Yet another leak thread- E39 Touring

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Discovered an alarming amount of water in the spare tyre well of wifeys 530i wagon yesterday. Not enough to dampen the SLS compressor etc but still enough to give me the $hits.

Had as good a look around as I could, couldn't spot any sings of water ingress behind the audio or around the battery compartment. Anybody else come across this before?

I see there's a large number of threads around concerning tail light gasket failure on sedans, but bugger all on wagons.

Seals appear to be in good condition by my eye (no expert though), trim panels and carpet all dry as well.

Google isn't turning up much on this one, any pointers will be helpful! Ta

[hotwire 352]

Nup, but remove the trims (if they aren't still), get wifey to lock you in there (she'll enjoy that) her control the hose & you look

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Nup, but remove the trims (if they aren't still), get wifey to lock you in there (she'll enjoy that) her control the hose & you look

What REALLY sucks is I reinstalled the final trim pieces on Friday morning

Best guess so far is a body seal has started to let go somewhere, in the past I've usually found wet carpet or panels but not this time.

Sigh!

[hotwire 352]

Matt, google "E39 Touring rear water leak" There are a couple of threads on it.

I cant link them as my mouse has just spat the dumby & no right click.

[aja540i 1906]

Mine sometimes leaks from the top of the rear glass, where it closes agaainst the body of the hatch, drips down onto the boot floor. Usually only in REALLY heavy rain. Have you had look at the seal between the hatch and the glass lid?

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Mine sometimes leaks from the top of the rear glass, where it closes agaainst the body of the hatch, drips down onto the boot floor. Usually only in REALLY heavy rain. Have you had look at the seal between the hatch and the glass lid?

Not as yet. When I had the floor panels and spare out on Sunday afternoon there was about 1 1/2 inches of water at the deepest point. Just enough to moisten the edge of the sound deadening foam that lines the SLS compressor cover. Didn't notice any dampness in the carpets, but I didn't spend very long in there, had just enough time to pull the bungs out & give it a wipe down with a towel.

We had quite a bit of rain here last week, hopefully the forecast for tonight and the next couple of days turns out to be less severe than predicted!

Google hasn't really turned up much, most threads (the few I found, anyway) link water ingress to a leaking rear washer hose. One or two mention water ingress around chassis rail bolt holes when a towbar has been fitted. Ours has one that was done by the PO at Pitstop, will have to remove the rear bumper and check out what has or hasn't been done back there. I do know the trailer plug was installed with what looks like the clip-on style jumpers instead of the proper BMW kit so it really wouldn't surprise me if they didn't use any sealer when bolting the drawbar on Tiny little rust stains on the paint in the tyre well too, I'd say its been happening for a while.

One thread pointed to the seals around the roof antenna leaking as well, not sure that's the issue here as all the fabric work is dry AFAIK.

Planning to have a good look around on the weekend, as well as replacing the intake plumbing in the hope of finding the vacuum leak thats throwing the Lambda probe fault codes. Much fun to be had!!

[Smac01 12]

My E46 coupe did this, and it was leaking in through the tail light seal on one side, and filled up the spare wheel well.

Not sure if the E39 touring had the same weakness though.

[Ahmedsinc 414]

My E46 coupe did this, and it was leaking in through the tail light seal on one side, and filled up the spare wheel well.

Not sure if the E39 touring had the same weakness though.

Seems to be a common issue on sedans, along with door vapour seals. Didn't see much suggesting its a problem on tourings too but it wouldn't be a major surprise if it's the culprit. Hoping it's not hatch or window seals at fault, those ones can be a real headache to pinpoint!

[allan 295]

Have a look at the rear of the inlet manifold when I did the engine swap on the ti I replaced two rubber caps their these were split and fell apart when touched. Might have been mentioned the rubber boot after the MAF has an outlet these split or crack at the base.

Another place is the hose connection on the dip stick, oil return I believe check that right back to the outlet on the cam cover found mine to be hard and very brittle.

[yng_750 247]

^ wrong thread?

[francoisv 466]

when I stripped my touring I noticed this as well, turned out the rubber "seal" that surrounds the boot (cabin side) isn't all that sealed. After pulling this off, I noticed a decent amount of rust as well as a few pin holes along the bottom where the rear lock was. Water was seeping through there. Might be worth a look.

Another spot I noticed that has water leak in the touring, was on the rear door towards the very top. On either side there are 2 rubber stoppers that have wire feeds going through from the roof, into the tail gate, this has some water in as well and was dripping down the tail gate into the bottom where the interior light is.

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Righto. Had a good look at the hatch window seal last night after the latest round of vertical flooding had stopped. Inside edge of seal nice and dry. Whew! Rear screen washer hose appears good too.

Headlining, pillar and carpets all dry. Took spare tyre out & noticed a patch of water roughly the size of an old 50c coin. Main weather seal was wet along the bottom plane where the door meets the lock hoop.

Peeled the seal back and removed the plastic tail light blanking plate to discover about 4 - 5 tablespoons of silt! Both sides of car.

My theory is, the water cannot run past the mud so has built up and has breached behind where the seal straddles the bodywork. Has then run down the lip to the bottom of the hatch opening, where there are two 10mm holes in one layer of the panelwork. From there it found its way to the lowest point and waited til I discovered it last weekend.

It was getting late by the time I got all the goo cleaned out, will be investigating the tail light seals and towbar bolt entry points this arvo.

All the weather seals appear to be in great shape, no perishing or rips. Manipulated them to check for any damage while shining the led work light so pretty confident I'd have spotted any faults if there were any. Fingers crossed that this is the culprit!

[Olaf 3317]

nice work! as my e46 touring lives outdoors, I'll apply same theory. thanks for sharing!

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Pulled the tails out, couldn't see any sign of leaking there but replenished the seals with outdoor rated HVAC foam sealing tape while I was there. Haven't had any major rain here in a few days, will get the hose out this weekend to test if my theory is correct. Still have a hunch water could be getting in around the towbar bolts, noticed the pitstop installer didn't even use a grommet when they drilled a hole through the spare well for the trailer plug cable. Dorks! Yet another job to add to the list!

[jeffbebe 1559]

I found a bit of water in the boot of the E31. No obvious point of origin, no wet carpet panels, etc... Probably tail light seals but who the f*ck knows?! It's a job that can wait. Solution for now: don't drive in the rain. Part it undercover.