Puddle Of Water Inside The Clio

[Phase1Dom]

Huge bump here (sorry) under my seat and infront of the seat at soaking wet ;( I checked the scuttle there didn't seem to be to much water but I was parked facing up hill , there was some mold and leaves , so proded with a screw driver to find the drain hole and managed to pull a rubber bung out ( is this the drain bung)? Sprayed the hose through the hole and water gushes out the bottom so hopefully it's fixed

thanks dom

 

[CrippsCorner]

I get water in the same place but in the engine bay everything is bone dry

 

[182Trophy]

I have a damp carpet behind the drivers seat too. Also in the boot carpet. I will have to try the methods provided.

 

[Midnight]

Slight update.

Drainage holes was blocked so sorted that and now I have a slight leak from the scuttle panel so for £100 I'm just going to replace it and the fixings hopefully it'll stop the waterfall inside.

I do have a slight leak in the spare wheel holder now, god damn french crap!

 

[182Trophy]

Any idea what to do for this as my boot is starting to take the piss?

 

[Midnight]

Boot seal maybe?

 

[182Trophy]

I will have a check when it stops raining.lol. Nice one mate

 

[Johnc172]

Another note just in case, my passenger side rear window seal went, water was coming in from there collecting in a puddle and sloshing about. Then when breaking/accelerating it would all come rushing the passenger front footwell

 

[CrippsCorner]

Slight update.

Drainage holes was blocked so sorted that and now I have a slight leak from the scuttle panel so for £100 I'm just going to replace it and the fixings hopefully it'll stop the waterfall inside.

I do have a slight leak in the spare wheel holder now, god damn french crap!

Can you explain any further where the scuttle panel leak occurs?

 

[Midnight]

Mine isn't 'sealed' to the window correctly. I guess some sealant would make it watertight/flush but like I say I'm going to order a new one with fixings.

 

[obcuz]

When the clips break on the plastic scuttle cover, the seal will not fit tight to the screen, but in fact it will not stop water going into the scuttle well, as rain and washing water goes in there anyway.

A simple test to see if your drains are blocked, get a watering can and pour some water into it, it should run out of the drain(s) immediately, if it doesn't, it's blocked.....

Perhaps it will stop raining some day.

 

[Phase1Dom]

Stripped all the carpet out today , all scuttles are clear and the unlay under the carpet was soaked it only seems to leak when facing downhill so im waiting tonight to see if theres a puddle in the morning!

 

[MJRacing]

Stripped all the carpet out today , all scuttles are clear and the unlay under the carpet was soaked it only seems to leak when facing downhill so im waiting tonight to see if theres a puddle in the morning!

I fear this is my next option, how easy is it to remove the carpet? Remove seats and.....?
So far I have cheked and cleaned scuttle and sill drains and checked window and door seal but still getting a lot of water in the front and rear drivers side footwells. (172 so no sun roof)

 

[Phase1Dom]

not that bad tbh, 4 nuts under the car to remove seats remove air bag wires also, remove lower center console the carpet is joined under there so have to remove heater vents to rear of car ( only 2 screws each side) and just pull the carpet up not to difficult tbh,

 

[MJRacing]

not that bad tbh, 4 nuts under the car to remove seats remove air bag wires also, remove lower center console the carpet is joined under there so have to remove heater vents to rear of car ( only 2 screws each side) and just pull the carpet up not to difficult tbh,

Cheers for that, guess what I am doing wednsday.

 

[NuttyJosh]

After reading this I now know how to solve the puddles I keep getting so thanks guys be puzzling me for ages

 

[Robert_rowlo]

This, i had the same, unblocked drains under the scuttle panel, never had a problem since :smile:

Hi this is my first post I'm new to the forum. I have just found the same problem, never noticed any water in my car and now there is literally a puddle under the seat and behind the seat. I have located the centre scuttle pipe and there was a lot of grime around it, and was pretty moist too. Will cleaning this from solve the problem? Thank you

 

[172mk1 lover]

Often a quick fix without removing the scuttle.......

The central scuttle drain comes out at the bottom of the bulkhead, a common problem - at the end of the drain pipe is small rubbery flappy bit, not sure why it's there, but it is usually gets blocked with debris over time.

You can find this outlet by getting your arm down between back of the engine and bulkhead, running your hand down approximately in the centre of the bulkhead just before where the heat shield starts, there is a little hole in the sound deadening, you have to feel for it, just poke you finger in there and give the rubbery flappy bit a good seeing too, this is where the outlet ends, if this is your problem you should see the water coming out.

Is this near the exhaust?

 

[Robert_rowlo]

Yeah thanks for that, it turns out the scuttle was the problem, gave it a good fingering and like magic water came out everywhere ✌️ ha thanks for the reply tho.

 

[Chuck21]

Hi all, first post as a recent Black Gold 182 FF owner, what a great forum!

I too recently had the inch of standing water in all of my foot-wells, noticed initially due to steamed up windows and a 'wet dog' smell. Haven't highlighted the source yet but will be fingering my scuttle drain forthwith . Sounds like other areas to investigate are door seals (no sunroof) and wheel-arch liners - can anybody advise how to remove them, is it a wheels off job or just a spanner and some awkward angles?

