Water leak....

[Towpack]

I've traced (almost) a slight leak into the driver's footwell that's enough to soak the carpet after several days rain. If I shower the bottom of the screen/body area where the wiper arms and vents are, water appears inside. You can just see the water to the right of the accelerator pedal below the foam wrapped connector. The screen seal looks perfect so I intend to remove the cowl covering the wiper mechanism below the screen for more clues. Any ideas welcomed?

 

[StarCruiser]

Unless you have a hole below the scuttle panel TP I don't suppose you'll find anything under that panel. Check right in the corners of the rubber. Mine leaked at the junction of the rubber and the screen. The rubber is higher on the outside because of the angle of the screen so water gets past.

The only solution I found was to remove the screen myself, clean up the rubber and apply butyl screen sealer both in the channel that the glass goes in and around the body where the rubber sits. It's not too bad a job as the rubber just peels back while you gently ease the screen out then put back using a rope. There's a thread somewhere about this.

 

[Towpack]

The screen rubber is very well sealed, no hint of a gap anywhere between glass or bodywork. Tried shuving a thin feeler gauge between the rubber and glass but nothing doing, in fact it looks like it's stuck down? When water is poured on it appears inside almost immediately so I don't think it's the screen seal. No idea what's actually under the cowl panel other than the fresh air intakes and the wiper mechs. Maybe a seal between the air intake and the bodywork maybe? We shall see.

 

[Mojo]

After heavy rain, I used to get the same damp patch on the same bit of carpet. Shoving some absorbent paper around I traced the leak to the lower corner of the windscreen/rubber, even though it 'looked' as though it was perfectly sealed. I haven't removed the screen yet..its on my to do list, but I did spray liberal amounts of silicone spray along the inside seal. After 70mm of rain last week, it remains bone dry.

 

[StarCruiser]

There's nothing but the vents under the scuttle panel. It comes out very easily after removing the wiper arms which come off easily if you lean on the root part of them at the hinge with the screw loosened. Sounds to me like you have a hole somewhere. The wiper mech is further in it's just the bearing turrets that can be seen. If it's a Toyota original factory screen it may well be fitted with sealant. Mine was, until it got changed by Autoglass but that's another story.

 

[frank rabbets]

Under the scuttle there is a fairly flat metal bulkhead with just the air intake holes in. There are drain holes each side by the wings. It would take a lot to block the drain holes. I think the later 80's had bonded in screens. The glass would have "Toyota" on it if original.. Very difficult to find a water leak.

 

[Towpack]

Had a closer today and removing the scuttle panel means removing the bonnet first and I was on my own today so that plan got scrapped for now. The screen rubber is definitely bonded to the bodywork on the screen pillar side. Being a bit more forceful with the feeler gauge I managed to get it between the rubber and glass round the bottom corner of the screen. There was definitely water in there so wiped it clean and dry with some rag and squeezed in some sealer. Nice neat job and you can't tell I've been there but I still don't buy 100% that it's a screen leak. If water does get between the glass and rubber how does it get into the footwell without showing on the inside of the screen? Had to wait for some heavy rain to stop first thing yet there was no water ingress so I still don't now if it's fixed. Sealer should have gone off by tomorrow morning so it'll be the hosepipe test.

 

[IRLGW]

I had a similar problem on Renault megane. The drain holes below the pollen filters under the scuttle panel were blocked with gunk. The water built up until the wiper motor was submerged and was running the battery flat. Took months to find out the problem and only came to light when removing the scuttle panel cover to change a shock. bloody OBD didnt show a code for it.

 

[StarCruiser]

There's absolutely no need to take the bonnet off TP. A stubby Phillips screwdriver gets the screws out easily, then lift it off. The seal below it at the back edge of the bonnet stays put. It only weighs a pound or two.

 

[Towpack]

Can't get a driver to the screw heads with the bonnet down as the gaps too small and with the bonett up there's not enough room. Think I need smaller hands. Just looked in the FSM and it does say remove bonett first. I'd hate to chip or damage the paintwork.

 

[frank rabbets]

Easy with a stubby screwdriver.

