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Not sure about microwaving the silica - surely in an oven the moisture has nowhere to go? I'd imagine a regular oven with the door cracked open would be better - or an airing cupboard.
I got some of those 1kg silica bags. They do absorb a lot of moisture, weigh them before and after microwaving them, they lose several hundred grams each.
But as others have said, check the door seals etc again. The little 'flap' seal on the top of my door had come loose, not even the main 20mm diameter seal, just the little one that diverts the incoming rain away from it. The carpets were backed with ~4" thick foam in the footwells and they were completely sodden from just a 1" gap in what didn't even appear to be a seal. Had to cut the carpet out with a knife as the alternative was to remove the entire interior to get it out in one piece!
I still keep them in the car even after fixing the seal as they do keep the condensation down on cold mornings.
Even without a leak car's will naturally get wet over the winter, moist air gets in, condenses o the bare metal, soaks down into the carpet, repeat that every night for 6 months and you've got a moldy car.
Another +1 for those drying bags, but remember they only draw out moisture in the air so if it's all on the windows they don't do an awful lot- it needs air circulation and a little warmth.
I suspect mostly what you have is the same water causing trouble over and over, since you seem to have ruled out leaks- so that being the case, a big effort to really dry it out might well do the trick. Stick a small electric heater in it basically, get it warm on a dry day, wipe any steam or droplets off the windows etc.
I don’t know why I’m defending our need for two cars but…
You don't need to justify anything. It just sounds like an expensive boat anchor, is all. Might be more cost-effective to get shut and then replace 6 months / a year / whatever later. If you've got your reasons then fair enough.
Not sure about microwaving the silica – surely in an oven the moisture has nowhere to go?
What sort of crappy microwave do you have that doesn't have air vents?
Might be more cost-effective to get shut and then replace 6 months / a year / whatever later.
Very very very very rarely is that the case.
Unless your renting a new car you'll just be buying someone else's issues at the price point he's likely to get for selling someone his problems -sorry I mean car.
Both our cars are steaming up at the mo. I unblocked the hatch lock drain on mine and also got underneath with a cable tie to clear any bodywork drains, including doors.
Was rewarded with what seemed like a gallon of water from one drain hole in the boot area.
Her car, the roof aerial rubber has perished and cracked. The headlining is sagging from a previous leak where the seam sealer under the roof rail trims cracked. Took ages to find that leak.
Nissan note owner... Check your high level brake light the foam gaskets toss....
HTS
Change the pollen filter 1st. Also check the air box cover as they distort.
Also bang an oil fired rad in with a window down a smidge to get it properly dry and warm
On a decent journey (none recently) when the car is up to temperature I spend a few minutes with the air blower on full at max heat. Then, while still moving, I open all the windows and purge the humid air from the car. Windows closed. Up to temp again? Purge! I keep going until I am well done/bored/at my destination.
I used to have Clio that was a proper swamp. It was so damp that the water used to freeze in small icicles on the inside of the sun roof. When I was driving to work on an early shift I had two options.
1. Leave windows open and heating off the whole journey so the ice didn't melt. Required down jacket, hat and gloves.
2. Choose some heat but have to wear full waterproofs, including hood up and waterproof trousers as it was like rain when when they started melting.
2 moisture absorbing bags and swap every 2 weeks. Change pollen filter - that can reintroduce moisture when hot. On a dry day leave the windows open. My car gets very humid as I often forget to take we t gear out of it and have found the above works.
Most likely just some trapped damp from lack of use and air flow through the car. If it’s just lots of condensation on the windows get a couple of the moisture absorber thingys so you can have one in the car while the other is drying out at home.
Try and go for a decent length drive to get the heater up to temp and air con running. See if you can save up a couple errands and do it them all in one longer driver rather multiple smaller ones or maybe take the long way to the supermarket for shopping. Should be fine after a couple weeks. Keep at it a few more times even one the car appears to be dry to really make sure the humidity has dropped.
If it’s having no impact on the dampness in the car then I think you probably have a leak somewhere.
mechanic seems to think a door seal may be faulty and suggested wiping silicone somewhere (on the seal maybe) but she cant remember. any idea what that advice may have been for a dodgy door seal?
well it looks a little more serious now than a microwave sachet....
just found a veritable lake of water in the rear footwell and the spare wheel cutout, a good few inches. drained it and currently trying to dry it out but its not the time of year for that malarkey :-/
rather than a door seal, my gut feeling is rear washer pipe as just a dribble comes out when the levers pressed, whilst the front is fine. but.....what do i know, could be a seal still :-/
cant really find anywhere to check the pipe, i dont know how its routed and there doesnt seem to be anywhere to access it.
any suggestions?
thanks
cant really find anywhere to check the pipe, i dont know how its routed and there doesnt seem to be anywhere to access it.
any suggestions?
