Puddle Of Water Inside The Clio

[Midnight]

Firstly, stupid damn French crap...

Secondly, I've just gave the Clio a quick exterior clean and when I opened the drivers door I was met with a large puddle of water behind the drivers seat...

I have noticed the last few nights the front window having a lot of condensation ( mainly because of the poor weather I thought ) but obviously it was due to this. Car being parked on the drive due to us moving items around.


Any ideas why / how this has happened?

 

[Saul]

Which model is this? Check the door seals and the sunroof if it has one.

 

[Midnight]

Sorry it's a 2002 172.

 

[Midnight]

Checked door seals, they seem O.K? There not perished and still look good.

Entire carpet is wet. Mainly behind and under seats.

 

[JamesBryan]

Never seen it behind the front seat before now :S

Carpet needs peeling back to investigate i'd say, unless there's a bit patch on your headlining.

 

[Midnight]

Yes it's pretty damn wet under the carpet as to be expected.

 

[Crybert]

Checked below the car too? Might be somewhere the water is getting in and travelling along to that point..

Check the draining sort of pipes to see if they are blocked.

 

[Midnight]

No, I'll have a look under the car in a short while? What am I looking for though?

 

[Crybert]

I dunno.. Maybe a split of some sort from say a jack positioned wrongly? Just guessing really mate

 

[norfolkmatt]

Had this on mine a little while ago.
Three drainage holes under the scuttle panel block up and then leak into the car.
Cleaned all three out and had no problems since.
Also sealed up a perished bung behind the glovebox after tracing the leak.

 

[Ryanj]

Had this on mine a little while ago.
Three drainage holes under the scuttle panel block up and then leak into the car.
Cleaned all three out and had no problems since.
Also sealed up a perished bung behind the glovebox after tracing the leak.

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

 

[Midnight]

After removing drivers side scuttle panel I was met with this.

Lots of water down there...

 

[JamesBryan]

There's your problem!

 

[Midnight]

Is there a drainage point down there?

 

[Coops Mk1]

its in the middle of the scuttle the main one, there are two smaller ones each side to the inner wings. if you clear the main central one, the problems should go away

 

[Midnight]

Right, unblocked both drainage points and around 1 tonne of water come out. Hopefully that cures it.

Even found a small screwdriver down there.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Coops Mk1]

best part is, the mk1's did this and Renault must of known by the time the mk2 design was finalised, and they did the square root of sweet f**k all about it! lol!

 

[Crybert]

Right, unblocked both drainage points and around 1 tonne of water come out. Hopefully that cures it.

Even found a small screwdriver down there.

Thanks again guys!

What did u remove to get to that part of the engine bay mate? I'd like to have a look at mine too, just keep it clear

 

[Midnight]

Pretty much everything under the window screen.

Wipers which was pretty hard to remove but nothing WD40 and a firm hit with your palm can't solve. Remove scuttle, I managed to break all clips so will be ordering some more.

Then just with a large and small screw driver find where the holes are and dig/scrape with a screw driver. Drivers side is basically in the middle of the corner and centre one was a little tricky but as coops said it's directly in the middle.


Im sure there are easily more professional ways but the above worked for me.

 

[Crybert]

Cheers mate. Could it be accessed from
below?

 

[Midnight]

Cheers mate. Could it be accessed from
below?

Erm I'm not sure?

Its easily enough to do from above as I'm really not that great with tools and I managed it.

 

[Crybert]

Cheers man, I'll give it a look.

 

[Saul]

Think ill give mine a look tbh!

 

[Darren S]

Pretty much everything under the window screen.

Wipers which was pretty hard to remove but nothing WD40 and a firm hit with your palm can't solve. Remove scuttle, I managed to break all clips so will be ordering some more.

Then just with a large and small screw driver find where the holes are and dig/scrape with a screw driver. Drivers side is basically in the middle of the corner and centre one was a little tricky but as coops said it's directly in the middle.


Im sure there are easily more professional ways but the above worked for me.

My m8 did this with his Ph.1 172 after water ingress. The trapped water totally stunk too :dead: - kept in place by a mish mash of dead leaves and stuff. Again, once cleared it cured his problem of water coming into the cabin.