Thought I'd share what I've done so far to remedy the issue in case it's of use to other members as technically deficient as me. First thing is of course mats out, cleaned and dried, easy. I then started on the rear foot wells; first step is take the rear seat pads off, they literally swing up and forward and a bit of wiggling sets them free; you can then gradually ease the carpet up. Important to note is that the carpet has a waterproof base so just because the carpet feels dry it doesn't mean your out of jail as it's perfectly likely that the sound proofing foam underneath is soaked. I then removed all sound proofing which to be frank was not only soaked but disintegrating and generally unpleasant so that went in the bin; you could dry it out but for £10 on e-bay you can buy new 10mm adhesive sound proofing (think Dynamat type stuff) so to me that was a no-brainer. Once the new sound proofing arrives I'll apply it to the bare metal floors and seat bases and re-fit the carpet and rear seat pads. If the surface of the carpet is still damp you can dry off with a heat gun, hair-dryer or by just running your floor vents of full-chat. Hot tip from my mother in law is to use nappies to soak up excess water - works amazingly well!

So that's the rear sorted, I'm planning to do the front this weekend. The general recommendation is to take your front seats out - very easy in theory, just jack up the side of your car (prop with axle stands just in case!) and there are four nuts/bolts to tackle. The two on the outside are hidden under rubber bungs that you simply pull out and the inner two are under the exhaust heat shield which has access holes for this purpose. You'll need a socket extender as the bolts are recessed but other than that it's simple....or so I thought....turns out my K-Tec exhaust has a larger cat that extends over the heat-shield access holes and there's no way I can be bothered taking the exhaust off! So I'm going to just pry the carpet out at the edges, remove the sound proofing and follow the same process as I did for the rear. I was able to dry under the seats as there's a gap/join in the carpet under there so you can get your hand in to mop up excess water (nappy again!) and I then put a small (50ml) drinks bottle under the carpet to lift it so it could air-out - a couple of days driving with floor heaters on and that was dry (there's no foam sound proofing under the seats).

So that's what I've done so far and my plan moving forward, hope it's of help to somebody! I do have a couple of questions that I hope somebody can advise on. One is related to how I remove the wheel-arch liners (mentioned above) and the other is regarding some minor bubbling on the floor; less than an inch across where the rear carpet was lifted - should I sand that back and Kurust & spray it to be on the safe side? Last thing I want is rust on the floor.

I'm in the Elmbridge area of Surrey by the way if anybody happens to be local.

 

[Robert_rowlo]

Tbh mine was a really easy fix, like you said I threw the sound proofing out because it was never going to dry and got the hair dryer on the carpets to dry them!
If you want to check all three drain pipes in the engine bay are clear the best way to do it is to remove both sides of the window wiper guard, have a look in the centre of this compartment and you should see one of the drain holes. Pour some water into that area and the water should naturally run down that pipe. If you then look at the back of the engine directly in the middle you should see the water dripping/flowing out pretty much on to the exhaust manifold! If it's not coming out there it must be blocked. Same goes for each corner of the engine bay (by the window wiper mechanism and the opposite side) pour water down those two drains and you should see the water drip out roughly behind the wheel.
Hope that helps

 

[Chuck21]

Right, progress....I think....

Had some time and a sunny afternoon so took the wipers and scuttle panel off again and had a really good look around but couldn't see the little drainage pipe that's often mentioned anywhere. I got the hose-pipe and started to spray down the windscreen; at each side water was coming through and pouring out of the 'vents' on the rear side of each front wheel arch liner, so far so good, but in the middle water wasn't coming out as fast as it was going in and after 10-20 seconds of spraying I could hear and the see water pooling under the scuttle - clear sign of poor drainage. I had a look and couldn't see any debris so unwound a metal coat hanger and found after some prodding around that if I slid it down the front edge of the inside of the scuttle area from the drivers side (so central underneath where the scuttle panel/cover has been removed) there was a vertical gap that I could get the wire coat hanger into and push right down, as soon as I did that a load of water was released, eureka! So I had a good prod with the hanger and sprayed the hose again, lo and behold the water was coming through cleanly out of downward facing pipe/vent on the engine bay side of the scuttle/bulkhead - all good. So re-assembled the wipers etc and have ordered new scuttle fixing clips on ebay.

Now onto getting the interior dry again!

My rear seats were already out and rear carpet up so I had a good mop up and propped the carpet up to let it air. I then slid the seats back to concentrate on the front. As per previous post I'm not able to remove the seats and couldn't be bothered removing the centre console so started easing the carpet up from the front (top-back of the foot-wells) and along the edge - with a little wiggling and force it comes away from the edge trim and centre console trim. Under the carpet is dense yellow foam sound insulation, if you can get it out in one piece great but note that it does tear easily; I pulled the passenger side foam out in bits but managed to keep the drivers side foam intact. once the foam is out (fiddly but doable) you'll be able to clear the water from the front foot-wells. I then dried as much as I could under the seats - you can get your hand under the carpet under the seats and get the majority of the water up. I them used rolled up cardboard to prop under the carpets front, tear and under the seats, to lift them to allow air to circulate and dry them; I then left the car running for half an hour with floor heaters on full speed. It's not 100% dry just yet but isn't far off.

Once dried out fully I'll line all of the metal floors with adhesive sound deadening to replace the original knackered foam and re-fit the carpets which could be fun!

So that's the story so far; I'll update again when I've fitted sound deadening and carpets. I really hope this has fixed the problem, I really don't want to have to go through all of this again!

 

[deanopud69]

Sorry to bump an old post but I have same problem and cant solve it.water under drivers seat and in rear drivers side footwell and a bit in rear passenger footwell.I have cleared scuttle drain plugs at the sides but cant locate the middle one