Food colouring in your washer reservoir to rule it out?
Food colouring in your washer reservoir to rule it out?
good thinking, not sure id be able to tell in the rear footwell as its carpet, but i would in the spare wheel bit. not sure how long itd take to get more water in there but yes, worth a try thanks.
What sort of car is it? Is the jet blocked? On Golfs etc it's pretty easy to remove the rear jet from the outside.
06 nissan note. ive just had a needle up there and no difference. havent got any food dye at present but just thoroughly dried spare wheel well and tried the rear washer for a good minute or so, no water appearing anywhere that i can see and no splashes or anything in the well. baaaaah.
Obviously not a Nissan Note, but Ford Focus Mk2's had a common fault where the exhaust vent under the rear bumper would come loose (all that air the fans blow in has to go somewhere), which let rainwater run into the boot/spare tyre well, then overflow into the rear footwell and onto the front footwells. First you noticed was when the front carpets (and the several inches of foam under them) were soaked through.
Unlikely to be exactly the same but gives an idea of how a trivial leak can seem to end up completely filling the car with water.
If it's the washer fluid, would you not smell it?
Thing is, you're not worse off now, before you were stuck with a problem and no obvious causes, now you've got a lead. It's totally progress.
Check for wet carpets, door membranes are often leaky.
Don't waste your money on anything else.
Couple of bags of Cat litter sliced open will keep it dry.
Take it for a proper drive now and then.
If you don't need it sell it.
Food dye may leave you with a permanent stain. What about neat washer concentrate? That way your nose can lead you.
Probably best to get it really dry and then start tracking down the source.
I had a Panda that used to fill it's spare wheel well. I added a drain hole with a small pipe and then just ignored it.
Google says leaking seal on high level rear brake light is a common fault. If not that, then the boot seal or rear light clusters:
https://www.noteownersclub.co.uk/threads/water-in-the-boot-of-my-note.2245/
I had an Astravan years ago, it was a work van and they were tight with expenses, so I'd topped up the screen wash with water. I'm assuming that the plain water freezing is what caused the rear screen wash hose to split when opening the rear hatch.
Obviously, everytime I used the rear washwipe it dumped water in the back.
So maybe check the in the flexy bit that feeds the wires and hose to the rear hatch.
I fixed it with half a bic biro iirc.
Obvs Check the high level brake light first.
Yep agree definitely progress as you know if a leak now just need to find the cause. Try and follow and area of dampness to help lead you to the source. eg right rear carpet might be wet. Feel if the seats are wet too, then follow it up the headline trim to see if thats wet so then you know its something around the rear windscreen area.
Try and get it as dry as you can, attack it with hairdryer if you can get the car close enough to the house to power it. Then use hose pipe or watering can externally keeping the water in one area and check for any ingress of water. If dry move on to another patch and repeat.
@duncancallum yes i did thanks mate (and also backed up by others, thank you) but ive only just twigged i misunderstood it. as the passenger well is left hand side, i thought 'high level brake light' was referring to the brake light up top on the LHS. i took the cluster off earlier, thought naah, that doesnt make sense, no seals etc, then realised you meant the light at the top middle.
too dark now to have a look but ill certainly have a shufty tomorrow, if i can work out how it comes off🤷♂️
It’s totally progress.
Yep agree definitely progress
it doesnt feel like progress as i look at the mould starting to grow underneath the seat with no idea where its come from, but yep, youre probably right.
cant shake the feeling that as theres o rear washer water that theres a problem there too, so maybe two leaks? one from the pipe into the passenger footwell, and the other maybe from that brake light.
bahhhhh, cars eh?🤬
thanks for all your suggestions, appreciated.
@sadexpunk Its held in by 2x 10mm nuts from memory.
When you change the bulb the foam gasket never goes back.
At one point Nissan didn't do the gasket separately.
Run a hose on it and sometimes you'll see it track down the glass.
It's a shit idea and we had loads in under warranty cost Nissan a fortune till they released the gasket separately.
Our ’07 Jazz is persistantly damp. There was a genuine leak at the rear which has been fixed so the boot no longer fills up with water when it rains, but there’s still some water getting in. Last week I had to deice the *inside* of the car windscreen.
My Civic was like that, the door seals were trashed (could hear and feel the air leakage) which didn't do it any favours.
Have you tried closing the windows?
Funnily enough when that car got laid up I solved the damp problem by keeping the windows open by a couple of cm. It had those air deflectors so you couldn't tell but it was as dry as a bone by the time it moved on. Bit dusty but a quick vac sorted it right out.
When you change the bulb the foam gasket never goes back.