Funnily enough, I had this on my car years ago for a few weeks. I could hear a 'sloshing' noise that was similar to the noise from a fuel tank - but it sounded like it was coming from behind the glove-box. It was obviously this, but I was lucky and water never made it to the cabin. It must have made its way through the drainage hole naturally as I've never heard it since.

D.

 

[Midnight]

Carpets will be getting removed the weekend with headlining to contour the cabin 'strip'.

I'm guessing it would have taken ages to dry if I were keeping it.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Would this be the same method for the drivers side? Have a leak too although not as bad as yours. Also, you said you're going to order new clips... where from? Always breaking mine!

 

[obcuz]

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.

 

[Midnight]

Would this be the same method for the drivers side? Have a leak too although not as bad as yours. Also, you said you're going to order new clips... where from? Always breaking mine!

Mine was the drivers side, well in fact it was both sides but more evident on drivers side. Will order then direct from Adam @ Wolverhampton Renault ( Site trader ).

Sake of 20 minutes it is worth checking at the least.

 

[scotty10]

Another few points you should check are

The clusters behind the rear lights are known to leak

The boot seal at bottom corners where water can pool up

And the rear windows can leak although it was only the first two i had a problems with

 

[Bryan1]

I had a small amount of water in my wheel well. I checked base of the Ariel and it was wee bit wobbly, peeled back the headling and there is a nut that can be tightened. Job done

 

[sam55]

FML I have a very similar leak, under the driver's seat is saturated. I'd cleaned all the crap out from the scuttle, but obviously it's not the same issue. Although if it was coming from the scuttle I'd assume the floor under the driver's feet would be wet..but it's dry. Only directly under the seat is wet.

Does this sound like the same thing?

 

[Midnight]

Yes.

Funnily enough the carpet under the dash wasn't very wet at all. It was just before, under and behind the seat. In fact I have seen less water in a fish tank than what was around the seat.

Managed to 'unclog' the scuttle panel while making sure the drainage under the car was clear too. Has not happened since.

 

[tomp2000]

scuttle drains are most likely cause

 

[obcuz]

Sam

Unless you remove the carpet and the under-carpet 'sponge', it will take an age to dry out - perhaps never....

I completely removed mine, I squeezed out a gallon of water from the sponge, and afterwards had to leave it out in warm summer sunshine for four days before it was completely dried out! The carpets will dry out very quickly however.

This sponge material tends to take up the slack water in the front footwell, but it is not fitted behind the front seats so water accumulates there more readily, especially so if the car is parked sloping backwards.

I call it the 'sponge', I am sure that is not the correct purpose or name for it, but that's what it does.

 

[sam55]

Ah cheers guys I'll get busy in the scuttle and stick the sponges over the heater. The joys of budget French motoring eh

 

[scotty10]

Drill a hole in the floor that should fix it

 

[CrippsCorner]

Okay so after reading through this thread I finally got to give mine a go, and it's not fixed, and tbh quite strange...

Passenger side:

Rear footwell - Not wet | Under seat - Wet | Front footwell - Not wet

Drivers side:

Rear footwell - Not wet | Under seat - Wet | Front footwell - Wet

Had a look under the scuttle panel on the drivers side and in the middle, bone dry. Also completely dry behind the bulkhead. Can't find anything remotely wet at all in the engine bay! :dapprove: where do I go from here?

 

[Midnight]

Undo the arch and have a look near door. I found around a tonne of dirt there which wouldn't help.

Also run a pin under the car near skirts to check the drainage holes are clear.

Failing that it must be a door or window seal.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Door sill's fine, and I've had the front bumper off recently which would have cleared the arches... I'll check the skirts, cheers.

 

[sidey]

Still sure it'll be the scuttle drainage mate, i couldn't believe it either until i had the entire interior out a couple of weeks ago. Mine was the same, water most evident directly under the drivers seat... it gets delivered directly there by the aircon pipe that should be sending air to the rear footwell. My scuttle was completely dry too.
I couldn't believe the 2 small leaves that came out of the centre drain could've caused such an issue but the car's been out in p*ssing rain since and no more lake inside
It did take 4 days with a heater and dehumidifier to get the carpets and 'sponge' dry btw.