Focus RS Forum banner
61 - 80 of 93 Posts
Th
Well, as today was a nice day, I thought I'd have a look for the source of my slight water leak into the offside boot.

The boot mat & os trim was wet where the compressor & sealant lives. Noticed the c piller trim was wet & after removing, I noticed the water dripping approx above where the rear seat latch is, as others have found. So the water was running down the c piller trim & exiting around where the lower light fitting is, of course, 1st thing you assume is the light fittings!

So, I taped up the seam welds in the top right corner of the boot aperture, just below the roof trim, poured some water over, no drips, so this lead me to further up, poured water over the roof trims & a few mins later drips appeared.

Took off the roof trim to find a terrible amount of dirt!!

View attachment 854347
View attachment 854348

A good clean was required!

View attachment 854349
View attachment 854350
View attachment 854351

It was after a good clean that I could have a good look for the source to my water leak & it take long to find it, the seam sealer at the back hidden by the roof trim & a long crack forwards about 3 inches! You may need to zoom in to see it, I tried to get the best pic I could.

View attachment 854352
View attachment 854353

So, some non adhesive clear silicone sealer applied, whilst the trim off I went along the whole length of the seam to the front to be safe!

I didn't take a pic as its fairly obvious where to put the sealer!

Also done the seams inside the tailgate aperture from earlier as well as the boot hinge surrounds.


Took the spoiler off, as I noticed there was water ingressing inside the tailgate near the bolts, a good clean up then will make some gaskets for the bolts & new foam on the touch points. I silicone the grommets for the wiring & washer hose for good measure too!

Fingers crossed, this will cure my leak & be of help to others where to look.

Just the other side to do now, as well as change the light fixings. 👍
That’s one hell of a crack Gareth !!! Good find though very useful for everyone that owns a mk2.
 
Th

That’s one hell of a crack Gareth !!! Good find though very useful for everyone that owns a mk2.
Certainly is mate! 😁

With the cars now coming up 13 years old, I can see this becoming more common.

It may be that because my car lives & always has lived outside, the rain & cold has caused this but it may be just as relevant if the car sits in a heated garage that may dry out & shrink the seam sealer?

Either way, first thought when I found my damp boot floor, was this will be a nightmare, but after much googling, YouTube, all the area that can leak can be found & actually not as much hassle as I thought!

I must admit, taking the roof trims off, I was a bit hesitant, especially as new ones are £120 each but in the end, came off easy! 👍
 
Certainly is mate! 😁

With the cars now coming up 13 years old, I can see this becoming more common.

It may be that because my car lives & always has lived outside, the rain & cold has caused this but it may be just as relevant if the car sits in a heated garage that may dry out & shrink the seam sealer?

Either way, first thought when I found my damp boot floor, was this will be a nightmare, but after much googling, YouTube, all the area that can leak can be found & actually not as much hassle as I thought!

I must admit, taking the roof trims off, I was a bit hesitant, especially as new ones are £120 each but in the end, came off easy! 👍
I may as well order the roof rails now I have no luck 😂
 
Gareth.
Did you heat up the rails as you removed them?
Also, did you heat the seam sealer to help in removing?
Sorry for all the questions
I didn't heat the rails, I tried at the rear 1st & it came up easier than I thought so just carried on, you could try a hairdryer or heat gun, to see if it helps. I think as it has been on so long, getting wet a lot, it reduced the stickiness of the tape.

I siliconed over the top of the sealer, not worth removing the old as the trims will hide it all anyway.
 
Well known problem on all Mk2 Focuses. I had to fix my ST last summer. The size of the cracks was an eye opener. At least its and easy fix. I used CT1 as it's more waterproof than silicone and I don't want have to do it again.
 
A little update on my water leak.

Been a couple of weeks since I sealed up my offside under the roof trim & all good, dry as a bone. 👍

Not had a chance to take off the nearside one yet due to the weather, but I have removed all of the boot trim just to check all the seam sealer under the boot latch trim at the back of the boot floor, all looks fine, although I did find very slight damp in the nearside rear floor which I suspect is the roof trim sealers perhaps starting to go.

Whilst the spoiler is off, removed the brake light to give a good clean, noticed the loom, that goes from the light then inside the spoiler to the front (which then plugs into the tailgate loom) was absolutely disintegrated to a horrible sticky goo! :(

Image


So removed the loom & removed the old loom tape & rewrapped it, managed to save the original sticker, so good as new!

Image


Removed the washer jet & hose & cleaned that up too.

Image


New gaskets made up for the spoiler, so nearly ready to put it all back together! 👍
 
Little more done this morning, after rain overnight, my ingenious water collecting system (should it leak!) is still dry!

Image


I noticed that my rear screen vertical plastic strips were coming away, so off they came!
Only to find a hell of a lot of crud underneath! :(

Image


Image


So, all cleaned up now & new strips ordered. 👍
Whilst rooting about in the back corners under the boot trims I found these 2 curious bags about 4 x 3 inches in size, had to open 1 to see out of curiosity!

Image


Anyone guess what's inside? :unsure:
 
Another lovely day, so off with the ns roof strip, again, very dirty underneath but also the Sahara sand!

Image


Image


Now, what I noticed on this side that I didn't on the other was, down the centre of the channel is actually a foam sealing tape, I noticed this was lifting as I removed the roof trim, the double sided tape pulling it up. No problem though as it'll be siliconed down anyway but just be careful not to damage it when prising the trim off.

Anyway, small crack appearing (but not as big) in the same place as the offside.

Image


So, out with the sealer after a good clean up, I forgot to take a pic last time of the silicone application, so for a neat job, I use masking tape,

Image


Obviously this is to avoid getting silicone on the bodywork & not too much on the centre tape where the double sided trim tape will go on the roof trims.

Job done, about an hour in total.

Image


Now to clean up the old tape off the trims but these will go back on last once I know the silicone is set & all watertight.

Just the spoiler & whole boot trim to put back in & change the light fittings!

Soz for boring pics, but may be useful to others, seems to be very few pics available of this process.

Got this roof trim removal lark down to a tee now, 1st side 15mins, 2nd side 2mins!! 😄
 
So, update!

Everything dry as a bone in the tailgate & boot floor so roof trims finally went back on today but before they did, I checked the front a-pillar drain hole (covered by the roof trim) using a cycle brake cable, mine was pretty blocked with crud, so all clear now!

After Womblenh mentioning about his front carpets being wet, & all that Sahara sand we had a few weeks back, it was time for the annual clean under the scuttle panel & check the front seam sealer whilst at it!

Well, stripped it all down to find, yep, cracked seam sealer!

Image


Image


You can clearly see where the sealer is cracked. The brown is not rust thankfully, just dirt & sand!

This is the nearside, to check the offside properly, the wiper motor needs removing, pop off the connecter & 3 8mm bolts & pulls out easy.

Image


Image


The drivers didn't look as bad but hard to get in for a good pic but there was a couple if cracks appearing.

Image


So, out with the sealer & gave a good covering over both sides, apart from needing that & a good clean, all looked good.

I noticed the joints on the wiper motor was bone dry, so they got a good lube before replacing.

Also the metal scuttle & the plastic top scuttle, the foam tape, similar to the spoiler tape, was perished badly.

Image

Image


It wasn't even in the correct place, there are lines to show where it should be, so, luckily I had enough neoprene tape from the spoiler to renew both panels.

Image


Image


Image


So, all back together, just the rest of the engine clean up now! 👍
 
61 - 80 of 93 Posts