Passenger footwell - damp carpets

03.03.2017

My first post so forgive me if I haven't got the right place.

Bought a blue 2009 Piaggio Porter MPV (30k miles) last October. Been a regular visitor to this forum ever since then and gleaned a lot of sound information, so thank you all.

Have resolved most small niggles but the damp carpet in the passenger well is really annoying me - so I set out to discover where the water is coming from. I checked the headlamp cover, the windscreen rubber, the wiper holes, the washer hole - nothing. No evidence of water trails anywhere. I knew the water couldn't be dripping down from the front panel or anything attached thereto as I had some new fitted well carpets on top of the original and these were dry but underneath was wet.

When I first got the Porter I removed the entire front carpet, dried it out and cleaned it. Evidence of leak with small puddles in the hollows. Evidence of attempted cures by application of black silicone behind rubber door seal. Door seal removed, cleaned in hot soapy water, dried and examined - no tares, holes or weak grip band. Even so I suspected the door seal. Looked like water was following door seal down from above somewhere to the flat bottom bit and then tracking across to affect carpet. Dried everything out and reinstalled carpet. From now on the Porter lived under a cover (Halfords small is a great fit and exceptionally good). No more damp carpet until I had to remove the cover for the latest two storms we've had (Doris especially) as I didn't want to lose the cover.

Yep! Damp floor returned. I propped up the carpet and dried it all off. I then dusted the dry floor, inside of lower door and door seal with talc and waited until it rained. When I looked to see the results I saw water droplets appearing at the base of the door trim which then ran down the inside of the door and pooled on the rubber seal. When enough gathered it flowed onto the floor. No evidence at all of water flowing down the rubber seal from outside.

Now I have to take off the door card and investigate (not today, peeing down) and I'll let you know exactly how its finding its way past the window seal, into the door cavity and then bridging the space left so it leaks onto the inner section of the door and out through the bottom of the door card. It will be dripping on some part of the window mech no doubt.

Hope this helps someone trying to resolve damp carpets.

John (biofos)

Well done Sherlock. Great bit of investigative work. If you you can fix head gaskets at the wave of a Wand then I am sure you would receive a Knighthood.
Keep your posts coming. Looking forward to them.

There should be a pvc cover glued to the door under the door card.

And hello

Welcome indeed - another intelligent owner! Hijets/Porters seem to attracct them.

Well I am now an owner but not sure about the intelligent bit lol. This was good to know as I also have the same problem but time is not on my side at the minute to get this checked. Keep posting your knowledge I think i can improve my intelligence lol

Logi wrote:There should be a pvc cover glued to the door under the door card.

And hello

Yes, there is a plastic sheet behind the door card. It was soaking wet both sides mainly towards the front. I carefully stripped it off and saved the gungy stuff it's stuck on with. I decided that first off I'd seal the three apertures forward of the winder as these seemed to be the biggest offenders. I took a cardboard template of them and cut out a 1/2" larger bit of plastic for each. Then I edged them all with waterproof number plate tape and stuck them across the holes from the back. Last one was a bit difficult as you can't get your hand in like the other two, but I managed.

Door dried out I sprayed the bottom edges (inside) with waxoyl and lubricated the door and window mechs. Dried off the plastic cover sheet and stuck it back on in position. And then I noticed the second problem. Beneath each row of apertures is a long thin slot and I wondered what this was for when I pulled off the sheet initially. Now I could see; the plastic sheet has two envelope type tongues that need to be tucked into the appropriate slot. Whoever previously stripped/rebuilt the door down had not done this, so any water running on the inside of the sheet ran straight down on the back of the sheet, through the open tongue, onto the front of the sheet and gravity takes it behind the door card and down to pool on the weather-seal at the lowest point and then tracks over to the carpet. I've not seen this on any other car I've had - the sheets are normally unbroken. I live and learn. I'll let you know if it's been a complete success or if there's something else lurking!

Thanks for the welcome BTW.

John (biofos)

I don't know if i would manage that but sure will give it a go when I get a chance might even pass on to the other half lol. Thanks for the info.

Woodie wrote:Well done Sherlock. Great bit of investigative work. If you you can fix head gaskets at the wave of a Wand then I am sure you would receive a Knighthood.
Keep your posts coming. Looking forward to them.

Thanks Woodie, hope you are getting there health wise.

I'd love to wave a magic wand over knackered head gaskets but alas, not so :-(

Having just changed the coolant I now appreciate how pernickety these critters are. But thanks to this forum information all is well. I cobbled together my own filler bottle arrangement and may post a photo of it later.

John (biofos)

Ahh, this is interesting, I'll have to check mine cheers

welcome .. nice info

Quick update on original post:

After a night of heavy rain I checked the Porter this morning. One tiny trail of water drops from the base of the door card, bugger. Not nearly enough to cause pooling but I thought I'd fixed it. Off with door card and cover sheet. A careful look revealed the top orifice towards the front - which I sealed from the back - had been slightly breached by a few stray drops coming down from the window scraper seal, (I'd obviously missed a tiny bit). I removed the plastic insert I'd made and renewed the sticky strip and carefully replaced it in the hole making sure the top part was sealed and waterproof, the lower part of the plastic insert could simply hang down the inside of the door. Next I noticed where I had tucked the plastic tongue of the cover sheet into the thin slot at the bottom of the column of openings towards the front, the tongue was slightly longer than the slot and it had folded onto itself at one end. This was no more than 1/2" but enough to catch the odd drip and leak it to the back of the door card. It just shows how careful you need to be, especially when the door has obviously been stripped several times and the cover sheet has been stretched and distorted. Before I rebuilt the door I got out the hose and liberally sprayed the passenger door window etc. Although I could see plenty of water running down the inside of the door, my seals and the cover sheet were not breached this time. Job now done :-)

Next job, tomorrow, is to work out a way of making the window scraper seals (the inner and outer that sit either side of the window at the bottom of the window opening) a bit more effective. All my four of my front scraper seals are a good 1/2" short leaving a large gap for the water to pour down. I realise car window scraper seals are not supposed to totally seal out rainwater, but a 1/2" gap isn't helping. I'll let you know how I get on.

John (biofos)