jaimzthedrummer 24 Report post Posted November 4, 2014 Hi all, Just thought I'd share my recent experience pulling the half of my interior apart to try and find a water leak. I mentioned it to a few dudes at the coffee meet on Sunday, so this finishes the story off! Sorry I didn't take any photos, but I haven't put everything back together yet so there's still time! - A week ago I pulled out my rear seat bolster and found about a litre of standing water, and the rear seat foam completely soaked. - I initially thought it might be the rear light issue I'd read about on the forum (water from the roof gutters runs in behind the tail light clusters, pools in the boot then runs forward under the seat when braking), but I checked under the boot lining and it was dry as a bone. - On Monday night I set about trying to find the leak. Got the kids to hose the car while I poked around. After 5 minutes of hosing nothing was showing up, so I gave up and sent the kids inside. - THEN... I noticed a steady stream of water starting to trickle down behind the side bolster of the right rear seat. Pulled all that out and traced it up to the rear side window. That's when the full extent became clear. (Dum dum dummmm...!) - The window seal, C pillar trim, rear parcel tray, the sound insulation undereath and the rear speaker cluster... all wet. I probably should have noticed this beforehand, but what can I say... I'm a bit thick. Then I noticed the roof lining - at the point where it meets the top of the C pillar trim. It was soaked, and when I dried it by compressing it with a towel, it soaked up again. Aha! - I very carefully started pulling that corner of roof lining down (had to take off the roof hand-rail thingy to enable enough movement), wincing at the sound of ripping adhesive I was getting and managed to get a peek up above the lining. - There's a sunroof drain up there (one of 4 I believe). That rear part of the sunroof unit is molded plastic and there's a little spout that is supposed to have a rubber hose (that feeds down into the C pillar) plugged onto it. My rubber hose was quite blatantly sitting NEXT to the spout. I reattached the hose and called it a night. I'm still to do another hose test, but it has been raining the last couple of days (my car ain't garaged) and no pooled water. I may well chuck a cable tie up there to make extra sure the blighter stays attached. I'll also check the one on the other side. Last summer I had my sagging roof lining replaced on the (fairly) cheap by a guy who works out of his garage in Weymouth. I can't help wondering if he's the one who detached the hose, inadvertently or not. The amount and state of the water I found suggests it hadn't been sitting there for years and years. So there we have it... a little bit long winded for such a simple issue, but without pictures I've had to use a thousand words. Anyone else had something similar? I'll now be looking for new sound insulation for the parcel tray, cause it's waterlogged and all cracking and generally poked. A new one is almost $500 from BMW, so stay tuned for my post in the want-to-buy section! James Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
qube 3570 Report post Posted November 4, 2014 i thought you had your rear seats out of the car so you could go faster.. lol guess i was wrong about u james! haha Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jaimzthedrummer 24 Report post Posted November 5, 2014 Ha! It's an added benefit dude. :-) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_ethrty-Andy_ 2132 Report post Posted November 5, 2014 think how much quicker you will go without all that water in it though! 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KwS 2425 Report post Posted November 5, 2014 issues with sunroof drains are well documented and very common, good to hear you have a fix sorted. I hope like hell it doesn't cause any issues for your new head lining Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
