Help urgent - Drainage

[Richard]

Hello, and Help!
I came out to my S1 8.32 in the morning and the rear passenger footwell was full of water, after heavy rainfall. This has never happened before.The chap at the garage reckons the most likely cause is that one of the drainage channels has become blocked. There is no information about the drainage in the manual. Anyone know where I should look? Is there a diagram anywhere? Help please????

[Leo Capaldi]

My car was getting wet at the front (driver's seat of course!) - from the sun-roof. The drainage tubes from the sunroof hole were blocked (in the corners). I cleaned out the front ones by sticking a heavy electrical cable down. The tubes run down the screen pillars then exit in the compartment ahead of the screen. I removed the little non-return valves so as to get full drainage - I now get a nice gurgling sound when there has been heavy rain. Have not firgued out how to clean the rear drain holes as they are quite far back under the roof panel and I don't know where they exit.

Good luck, Leo

[Richard]

Thanks, Leo.
Unfortunately, I don't have a sunroof!
I'm wondering whether there are drain tubes down the 'C' pillar?
Most other cars I've had, there has been a diagram in the handbook telling where the drainage points are. Can't find anything similar in my handbook, although it is in Italian, so I'm only looking at the pictures!

[Rolf R.]

Hi Richard!

You might get into that troube by having a broken sealing of the rear window. Is the luggage compartment wet too? Lift the bottom of the rear seats and feel if the water comes from there.

The other possible entrance points are door sealings or through a window running down into the doors inside. If the doors drainage holes are clogged and a lot of water runs into it it may overflow into the interior. This is in my opinion the least likely cause.

Regards Rolf

[Richard]

Hi. thanks for your comments.
This is very curious. The luggage compartment is bone dry. I have the light tan Alcantara upholstery, which would show up any water, and it too is completely dry. The doors, sills etc - not a drop. It's just that rear footwell. The overmat was in place, and it was dry on top and wet underneath, so it would seem the water was coming from below. The vehicle, however, was stationary, so it wasn't road water being thrown up.
I can only assume some kind of internal drainage channel is blocked, or perhaps a join has come apart?

regards,

Richard

[Rolf R.]

Hi Richard!

Thats curious! If the car doesn´t have a sunroof then there are no drainages.

Another possibility seems to be heavy flooding outside up to a level, that the water reaches the cars bottom. There might be a production related opening in the area, but then you must have lost the metal cap closing such a hole normally.

Another possibility: parking the car nearby a larger pothole or puddle and a lot of water sprayed against the doors and not that good door sealings?

Regards

Rolf

[Leo Capaldi]

Hello again,
Once after waxoyling the passenger door of my HPE I didn't refit the polythene liner behind the door card. Rain water found its way inwards and wet the carpet. I guess that is unlikely unless you have been in behind the door card.
I guess that blocked drain holes in the bottom of the door must be favourite. Have you taken the door card off yet to see if there is water in the door?

Leo

[kassus]

hi

this is a common problem in our old themas, my 16v with electric sunroof has the same problem.....but my 16v turbo and the 2.5 td of a friend also !!! and they dont have !!!! i think it is a problem of the windshield and the chasis (sorry my english is very bad) where there join in the black plastic.

you can try to put silicone or similar in this hollow.

bye

[cock]

that could very well be the case.

I suddenly heard a strange hissing sound.
It appeared that the sealing on the underside of the wind screen sunddely decided to call it a day.
In my case , since I was driving at considerable speed, water sprayed just over the dashboard but i can very well imagine that if the car had been standing still it would have dripped between the dashboard and firewall onto the floor

Best thing is to drive the thing through a carwash and check with a flashlight while it is being washed

[Brian Hilton]

Sounds to me that it is more likely to be what Leo suggested, there is a water sheet behind the door panel trim that has adhesive all the way around so that if any water gets down past the window seals which is very likely bearing in mind the age of Thema's, the water sheet is supposed to direct the water down into the bottom of the door when it can then run out of the drain holes in the bottom of the door, I would suggest spraying water around the door and then taking the door trim and have a look to see if water is getting past the water sheet. Dedra's have the same system, and that has been the problem on more than one of them, also check the front door that side as the water could be getting into the front well and seeping into the back. It's not unknown for the water sheet to be completely missing, left out when previous work has been carried out to door locks etc.

Brian Hilton
Dedra Advisor
Lancia Motor Club
UK