BMW 5 Series | Water Leak Repair Video

This car had had wet carpets throughout the passenger side and came to us for drying after being repaired at a garage.

Leaking Water into Passenger Front Footwell

We have seen this problem before!  We are well aware of the problem with the BMW 5 Series, there is a blanking plate in the bulkhead which perishes and lets in water which then floods the front passenger foot well. The customer had had this repaired at a local garage and asked us to dry the car.

BMW Water Leak Recall

We are often asked if we know if there is a recall on BMWs because of this very common issue with the blanking plate. As far as we know, there is not. This issue is common to the BMW 5 Series (F10, F11) but also other models from 1 Series to 6 Series which can suffer from wet carpets. This tends to happen when cars get to a certain age when the seals around the blanking plate dry out and no longer form a good seal, letting water through. It is very annoying if it happens to you, but unfortunately you are unlikely to be able to get BMW to pay for it. However, if you bought a used BMW from a dealership and find it has a leak, you will be able to take it back if you do so in good time. We can't offer legal advice, so you should check the Consumer Rights Act 2015. 

Leak in boot - Wet under Back Seat

We became suspicious when we found the rear seat wet, because water generally doesn't flow up-hill, and so it was unlikely the bulkhead leak was the cause of the problem. This would likely cause water to flow down from here onto the rear passenger footwell. We had been asked to dry the car, but this warranted further investigation.

Interior Leak Inspection

We did a full water leak inspection and discovered the rubber around the boot was leaking. Furthermore, we also found that the bulkhead/scuttle area had not been cleaned. This is essential because the blanking plate typically leaks because these drainage holes are blocked, so the water instead finds it's way out through the hole that the blanking plate is designed to cover.

The plate had been sealed with silicone sealer, which is not the right product for the job, so we cleaned it all out and resealed the plate properly, resealed the rubbers around the boot, dried and decontaminated the car and addressed the damp odours of mould and mildew.

Diamond Coating

The customer decided to take advantage of our special offer,  have a polish and  car paint protection.
We cleaned and machine polished the car before giving it a coating of Diamas Professionali -  our diamond coating.

There were a few other little issues, the rear bumper had some scuffs which could be smart-repaired, but for the time being we polished out what we could and did cosmetic repairs. We promise about a 60% improvement, but usually do better and as they are low down on the car, they aren't nearly as obvious as you see here with us pointing the camera right at them. Sometimes, there is a time constraint, and if we painted the bumper, the paint needs time to dry before applying a coating, it could add days to the process which can be a problem when the customer lives on the other side of the country, or in another country. This customer came to us from Manchester.

We fix leaks and dry cars