Water ingress through cabin interior light?

[somacose]

Allo peeps, been helluva wet/windy here t'day and the following happened t'night.

I jumped in the van tonight (it's been sitting outside my house all day as i stupidly took the bike to work) and i noticed the interior light appeared dim but thought no more of it till i braked and pulled up to the junction 100 yards from my front door and water dribbled out from around my interior light then dripped over the central dash onto the floor, on closer inspection there is also damp patches around the upper interior windscreen trim. (see attached pics)

The only place i can imagine water getting in to cause such an issue is through the 6 roof mounted bolts for attaching a roof rack, i tried tightening them but they moved no more than 45 degrees each so perhaps i need to remove them and wrap some ptfe tape round the threads and under the bolt heads to ensure a watertight seal - am i correct in assuming this is where the water ingress is coming from?.

I've only owned the van for a month and rather surprisingly (for galloway) today is the wettest it's been since i bought it, there was no water ingress last night despite there being light rain throughout a 30 mile journey home.







Cheers,

[Doc]

The roof rail mounts are a common point for water ingress in the roof area but it's generally only when the bolts have been removed that people have problems. I've never heard of water getting in when the holes are bolted up.

They are the original black bolts?
It's not had a roof antenna at any point, has it?
Is the seal between the roof and side panels ok?

[somacose]

Cheers for the reply Doc,

I figure they are the original bolts and i doubt the van had a roof rack fitted at any point as it was owned by Bradfield VW (now Lookers VW) as their parts delivery vehicle between dealerships, there's no other grommets etc on the roof so it has never been fitted with a roof antenna.

Is the seal between the roof and side panels ok?

As far as i can see it is spotless, no deformation in the panel seals anywhere, I'll attempt to seal the roof rail mounts t'morn and hopefully that'll cure the issue, i may also lift the front the front rubber matting just to check the condition of the sound deadening/underlay.

Being an owner of many older VW's including Sciroccos, Golfs and Corrado's i have years of experience with leaky VW's but i never expected this with a 3yr old van.

Bummer!

[tommyzooom]

A strange one that.
I seem to remember the roof rack bolts also have a rubber washer, perhaps they have been replaced without this seal?

[somacose]

That's what i was thinking Tommyzoom, when tightening the bolts t'night it felt like metal to metal contact so i'll take it up the workshop t'morn to investigate further

[tommyzooom]

Yep, they have a rubber washer.


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[somacose]

Cheers for the pic Tommy, My washers are rather flat and have a hard plastic feel to them, more like a plastic shim so i'll have a rummage up the workshop later and see what i can find to replace them.

[Barbel330]

Funny I saw this thread yesterday and it got me thinking about why my windscreen was always misted up on the inside. It's baffled me for a while as I've giving it a good look over all the door seals etc for leaks and found nothing. On my way to work this morning I looked up at the roof lining where it meets the pillar trim and it was soaking wet exactly like your photo. I'll be checking my roof rack bolt seals tomorrow

[trevorjd]

yep i've had water dripping on the passenger side where it meets the windscreen

[somacose]

Ive replaced the roof rack bolt washers with some i scavenged from my box o' bits up the workshop and ran ptfe tape round the bolt threads so hopefully that's cured the problem.

I removed the bulkhead clear panels I got from tommyzoom and had a heater set on 18dg in the van along with a dehumidifier on high all afternoon and collected near enough 200ml of water , I'll leave the heater & dehumidifier running t'morn and check it again at night.

I've had ice on the inside of the windows a few times over the past month but never thought any more of it, that should've set my alarm bells ringing but I know now it must have been leaking for a while so I'll strip the front rubber floor out at the weekend and check the underlay but I suspect it's sodden as the rubber floor feels kinda springy, arse!........hope there's no rust/corrosion.

[somacose]

Still leaking like a sieve so i investigated further and the water ingress is coming from around the upper windscreen seal/bonding, will this be a warranty issue on a 3yr old van as the headlining is rather blown out and stained with the water damage and the underlay on the floors appears to be waterlogged as well so it will have to be replaced. I'm the 2nd owner and bought the van in late December 2016, the first owner was Volkswagen Financial Services.

[Liam]

might be as easy to get a windscreen fitted on ur insurance

[Maxi4life]

Could be condensation formed on the roof skin at the front. I stripped all my roof liners out the other day and the front portion of the roof was dripping wet. I can see this being even worse without aircon.

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[somacose]

Nah it's definitely coming in through the upper windscreen bonding as i sat inside whilst my dad sprayed the windscreen and the entire edge of the inner headlining where it meets the windscreen started to drip with water, bugger..... I hope VW are sympathetic with their warranty

[Maxi4life]

Oh ok just thought I'd share as it was suprisingly wet.

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