Lude Generation

Not sure were to post this topic,

I have rain water going into the boot well.
It seems ONLY when jet washing (facing tail gate) or
When there is much water on boot, open boot and water run down side - then a few minutes later it leaks into the boot well (via the tail gate lights?) ...

So, when u open boot where does the water run down?
Certainly around the boot (rain channels) then is it OVER these back overs (i think the water goes INTO and UNDER the black covers)????





Advice most welcome!

Thanks!

Also

Looks light over the years rain water leak into wing via electric aerial?

Are they suppose to leak?
As there seem to be a tube to carry water away from bottom of aerial motor?








There is no quick cheap for the rust around aerial motor is there?

It could be from the trim along the bottom of the rear window. My 4G likes to let water in there.

Merlin wrote:It could be from the trim along the bottom of the rear window. My 4G likes to let water in there.

Possibly another leak there.

But today,
Rained all day,
After 8hrs at work car park,
I opened boot and it was dry as a bone.

But, as i open boot a gush of water (rain water on boot) pour down bottom of rear window (below trim) into the rain channels (around boot opening) then down the sides and over the black covers.

Still no rain water in boot well.
Drove home, then check boot again and there was a cup of water in it.

Looks like pouring out from bottom of rear lighs?

You're right that the aerial should drain via the plastic tube. It's the same principle as for the sunroof (that's the larger plastic pipe you can see in that pic).
At the ends of the plastic pipe, they go into a rubber thing that's stuck into the bodyshell. That's the spout that directs it out through the body panel. The rubber spout has a set of lips on the outside (this design is referred to as a 'bladder' in industry) that's designed to work as a one way valve, letting water to flow out, but not back in under air pressure (e.g. when the car is moving forwards and wind is blowing up into the rear arches).

On a 4g, the aerial and sunroof have separate bladders, from your pics it looks like on a 3g they're shared. Anyway, it's common for the bladders to be blocked on 4g's now (20 years of crap accumulated in them) meaning that all the water backs up in the pipe and because the rubber has got old, there's no real seal around the pipe, so it just overflows through the join and into the boot.

Pull the pipes out of the rubber spouts and have a look inside. If there's any crap, clear it out and make sure you run through the bladder with a bit of plastic coated wire, to ensure it's properly clear.

I reckon that's the most likely cause of the water in your boot. Either that, or the seals around the rear lights.
Try the bladders first and if you still have water in there, then take the rear lights out and see what you can find.

nb: I noticed this week that the drivers side rear light on my 3g has a few mm of water in it, so that's leaking on mine

Your best bet with that rust, if it isn't showing on the outside, is to let it properly dry out (really properly dry out), scrape off any loose crap you can see, vacuum it out and then give it all a good spraying over with some properly runny cavity wax sealer like Dinitrol 3125, or the equivalent Dynax product (don't bother with Waxoyl IMO). That should stop it getting any worse and give you a good few years before it appears as noticeable on the outside of the car.

If it's already noticeable outside the car, the only real solution is to get it cut out and replaced.

Before spraying that amount of advanced rust with a cavity wax, I'd recommend dousing it with a phosphoric acid solution, which will go a long way to stabilizing the rust by converting it to iron phosphate, being as thin as water, it will also spread and creep nicely.

I agree with wurly, had the same thoughts myself, re: plastic tubes coming down from sunroof to the aforementioned bladders, mine were totally blocked with bum droppings, no problem since cleaning the bladders out, all is push fit, so no tools necessary, be sure to check l/h/s as well, as there is a corresponding tube arrangement for the sunroof drain. Despite wurly's adivise, I've never had an issue with waxoyl, cheap enough, and protected loads of exposed metal parts for me over the last 30 years, including the underside of metal motorcycle mudguards. May be his personal preference to use other rust protection types, rather than waxoyl being inherently not fit for purpose.

My comments on Waxoyl v Dinitrol are based on personal experience. I haven't used the Dynax stuff but have seen the results and have no reason to doubt it's just as good as Dinitrol.

I used Waxoyl for about 15 years on various cars (everyone used Waxoyl back then) before trying Dinitrol after reading reviews in Practical Classics. It absolutely whips the ass of Waxoyl when it comes to application (runs and properly creeps into the seams, unlike Waxoyl which doesn't to anything like the same extent even when hot) and from experience of now going back to look into the sections of the cars I first treated with Waxoyl all those years ago (my Sunny and a couple of the CXs, that I still have ) Waxoyl doesn't apply evenly and dries and cracks with age. Rubbish in comparison, for cavities.

I don't mind the Waxoyl underseal, that's not too bad, but even some bits I treated on my Xantia with that a couple of years ago (the backs of the rear brake disc covers) are showing through again now - and that hasn't even been on the road to see any salt!!!


Mec is right about treating that rust first, if you can get in there/can be bothered. I guess I was assuming you probably couldn't be bothered with that tbh, on a daily at this time of year? If so, then provided you can get back to sound metal with the scraping (not flaky jobby) then it'll be ok to just do what I said, but also doing what mec has suggested as a first pre-treatment is obviously better!

Hi Wurly, thanks for the comments, re; waxoyl v's others. Bought a 5l tin when restoring / refreshing my 3g last year, so hey ho, that'll probably last me the next 10 years!! But comments duly noted.