Where's this water coming from?

[Neill1607]

I have leaks on both passenger & drivers side but from different sources - Question is what sources?

The drivers side is the more worrying as it seems to be storing a couple of pints somewhere which exits by my foot under braking; you can hear it slosh around during turns, slowing down or accelerating, but I don't know how it's getting in or where it's being stored. The water doesn't exit during turns or acceleration, only under braking.

The exit point of the water is shown in the photo below where there's an opening behind where the brown wire appears to disappear by the door trim.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

[maz_r]

Hi there,

This might help; the sills fill with water and there are instructions on how to drill some drainage holes. Might be worth a read...

Cheers

Martin.

[epipete]

Ok, the water must be raın water ıts enterıng ın one of 3 ways, vıa:

The A Pillar
The door glass seal
The B Pillar

If its parked in the rain then get a cape for it and that will stop the ingress till you've figured it out.

My guess is its either a or b, it needs draining out, use a sponge if necessary. Then treat the rust in your out riggers, there is a thread on this matter.

Pete

Ps: As I look at your pic the only way the water could drain out of that hole is if the car is on its side

[lotusflasherman]

Bought my latest SE when I was on a contract in Lincolnshire and parked it in my hotel car park for a couple of months. Thought I'd bought a mobile swimming pool for a while till I understood what was happening. Car park had a slope and park one way the footwells would fill, park it the other way and the hollows behind the seats would fill. I even bought a rechargeable wet/dry hand held vacuum cleaner to get it out!

I found rain falling on the door windows will get inside the door, unless the outside rubbers are really new and flexible, which most aren't. No problem as there are drain holes in the bottom of the door, hidden by the door card, that lets it run onto the plastic door sill cover that has a lip on the inside edge to stop it coming inwards. The door seals should have a couple of hard rubber 'pips' along the bottom edge so they don't trap water on the sills and thus it flows to outside. If they do trap water it flows inside as the only way of escape.

I noticed that after heavy rain, when I opened the door the sill was covered in a lot of water that would flow off the sill onto the ground, and often as not I had a wet carpet. My 'pips' were missing so I scrounged some yellow/green earth sleeve and insulating tape and added 3 'drain tubes', front, rear and middle each side, that go from the top of the plastic sill cover down past the door seal as a temporary fix. Problem solved. Not sure if water flows in the tube or it just holds the seal away to let water past but it worked.
3 years later I'm still relying on them, (If it ain't broke, don't fix it... ), but have to renew occasionally. In the photo the middle one has dropped off.

tubes.JPG

It looks from your photo that you've removed the plastic door sills while investigating your problem so have created a problem in itself...

[John_W]

Neil,
I agree with Phil about the plastic door sill. It's there to direct any water draining through the doors towards the outside. If it's not there, water will flow into the car. The later plastic sills had a higher lip to stop water flowing into the car. My car has the old type sills, so I raised the lip by using sikaflex to stick some neoprene section onto the existing lip. I also used some tubing to get rid of the puddles (but not attached in such a rustic way as Phil did).

I'm sure that this is not the only way that water is getting into your car, so I suggest that you find the Service Notes Bulletin that gives a set of procedures to improve the water tightness of the Elan. It should be available on the manuals section. When I got my Elan many years ago, I found some water in the car after parking on a slope, and followed the Lotus advice on how to solve it. My car has been dry since, so good luck.

See the following threads for the Bulletin:
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=16508&p=218392&hilit=Water+ingress#p218392
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=13445&p=173288&hilit=Water+ingress#p173288
http://ret0027h.eresmas.net/bk055.htm et seq.

John

[Neill1607]

At first I thought the water was in the bottom of the door; it wasn't. I thought then that there maybe a channel underneath the door sill where the water was collecting, which was why I removed the cover. There's no channel there other than the one between the metal sill & the outer skin shown in the photo in my first post above; this does collect a little water from time to time but drains quite effectively through the drain holes there.

I can't see a way to include video here, but hopefully the link below to my You Tube video will work.

https://youtu.be/HHR2wt-W3SM

it shows the water exiting under braking & in this case not as much as usual as I was driving, braking, holding the camera - hence it's a little shaky, but it gives a good idea of where it's coming from.

Danny R's problem sounds very similar to mine in the thread link, but the thread doesn't seem to address the leak problem that I could see.

I can't see how the water can get into this void/area via the A Pillar, the door glass seal or the B Pillar.

[lotusflasherman]

Watched the video.
My first thought was 'wow, that amount of water must be inside the door' but you say it's not.
Can you find a stretch of private road where you could repeat the braking test while holding the door open? (Hang on to it tightly)

[Neill1607]

Found a school car park to the braking test with the door open, as I wanted to be sure for myself that the water was not coming out of the door or any other hidden channel - it's not, just the opening in the A Pillar.

I couldn't film it without three hands though

[lotusflasherman]

Couldn't you hold the camera (phone?) in your teeth then?

No need for a video really as you need to know, not us. Sounds like somehow you've got a sill full of water, that slops out the front under braking.

Don't know what to suggest other than ... my Eclat always collected water in the boot. Seals around lid looked OK but the boot floor had a dished moulding that filled up. As it was fibreglass there wasn't a corrosion issue so I drilled a drain hole in the bottom of the dish. Don't know where the water came in but I know where it goes out... maybe do likewise?

[chrisP]

I have seen the video, but cannot think of a way that, that volume of water would be stored anywhere apart from in the door. It looks like it comes from above the sill, and there is really no where for water to be stored towards the rear of the car. My only suggestion is to remove the door car as well for a better view and also checking for water down at the bottom of the B-pillar, with a rag on a stick. I hope you find the problem.

Chris

[Rambo]

Holy s**t That's a veritable tsunami

I've never heard of anyone with a problem like that before. Sorry I can't be of any help, other than to say what Pete has already said ( get the outriggers de-rusted) once you have sorted out the problems of the water ingress

Good luck