culprits that spring to mind for water ingress are generally ill fitting door seals. Carpet lined doors where the carpet lining tucks behind the door seal allowing moisture in via capillary action or yhe old favorite leaky roof bolts. Outside that maybe check your sliding door allignment and also if your sliding door slider cover is loose there is possibility for ingress through broken clips that hold cover in place...

Also check barn door seals as it may be tracking from a leak there... but it'd be odd if it was.

 

[Cau03208]

Thanks for the replies. I had a leak last year at the rear and this turned out to be the carpet tucked underneath the barn door seals. I cut this back and problem solved. At the same time I also took out all the bolts on the pop top, and renewed the silicon.

I recently had the side door rehung after the bottom runner gave up. I think the door seals looks ok but I’m no expert. The door looks flush when closed, and I can’t see anything obvious around the seals. They all appear dry etc. anything else I should look for?

 

[Badjamin]

Okay is your wheel arch liner (exterior plastic liner) still in place above your wheel? I don't know why you'd have a hole in your wheel arch but maybe there? Driving in rain the spray could get in perhaps??? If your rear seals and slider seals are definitely 100% in tact and healthy and roof bolts are recently sealed I dunno how else it'd get in.

Other possibilities, albeit unlikely - the skuttle pan below wiper arms under windscreen has a drain hole that can block and cause ingress but these would likely mean you'd see water in the front foot well and even if you didn't the water would likely go in the step recess of the front doors and not reach the rear slider well

There is an issue with windscreen seals failing meaning water could possibly track back along the upper horizontal inner roof cavity and find its way down... but this is generally more likely to happen in heavy rain whilst travelling but I have had it happen in mine a little when I haven't driven it in rain but it has rained heavily - I sorted my roof bolts out to fix this though

I'm really sorry but it looks like you need a new floor. Please get opinion from others in the forum and don't take my word for it (more photos maybe) but the way that plywood looks swollen more toward the wheel arch I'd imagine it is tracking from the rear somehow unless you park facing uphill. Your only real final option is to lift the floor - if/when you do this start by lifting the altro floor if you can as it may have capillaried along between the altro floor and your base floor plywood... if not there then (sadly) remove and closely examine the underside of the ply - if you treat the slider footwell as the finish point of the water you can perhaps get an idea of the origin of ingress based in the damp darker areas of the ply. Major ball lake

 

[Badjamin]

Also the seal around your slider has carpet tucked under the edge there - is this carpet wet. maybe pull the seal off the threshold a bit in places up the left side and above and check if the carpet lining is tucked round the rolled steel edge (bad) or does it stop before the edge (good), that'd be a possibility for water soaking in.

In addition, where do the two ends of your slider door seal and your rear door seal meet? it should be along the bottom of your threshhold.

Sorry for burying you with queries and apologies if you've already checked these

 

[manfrotto]

As Dellmassive says - check and reseal bolts in roof (the ones for attaching roof racks etc)

 

[Cau03208]

update…. I removed the door seal and lo and behold the carpet was fitted around the lip and under the seal. it was soaking from about 1/2 way up. I’ve trimmed it back and will order a new seal tomorrow.
Thanks for all the suggestions

 

[Badjamin]

If your floor is stuck down you might want to grab a dehumidifier off someone if you can and dry her out as much as poss as there is a risk of mould and or rust.

If you can get the floor up and replace it, it'd be best but that would suck, however, the seal may not need replacing bud - a good clean and some rubber treatment and she's good I reckon and you can put seal replacement cash towards a new floor hehe

Glad you found the leak though... good luck with it all and have a great summer in it!