I wonder if someone might suggest the best place to check for a water leak into the spare wheel well, in my P38.

I notice that, when the vehicle is parked in the drive, when there is heavy rain rain water gets into the the spare wheel well. After two days of occasional heavy rain there is a couple of tablespoons worth of rain water on the right hand [drivers UK] side of the wheel well. I can see an indication that the water may be running into the wheel well somewhere on the rear of the side wall of the wheel well. I think that the drain tube goes down the rear corner panel beside the rear tail gate window, but would that explain how rain water could get into the wheel well, if it blocked.

I have had a look at the sunroof seal, and it is alright, and the plastic surround under the glass is dry. I am sure that the front drain tubes are clear [speculation !!] but I must look for a nylon cable fish, in my garage, which I have used before to clear sunroof drain tubes on other cars, and poke it down the rear drain tubes.

Just out of interest, how do I get to the rear drain tubes ? If I run the sunroof right back will I be able to see the tubes ?

I know that there will be a lot of other suggestions that will be scary - rear door seals, hinge bolts letting water in, rear light seals leaking. However, somewhere there may be the correct answer if it is not the drain tubes. Any suggestions will be appreciated and I know that the problem could be any one of half a dozen things but I would hope that it might just be the most obvious one.

Pierre3.

This will sound nuts but have you looked inside the interior light?

Occasionally, after a bout heavy rain, I get a water leak from the interior light. It drips on to the centre console and in to the foot well as well.

Surely that's just a conduit for water that is above the headlining? There's no access to the outside world via the interior light.
I'd suspect the sunroof again, or possibly the windscreen seals?

Mine does like to drip from the sunroof tray after heavy rain, I've rodded the sunroof drains (at summer camp) but they were clear. It's not a huge amount so I've sort of ignored it, but I might have to put it on the list if it gets worse.

I changed the complete sunroof cassette on the Ascot and the drain tubes were a sloppy fit on the bits they push on to. Small tie wraps held them on securely. You might have the same with the water running down the outside of the tube and dripping off at the lowest point (or dripping off everwhere but the wheel well is the only place you can see it).

Sorry, not sure what's happened.

I typed another bit about a possible leak from the seam behind the upper windscreen trim.

It's not shown up though.

Hi, thanks very much for all the replies, they are much appreciated.

RutlandRover I had the centre light out a couple of days ago to fit a replacement connector plug [the old plug had two internal pins broken] and there was no sign of any water anywhere. All the front area is perfectly dry, the carpet, the foot well etc. I had all those bits out a couple of weeks ago repairing the glove box ram thing. I needed to fit a new one and I was replacing the foot well bulb and I spent a while partly lying on the carpet.

The windscreen, I believe, is water tight because again I have had quite a bit of the centre console out fitting replacement walnut style centre console panels and a replacement HEVAC panel. Again, there is no sign of water anywhere.

Morat - The whole roof panel seems to be dry, and I did look in the sunroof cassette surround about 10 days ago, to check something else, and I remember thinking that the whole area was clean and dry.

Gilbertd - I haven't seen any evidence of water getting into the vehicle anywhere except the spare wheel well, but - you could have a point about the drain tubes going to the rear and leaking down the tubes. I did have the whole roof panel out [or a car electrician did] about three months ago to have a rear camera fitted. I am wondering now whether the rear drain tubes have been disturbed.

I will take out the spare wheel and leave it out for a while, dry the wheel well again, and then see if I can get a better idea or where the water is coming from. I think that I might stick some heavy coloured sheets of paper along the sides of the wheel well and see if they show any tracks of water running down the side walls.

And I must run a nylon cable fish down the rear tubes, just to check them.

Again, thanks for the suggestions, I just hope that it may be the easiest and most obvious - the drain tubes.

Pierre3.

The only other thing I can think of is the tailgate itself - but if the boot carpet is dry then maybe not?

I had a similar problem on mine a few months back with the spring rains here. I had pulled up the floor cover for the spare and noticed condensation on the underside of it. Pulled the spare and sure enough, there was some water in the tire well. I decided to look at the hatch seal.... and had stumbled upon a recall item for it. The recall notice was much older and it appeared to have been done at some point. I had noticed after a rain that there was water actually sitting on the mating surface of the hatch opening rubber that frames the entire gate opening. I began pulling it off and noticed there were a few areas where the sheet metal appeared slightly deformed and bent inward. I bent it back out carefully with some pliers and vise grips wrapped in a rag to prevent scratching and put the weatherstrip back on. To date, it appears to be dry in the spare tire well.

My thinking is possibly that with these trucks being as old as they are.... overly “aggressive” shutting of the upper and/or lower gates may deform the sheet metal framing the weatherstrip fits onto. Over time, with the rubber aging it too begins to flatten and becomes less pliable.... potentially creating a small gap, and allowing water to seep in where it shouldn’t.

Hi, thanks for all the suggestions. I have done the very same things as suggested, but I think that I haven't sorted it out yet. I cleaned out the whole wheel well and more or less polished it [!!!] so that I could see if rain water is still getting in. We had heavy rain during the night, on Thursday, and I found about a quarter/half a cupful of rainwater sitting at the very back end of the wheel well, the car was parked backwards, down a small decline.

I bent out the lower boot lip [where the seal is pushed onto] and I put petroleum jelly inside the actual seal where it pushes onto the lip. i cleaned the whole rear tailgate body lip by removing the complete seal, and checked for corrosion under the seal but it is all clean. I believe that the seal has been replaced, at some time not too long ago, by a dealer supplied seal as it has the correct cutouts at the bottom of the seal.

I think that the previous owner had this problem as well, as someone has painted the whole wheel well with black, heavy paint, obviously to try to seal the joins and plugs in the base of the wheel well.

I did notice a thin line of water inside the rear panel which runs from side to side, and where the rear bumper is mounted. There is an enclosed box section which goes from just under the rear lights on both sides, the tailgate plastic flap thing is screwed to this box section, and I could see a thin line of water lying where the box section is welded to the very, very back bodywork panel.

I have dried this out as best I can and there looks to be nothing there now. The problem is - where did this water come from. Could it have come from the sunroof drain and run all the way round behind the insulation and wiring and got right to the rear box section ? Possible I suppose.

The only thing that I am hoping is that the water that I saw could just have been something that was there after I stripped out the upholstery and stuff, and appeared with the car sitting doing nothing. The small piece of carpet on the drivers side under the parcel shelf was very wet all along the bottom where it was sitting on the metal so water has been running under the carpet and into the wheel well.

I have check the sunroof drains from the place where they meet the rubber pipe going into the wheel arch. On the drivers side there was water still in the rubber pipe, which I would have thought should have drained out. I cleared this with a nylon cable fish, and I put an air pressure gun on the plastic pipe going back to the sunroof.

So I will wait to see what happens when the rain comes over the weekend. Hopefully, if water gets in it might just leave a trail as the wheel well is currently totally dry.

Pierre3.

I am just wondering whether there is a separate seal for the rear lights on the P38. I have looked at a German LR parts list [Allbrit.co.uk] but it doesn't show a seal or gasket for the rear lights, it does show the 5mm nuts for the lights but no seal.

Pierre3.