 

[chapel gate]

My money's on the windscreen leaking, i had similar.

if you have a airbag the screen will be bonded and sealed.

 

[StarCruiser]

Easy with a stubby screwdriver.

 

[Towpack]

OK, so I had another go and got the scuttle off, used a small ratchet with crosshead bit
As mentioned above, not an awful lot under there. The drains were well blocked with debris but other than that nothing obvious, no corrosion, holes missing grommets etc. The screen is well stuck to the body, just can't see anywhere water could get in. Even with blocked drains why/how should water get inside? Cleaned everything up and tried the hose with everything back together and couldn't see any water inside. It'll be stood all week as usual and we have some heavy rain forecast so I'm leaving the carpet up for now!

 

[frank rabbets]

If there is no visible water on the inside rubber and it is the screen leaking it must be leaking between the body and rubber. The corner of the rubber looks like it might have been resting in a puddle of water and therefore there could be a capillary path leading to a crack in the body/glass seal. The puddle of water could be due to a bloke drain. I don't think I cleaned my drains when my valence was off but on other motors I've used A bottle brush and plenty of soapy water to get the slime off and capillary path broken down.

My 80 has a single drivers airbag but never has had a boded screen

 

[Towpack]

After a day of some torrential showers I still have a leak. No water visible on the inside of the glass.
Tried another good dowsing with the hose and this time water got in. If I play the hose on just the bodywork where the bonett/scuttle/wing meet, avoiding the screen it still gets in which throws even more doubt on a screen leak. It's very difficult to see up under the dash as far as the bulkhead top, not helped by the close fitting, rubber backed sound deadening everywhere. Tried looking through the gap between the wing and bulkhead in the door jamb and also took out the side light for a look up through the inner wing for any signs of corrosion but not a trace. I reckon it's got to be in this top corner of the bulkhead some where. I've also noticed the weather seal along the edge of the scuttle which is supposed to seal against the bonett doesn't do a very good job of keeping water out of the engine compartment when faced with the deluge from a hose pipe etc. Might try taking some of the lower dash off at the weekend so I can get a bit closer to the bulkhead top.

 

[StarCruiser]

Smoke machine inside the vehicle? Fan on and block the rear vents.

 

[frank rabbets]

Very annoying TP. Also water gets into the engine compartment over the edges of the wings. It drains off the sides of the bonnet and runs straight in to the engine bay. On some cars I've worked on there has been a 1/2 inch upstand all the way round the engine bay to stop this and a drain hose at the front sometimes.

 

[frank rabbets]

Just a thought TP. With the scuttle off can you produce the leak by pouring water just on top of that horizontal bulkhead without wetting the wing ? If so you have a pathway to the leak and I would have thought as a last resort you could pour some well shaken up dilute PVA in there. It should stay in the crack and dry from the outside, shrinking back in to the crack and drying. Once dry it's not water soluble. Perhaps a couple of goes might do it.

 

[Towpack]

Smoke machine inside the vehicle? Fan on and block the rear vents.

That's a good call SC. I was thinking about that after seeing it recently in a Wheeler Dealers episode tracing a leak in an Aston DB7 I think it was, plus, I've found out today that my Brother's got one! A smoke machine that is, not an Aston, so I'm going to give it a try at the weekend.

Just a thought TP. With the scuttle off can you produce the leak by pouring water just on top of that horizontal bulkhead without wetting the wing ? If so you have a pathway to the leak and I would have thought as a last resort you could pour some well shaken up dilute PVA in there. It should stay in the crack and dry from the outside, shrinking back in to the crack and drying. Once dry it's not water soluble. Perhaps a couple of goes might do it.

I didn't try the water test with the scuttle off Frank but I'll be taking it off again at the weekend along with the smoke test. I have a bottle of Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure from my boating days which looks like a PVA solution and is used for sealing hairline cracks in GRP boat hulls soI may try that if I can't find an obvious leak.
I spoke to an Autoglass fitter today who was changing a screen on a Honda CRV where I was working and he said if you can see rubber on both the outside and inside of the glass and the glass itself doesn't have a dark shaded border round the perimeter then it's not a bonded screen?