my feet are dry! found the leak

[coaxial]

I went for a long drive in the monsoon today and my footwells are bone dry! hooray, and I didn't even have to try fixing that panel seam business.

A while back I tried cleaning up the door seals which didn't help, and finally got around on the weekend to re-sealing the ends of the rain gutters in the front. As Christine pointed out at the last meet there are supposed to be plastic caps on the ends of the rain gutters, which I did not have. A look at the welds/seals up there revealed a bit of cracking so I cleaned the area up nice with alcohol and applied a decent amount of "goop" automotive sealant, some very serious looking epoxy type stuff. All in this only took about 10 minutes and seems to have done the trick

Take a climb up on your van, up the brush bars or better yet just stand next to the front seats and check the condition of the front end of your gutters. Mine were missing the caps and just had old bits of glue up there and also when I looked really closely inside the gutters I found the cracks, cleaned and covered that all up with sealant. Dry carpets

[northvanmatt]

nice work I think that is my prob as well thanks to your pic I 'm going to look right now
cheers
matthew

[coaxial]

I can take a proper closeup pic that shows the cracking and whatnot (the sealant I used is transparent) if anyone needs clarification or anything, that one is just a crop of another picture I had so is crap quality

[TardisDeli]

Hi Coax, I'm glad the hint worked, someone else at the Delica Stave Lake meet told me about it, so thanks to them. (Have just sent u a PM) Christine of the TardisDeli.

[Youbou]

[torchard]

Don't want to complicate this simple fix, but did you just put a thin coating down over the cracks or glob some near the open ends of the gutters? What's the thinking here; that the water seeped through the cracked gutters and entered the van via the door seal?

--todd

[coaxial]

Somewhere in between I think. I squirted a decent size glob of sealant up there, about the size of a grape, and spread it out to cover the end of the gutter where there should be a plastic cap glued on, and also spread it out over the cracks.

I have no idea by my guess is it game in through the crack in the weld/seal there and ran down the inside of the body panel/corner beam and stopped when it got to the floor.

For the record I only had a leak on the left passenger foot area but sealed both sides just to be sure. The difference was instant so it definitely was the gutter end/crack and not a windshield or body panel seam in my case. Like I said it took a total of maybe 10 minutes to fix

[coaxial]

Now if I could figure out what to do with the pop out windows and their leaking seals....

The sliding windows are maybe a bit better but not perfect.. if I go through a carwash I get a nice squirt of water through the middle of each set of sliding windows. Never more than a few drops though when I'm just driving in the rain so I don't worry about it.

[Youbou]

[MJB]

Youbou for your side windows, you said you've already tighten up the hinges do the gaskets look pretty flat? I know sometimes they just get tired. in the past for rubber door seals, window seals and sunroof rubbers we've used AC Delco Silicone Emulsion (P/N: 10953014). Its like vaseline only better. you can apply it a couple times and watch it soak it to the rubber, and this gives it some life back. I use it in the shop often on sunroofs that leak, the only place I know in town who sells it is Baljets and its about 5 bucks comes with a little brush. It might help

[Youbou]

[Delicaman]

I have done leak repair on about 4 vehicles so far. In most cases its the seal above the driver side headlight under the corner fairing. This is a well know leak location. See the link here and look for "Foot Well Leaks" on the front page.... http://www.comoxvalleydelica.com/cgi-bin/show_home.cgi
In other cases, Windshield wiper arm or window washer rubber stubbs could be a source for leaks as well. Check your wiper arms by pulling them back from the windshield See if they are loose at the body. Also give the rubber windshield washer stubbs a wiggle as well. Both should be tight.

http://www.comoxvalleydelica.com/cgi-bin/show_home.cgi

Cheers

[emmalee]

yay! I'm welcoming myself to the "wet foot club".
*le sigh*
I think i'll have a look at this fix first as it seems much easier than the removal of the quarter panels...
Hopefully I just need some goop, and not an impact driver!

[shealy]

I can also come from a poor window seal so check that too

[emmalee]

Thanks Shealy! Will do... Right now actually while it's not pouring out.