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[robson]

I am getting a wet boot carpet. There is no obvious reason for this but can only  think that the rubber seal is letting water in.I will have to climb into the boot while water is sprayed onto the rear screen. Any other ideas?

[grifter]

I am getting a wet boot carpet. There is no obvious reason for this but can only  think that the rubber seal is letting water in.I will have to climb into the boot while water is sprayed onto the rear screen. Any other ideas?

I had (and still have presumably) a leak into the spare wheel well that I couldn't trace (well just being lazy) that and the fact it didn't always happen when it rained. Best bet as you say, get in the boot with a light and someone hosing the back end.

[TheBoy]

On saloons, corrosion in spare wheel well is a common cause.  The boot seals are normally pretty good, as are the light cluster seals.  But these cars are all somewhere between 20 and 30 years old now, so even less common faults could now start to show.

[ronnyd]

Have you checked the wheel arch liner? When my Desmond got stuffed up the rear, the liner never really fitted perfectly again and the water built up in the spare wheel well. Just drilled a hole in it. 

[Carfix]

I recently had to do a bit of welding in the bottom of the spare wheel well in my Omega. The area around the plastic bung in the bottom of the wheel well had rotted out.

It looked like water had been pooling in the bottom of the well over quite a long period and the small hole in the bung had become blocked. At this stage it was not obvious how the water was getting in.

So. I managed to get my 65 year body into the boot whilst the wife sprayed water from the hose pipe.

It took a while, but I found that there was a significant amount of water dripping from the large seam at the corner of the boot opening channel near to the rear screen. This seam is visible both outside and inside the channel that the boot fits into.

It appeared that the seam sealer around the joint had given up. I added more seam sealant around the seam both outside and inside. No more water now.

I repeated the process on the other side just in case.

I also found a small rust spot behind the boot rubber seal which on further inspection became a hole!! Well worth removing the rubber seal and checking the condition of the bodywork behind it. There are also another two smaller seams behind the boot seal which need investigation.

[robson]

Thanks Carfix Do you mean the channel on the body of the car where water drains from the windscreen to the base of the boot opening the channel that has the rubber seal.If thats the case I should be able to see a leak here without getting fully into the boot? I cant see my 87 year old body doing that.Regards Ron

[johnnydog]

I too had water collecting in the spare wheel well of my 3.2 saloon. The boot lip seal seemed fine, but I changed it for a known good one off another car with a dry boot, without any noteable improvement. With further delving, I did notice that, as Carfix has said, there was a minute gap between the spot welded seam in the nearside boot lip aperture, directly below the rear screen rubber moulding. Shining a inspection lamp inside the boot in that area helped to pinpoint it as you could see the light between the two panels. Rather than use seam sealer, which would have involved a bit of paint touching up, I forced some DumDum in with my finger from both sides. This seemed to have cured it, and the beauty of DumDum is that any excess can be removed with White Spirit, leaving just the correct amount of sealant in the affected seam which skins over but remains flexible, without any overlapping as with brushable seam sealer. It's barely visible, and doesn't look out of place, and requires no touching in with paint.
Incidentally, if your boot lid sits well between the rear wings, without being proud, don't be tempted to try adjusting the hinges.....before I found the gap in the above seam, I tried adjusting the hinges as mine was marginally proud on the unaffected side, but what a mistake that was... any adjustment I attempted seemed to have the opposite affect, and trying to get to sit as it should once the allen key bolts had been slackened was a nightmare. I did get it right in the end, but not without a lot of cursing and  swearing......

[robson]

update took the spare wheel out and sure enough about an inch of water in base I have never taken it out before and found that a black sealant had been spread in the base.The 2 plugs in the base were solid fixed in base do these have a drain hole if not why are they there.I have cleaned it all out and run water all around the rubber seals but cant find a leak. Question is should the bungs allow drainage and what is the best sealant to use.

[STEMO]

update took the spare wheel out and sure enough about an inch of water in base I have never taken it out before and found that a black sealant had been spread in the base.The 2 plugs in the base were solid fixed in base do these have a drain hole if not why are they there.I have cleaned it all out and run water all around the rubber seals but cant find a leak. Question is should the bungs allow drainage and what is the best sealant to use.

Bungs should have a small hole in the middle, often bunged up with dirt. Yours are probably bunged up with sealant.
The ones in my Astra front doors were the same, and water used to slosh about when I moved off or braked 

[Doctor Gollum]

The bungs are there to plug holes used to position body jugs during assembly and crash repair. They don't have drain holes in them.

[robson]

Just checked and as doc says there are no holes in the plugs.

[Doctor Gollum]

Remove all the trim from the boot and inspect all the nooks and crannies. Likely suspects for leaks are the inner wheel arch, and where that substructure joins the parcel shelf and inner c pillar/roof skin.

Any rust around the upper shock mount plate is a certain indication of impending failure and will probably write the car off because no one seems to be arsed to actually fix it ££££.

Also, if the car has a sunroof then presume that the drains are blocked. This will also dump water into the corners of the boot.

[Carfix]

Just some more thoughts.

Bungs/Grommets. On my 1997 model year Omega which I had from new so not molested too much.

There appears to have two types of bungs/grommet in the wheel well. One is a solid type half way up the wheel well and the other is a different type of bung with a small hole in the centre.

When I worked at Vauxhalls (Luton) on the Cavalier assembly line I also remember the various holes in the lower bodyshell let the "rust proofer paint" to exit the car as it passed through the paint dip process and before applying the final paint (Doctor Gollum)

I like the idea of using DumDum on that seam. (johnnydog)

Yep. Robson the seam is the one in the boot channel where the water runs off the rear screen visa those little rubber flaps and along the boot channel.

[cam.in.head]

mine has the bungs with the centre hole in ( moulded not drilled !) also had some water in hence needed seam replacing on one side .
as mentioned you will need to get in boot and have someone hosepipe you. not nesesarrily at full pressure either. check seal edges,light clusters,grommet for wiring ,body seams and also the double skinned area of metal just below the bottom of the screen. in the corners.
water leaks are a bugger to find and dont be suprised if you sit there for ages and dont see a drop !

[Doctor Gollum]

ALL the trim needs removing to inspect it properly.