Rain Water Leaking Headlight

Hello There,
Since i dont know what to do next to solve my problem im asking you guys:

My Problem is that when its heavily raining, the floor gets wet, the water coming in at the welding between the casing of the headlight and the rest of the car. I marked in the attached picture to show it.

Then i checked another hijet front light and saw that the welding is full of sealant from the outside, dont know why they missed to seal that gap at my truck. Anyways i did that with a thick layer, and spraypainted a few times afterwards.

Still water on the floor after 2 Days of Rain. Currently i have not too much time i tried to close the upper gap between the metal parts with some electrical tape, to check if that solves the problem.

Still water in the car,
Any Ideas on this? its on both sides but mainly on the driver side







Cheers
Maxim

There are several potential water leak points. You have identified bad sealing in the headlight recesses (and looks like you've cured them). But also examine the windscreen rubber for defects and poor fitting; the washer jet rubber sealing washer; the windscreen wiper sealing rubbers and I notice your van has had an aerial fitted on the drivers side windscreen post - this is another two potential leak areas here. Also make sure there are no additional wiring holes that may leak.

If it's none of these it may be the door seal. If it's been removed it may not have been refitted properly. Remove the door seal, give it a good clean and repair any defects. There are two drain holes along the top of the flat part of the door recess where the sill meets the bodywork. The first at the front where the door jamb curves down and round towards the flat part of the sill; here you will find small oblong hole. The second is about 15cm from the first along the flat top edge of the sill near to where the double skin starts and at the lowest part of the door opening. Clean out these drain holes with a length of plastic cable tie (so you don't scrtach the paint inside). The holes can be completely blocked. Once cleared replace the door seal making sure the joint sits directly above the second drain hole. Ideally the water should run down the door seal until it reaches the joint. Here it can drain through the joint in the door seal and straight out through the drain hole. If the joint is placed anywhere else the water runs down the door seal to the bottom, can't get out and forms a pool that eventually runs over the top of the upstand and soaks the carpet.

Interesting, you couldn’t post some pics of these holes could you? Picture paints a thousand words and all that.

OK Raggy here they are: Please note these holes are small and difficult to see. The front one is the easiest to find as it's right at the apex of the bend. To find the one further back its best to shove the cable tie up from the underneath. Look for the raised bit on the sill upstand between the last two spot welds - the drain hole is behind this. If you look from underneath you can see the different sections of sill and body with a slight gap between them. This may have been covered with underseal of some other gunge. Open it up and let the door seal work properly. I found these quite by accident. My passenger side was continually damp so I took off the door seals to see if they were OK. I couldn't work out where the water was supposed to go until I started poking around. The weep holes on mine were actually open; it was the seal had not been put back in the correct place. It's natural to think the join should be at the top  - not so. The join should be directly above the drain hole behind the raised bit on the upstand.







Cheers,

John.

An excellent answer John, cheers

Hey there,
Thanks for your detailed reply. The sealing in the recesses should be good. But i wasnt able to seal the whole gap because its not possible to get very far into the middle (dont know how to describe this, i attached a picture). It makes sense to me that the water coming in from the Washer or wiper sealings, because they sit in the middle of the car, so the water could be able to enter here and go under the sealing I made. I checked all 3 sealings they look good to me, but i think i will just replace the gaskets anyways just to make sure.
The Windscreen rubber looks good, maybe i will tape above to see if that cures the problem. Because i dont want to replace the windscreen sealing without beeing sure that this is the prob.
I think i will check the front first, i am sure the door is not the problem, because as shown in the 1st picture in this thread its visible that the water enters through the recesses of the headlight. But if i solved the water problem i will give my door a good treatment. Thanks for the description!
I will check all these things soon and then post my results here
In the Pictures the red line is showing where i put the sealant and the blue dot-line is how i think the water entering my car






Cheers
Maxim

Hello Maxim,

The rubber seal on your wiper looks good to me. They are easy enough to remove, clean and rebuild (if not damaged). If the seals are OK I would not put any sealant on them at all; just get them nice and clean. Sealant might cure the problem BUT it's a pig to remove later and it will probably fail again.

The washer stalk is almost impossible to get off without dismantling the entire van ;-). It looks to be OK though. I'd do the wiper seals first and test. Investigate one suspect at a time and then you will know which one is the culprit and can keep an eye on it for the future.

Don't disregard the door seals and the weep holes. If the holes are blocked the carpet will get wet and start rotting the metal channel.

Cheers.

Hey there,
Thanks again for your quick reply.

So i will hope that it will stay dry tomorrow so i can dissasemble and clean the wiper seals and check the door weep holes that should be done quick.
Good to know that the washer stalk is hard to remove. I could not find anything about that thing in the manual and had no idea how that thing should be removed.
Right now i have no carpets in the van, because its raining almost every day - once a day i go there to swap the toiletpaper in the hole to make sure no water coming into the van. I already had to weld 2 pieces into the floor on the driver side. I think the previous owner had the same problem and did not care about.

Best Regs
Maxim

Good luck Maxim - keep searching for the culprit, you will find it. Many HiJet/Porter vans have this problem and you are correct that it will rot out the floor eventually. It's a good idea to keep the carpet out until you've cured the leak; damp carpets and metal floors do not mix.

Cheers.

Hey there,
Me again. So i started to work on my little van again. I removed both antenna holders and the wiper seals, cleaned and refitted both and cleaned the door seals and the weep holes. I still get a wet floor. My next step will be to tape the windshield sealing with electrical tape to check if the water is entering there. I dont want to take the windscreen out there without knowing that this is the culprit.

If you guys have any more suggestions how to get this fixed, please tell me



heers And Thanks!

Maxim,

Did you place the join in the door seal directly above the weep hole nearest the front wheel? It is important to do so.
Otherwise it looks like the front window seal is the next place to look.

Cheers.

Maybe clean everything inside very well. Then put talcum powder everywhere. Then after it has rained you can see the source of the water.

Hey there,
Again, thanks for your Help guys!

I checked the door seal and the sealing join is above the weep hole. I refitted like it was before because the sealing has the same shape as the door, so its almost impossible in my case so fit the sealing other than it was before

The washer jet is another possible source. Maybe i should tape that thing - first and then the front window seal.

I know the source of the water inside (i took a picture yesterday of a entering water drop), but i just dont know where the water is entering the car. On the driver side its a little worse but on both small amounts of water coming inside.

I didn't thought that this will be so much hassle to solve this.

Cheers
Maxim

They are really bad for leaking around the aerial mounts.

The way the bodyshell is made from a couple of skins on the A pillars, and round the bottom of the windscreen.

I have cut a fair few hijets up with a petrol disk cutter, so I know the shell shape quite well at the front.

You might have to take the front corner wings off, which is very easy.

Hey There,
I sealed the aerial mounts, they are 100% water tight.

So todays was another rainy day so i checked once again and found water at the join of the light housing and the car but on the top,
i sketched into the picture how i think the water is entering. It seems to me its coming from the gap between the car and the side panels and takes his way on top of the lights and is entering at the point i made a picture from (dunno how to describe that point).
Can i just close the stupid gap between that side panel and the car? for wich reason there is a gap the water automatically has to go through the front light ...
I already took the two side panels off, and cleaned the surfaces where the sealing sits.
But i dont really understand what you are meaning? because only taking the side panels off wont solve my problem i think

Thanks for your reply
Maxim