Clio leaks and Drying a car out

atrixblue.-MFR-.

often the case with clio with sunroofs they leak, but also happens to the non sunroof model.


area's to look for leaks.


as mentioned the bulkhead bungs, one may have worked loose, or degraded and have split and cracked.


the other is the passenger door to pillar electrical rubber sleeve, make sure that this is in its place not loose fitting or kinked, water poors down the pillar in rain and when this rubber is loose or kinked drains into the pallar then into the foot well when its full enough.


the radio aerial has a rubber gasket to seal the roof, if the this is cracked or split, leaks water in the roof skin through to the passenger pillar and down into the foot well.


with the sunroof, theres channels you can seen when the sunroof is open, a long piece of sturdy wire (a metal coat hanger e.g) and push through what blockage is there.


also note the conditions of the door rubbers.

londonTiger

bigjl wrote: »

If there are drainage channels for the sunroof they will be inside the sunroof aperture. Have a look with a torch.

The quickest way to make sure there are no leaks is to use gaffer tape. Doesn't last forever and doesn't look brilliant but will confirm right away if the leak is from the sunroof.

unibond power tape is really good. My aero wiper blade end broke (it holds the blade into the bracket) and I taped it in with unobond - its still stuck 1 year later. Not cheap at £10+ a roll but worth it.

The stuff is quite grippy, I would be a bit cautions because it might take off some lacquer.

I would recommend checking the drain channels - sludge builds up and blocks these. When water has no way to run down it will overflow and find some other exit point (ususally into the car).

Probably slow way to dry the car. But taking out the seats - putting a oil filled radiator on full blast and a duhumidifier in the opposite corner will speed up evaporation.

Take off the excess water with a rag first though.

alanrowell

With my Clio I took the whole sunroof out and resealed it.

Follow Solution 3 from bettabob

TrickyWicky

londonTiger wrote: »

Probably slow way to dry the car. But taking out the seats - putting a oil filled radiator on full blast and a duhumidifier in the opposite corner will speed up evaporation.

Quicker and easier is (as I mentioned before) to put a load of wooden cat litter pellets under the carpet. Leave it overnight, next day hoover out the saw dust and put in fresh pellets to get the rest of the water.

I did this, the foam under the carpet is now BONE DRY. You can't find any damp spot in the carpet anywhere.

Oil filled radiator won't do any good as heat rises. All you'll do is dry out the roof liner. The kitty litter sits under the carpet and foam. Water being attracted to gravity and sawdust absorbing water..

Big_Nige

I agree with the cat litter, my Skoda has a leak, carpet was sodden causing soaking windows on the inside. a layer of cat litter replaced daily has done the trick.

loveprada

I'm experiencing exactly the same problem. I've been laying old newspapers in the footwells to absorb the water. The good thing is it can be picked up and thrown out in one go - no messing around with pieces of cat litter or whatever!

oldtoolie

Also helps to put an electric heater in the car with the window cracked and leave it running for a few days.

TrickyWicky

loveprada wrote: »

I'm experiencing exactly the same problem. I've been laying old newspapers in the footwells to absorb the water. The good thing is it can be picked up and thrown out in one go - no messing around with pieces of cat litter or whatever!

Problem is though that paper doesn't absorb as much water as the wood pellets. To demonstrate that I was putting entire KITCHEN PAPER ROLLS under my carpet. Next day they'd be saturated and the carpet would still be soaking wet! I simply couldn't absorb enough water.

Put in the wood pellets and within a day the carpet was virtually dry. Granted the hoover fills within seconds and has to be emptied quite a few times but it's extremely effective.