Rubber door seal, beneath door to sill

[Faraday]

Hi all, I read on here some time ago (can't find it now) about sikaflex to replace seals. My Elan lets water that has run down the outside ingress into the door sill and thus pools about the rear of the sills and runs down inside behind the seat backs. Am expecting to sort this in the next few weeks (weather permitting) but my question is, as the original seals are water logged, should I remove them and replace it with a line of sikaflex covered in cling film whilst it dries to the contours, or should I leave them on and put the line of sikaflex alongside, belt and braces as it were? If the latter, would the sikaflex have to go on the outside of the original seal otherwise it would still get waterlogged but hopefully not ingress into the cockpit?
All advice welcome, many thanks.

[Simon_P]

The problem is that the seal is too good and doesn't let the water out, so it overflows into the car. There is a service bulletin or something in the manual that says what to do. The seals will soon dry out.

[Faraday]

Thanks for that Simon, but I'm confused, surely the seal is to stop the water getting in, not to get saturated? I was thinking that the seal had seen better days and was perishing thus getting saturated, is this the wrong diagnosis that I have made?

[Simon_P]

There's a lip on the inside edge of the sill, it is larger on the S2 I think. It is there to keep the water out.

But the seal prevents the water running away so it overflows into the car.

Because the water cannot run away, the sponge seal becomes waterlogged.

If you read the notes all is explained.

It will cost you nothing and take little time and effort to try.

The alternative is to destroy an irreplaceable seal and replace it with a load of gunge, in the hope that it seals less well than the seal you removed.

[dapinky]

There are 4 possible choices here (or 5 if you count "leave it as it is" as a choice).

1) Dry yours out with kitchen roll and a dry garage (will take a long time), and then dot he 'modification' to allow the pooling water to escape - Phil (Lotusflasherman) has done a 'temporary' method which works so well it has never been replaced, using a couple of lengths of plastic cord to 'break the seal' at the low points to allow the water out.
2) Try to find some better used/new ones (not a cheap option)
3) Wait until they get remanufactured at a reasonable cost (probably never going to happen)
4) Replace the crabby sponge seal with a slightly modified rubber one from a much more modern car - see Jamie-N's thread for the information - I have gone this route, and whilst my doors were off the car it was an easy job, but even with them still in situ it should be easily done in less than a day (most of the time will be taking off and replacing the door cards and cleaning up the mess - actually modifying the rubber and glueing it on is a simple process).