Ford Fiesta | Rain Water Leaks Repaired Video

This customer found water in the boot of his Fiesta while checking the spare wheel. He tested it and ended up with a soggy carpet.

So he took the car back to the dealership and their attempt to fix the problem by sealing the rear light failed despite a new rubber seal. 

So we put the car through our water leak inspection where we check all known causes of leaks for all cars and the Ford Fiesta in particular and in this case, we found most of the ones we usually expect to find.

There was a dribble from the door membrane and although this didn't appear to be causing a problem yet, we advised getting the doors resealed to prevent problems in the future.

The welds around the tailgate hinges were leaking because they were cracked. This is nothing to worry about, although it sounds pretty serious. These days, they spot weld instead of welding the whole seam. This is perfectly strong but not waterproof, so they put a sealant along the weld before they paint the car. As the car flexes during cornering, the sealant can crack, and it shrinks with age. This can be fixed with a new bead of sealant. These leaks let in quite a lot of water which can run down into the boot and fill up the spare tire compartment, filling it with water. The sound deadening under the carpet is stained by the dirty water and showing spots of black mould, which is something we address before beginning work on the car. Black mould can be pretty nasty, so we treat the entire car with an anti-microbial and antifungal disinfectant. 

The rear vent as it was, and after replacement. The rear bumper needs to come off to repair this, but the parts are inexpensive.

Using our cameras, we could see that the rear vents were leaking, which is normal for a car this age. The gates are folded plastic which becomes weak, so they don't close properly, the silicone seal around them shrinks, and they get covered in dirt which stops them closing. The best solution is to pull them out and replace them with new ones, which we properly seal in. We also put a sealant around the plastic clips, grommets and bungs. And there are a couple of holes which Ford seal at the factory with something... we aren't sure what, but it doesn't seem up to the job. These always dry out and fall off, so we cut some neoprene foam sheet and stuck these in place with waterproof sealant.

Water leaking from these areas can flow into the boot, but it also gets into the box section and flows down forward, under the back seat and eventually ends up in the rear footwells, causing wet carpets in the back. 

Water wants to make its way to the lowest point, so it is not uncommon for water to travel all the way from the back of the car to the front, which can make finding leaks difficult, as most people look in the vicinity of where they find the water.

We removed both rear lights, cleaned off excess sealant and put them back properly. We removed the door cards and found the door membranes were the substantial, moulded plastic type rather than a sheet of polythene, which is good because the latter shrink and need replacing. These door membranes had just come away at the edges, so we were able to remove them and reseal them back on.

With all that done, the car was ready to be put back together and go back to the customer.

We can provide a full service, detecting leaks, repairing leaks, decontaminating mould and drying cars, give us a call if you need  rain water leak specialists.