At one point Nissan didn’t do the gasket separately.
so i spose in a way im hoping to take the light out and not find a gasket? thatll prove its shoddy enough to leak?
and do they now sell the gasket separately? or should i splodge some silicone around it and let it dry before replacing? i say let it dry as im thinking if i just put the light back onto wet silicone it might never come away again?
thanks
Girlfriend's mx5 was damp inside the cabin and the boot. Hadn't been used for months due to lockdown and a new job (3km on the bike rather than 75km one way in the car).
I dumped half a (big!) sack of kitty litter into the boot and spread it about. Used two of those silica sacks, left on the dash so that they would dry out again in the sun.
PITA. But, don't want to get rid as it's so much fun.... Just got it back from the garage and despite the hardtop on still had a nice, smiling drive home.
Sorry gasket compresses n never goes back right.
You can get them now. I'm sure Ebay have them.
Silicone isn't always the best
@sadexpunk fling the silicone on if you need to. That was the fix for the previously mentioned Focus light issues. It will pull off if you need the cluster off again, just make sure everything is nice and clean first.
Its held in by 2x 10mm nuts from memory.
been raining fairly heavy through the night, just been out to look and spare wheel well is still dry. bah. just had a look for those 2 nuts, ill take the light off later for a check still. theyre quite well inset arent they, ill be in a world of pain if i drop those nuts down inside the tailgate body methinks! 😄
also had a look round the rear passenger door for the footwell leak, no sign of water coming in there either.
wife says that the rear washer has never worked since buying the car a good few years ago, so shes never operated the lever to try since. so its probably not that either altho it could still do with getting sorted. dont spose anyone knows how and where the pipe is routed do you? @duncancallum do you know as it seems like youve worked on these before?
Pipes in the rubber bellows. Damned if I can remember which one.
It's been 10yrs and even then I was on the desk not the spanners.
You got any marks on the headlining?
If you wanted an easy way to check. Get seats down carpet out and any easy trim. Dry it out and get in the boot with a torch. Then get a hosepipe not a pressure washer on it.
You could even tape over the various lamp unit seams to prove a point.
One question wheres the aerial?
Pipes in the rubber bellows. Damned if I can remember which one.
@duncancallum sorry, dont understand what the rubber bellows are, im not very good with cars 😀
ive found this nissan note guide through googling, page 45 shows the pipe being routed driver side, which is opposite the flooded footwell. like i say tho, even if its not that then it could still do with being sorted.
You got any marks on the headlining?
nope, not that i can see.
If you wanted an easy way to check. Get seats down carpet out and any easy trim.
are you implying to totally remove the rear seats to get the carpet out?
One question wheres the aerial?
front middle, just above the windscreen.
ive just been out for initial investigation into rear light. first of all the red glass came away from the unit iself, so i thought id broken it, but ive stuck it back on with silicone. will bathroom silicone be good enough for that or will it freeze in winter and the lamp glass will fall off?
finally got the whole unit out, and its hard to tell if its the culprit or not. there is still a gasket of sorts there, a bit iffy maybe, and the area inside is all dry too.
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what would you do with this? squidge a load of silicone onto it and hope for the best?
thanks
That gaskets knackered they used to be about a fiver.
Knowing nissan they'll be on back order forever
Try silicone or something similar
Try silicone or something similar
ive ordered some of this stuff, saw it recommended on a nissan forum for the same problem.
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had a look after yesterdays rain and theres a trickle running into the spare wheel well, looks like its coming from the rear right corner as you look down on the well. only a very small trickle which id have thought would dry up before becoming inches deep over a few months, but its still ingress.
no idea where its actually getting in tho.
thanks
bit specific again to the nissan note, so maybe another one for @duncancallum?
ive just been trying to access the rear washer pipe to see if theres a blockage anywhere. ive traced it along the right hand side at floor level (which by the way ive also noticed is damp in the rear passenger footwell, just not a swimming pool like the left hand side), i can see it go up through the rubber sheathing in the centre of the hatch, and i can even see it behind the little black sticky label, but how on earth can i disconnect it from the nozzle? (to see if fluid comes out of the end and prove no blockage in the hose?
ive googled and looked for youtube vids, but no joy? theres only a tiny hole behind the nozzle, theres nowhere at all for hands/fingers to fit, so all i can think of is that the nozzle pulls off somehow with the hose still attached and goes back the same way?
(i'll take a pic later when its a bit more feasible to go outside brrrrrr)
Audi A4
Aircon drain.
Went through a 90 deg plastic elbow, with a bore the size of dog hair. Predictably, became blocked - all the time.
I discovered this design flaw the first time a litre or so of very stinky water emptied itself into the glove box, from the evap unit via one of the pipes which are supposed to carry cold cabin air, when going round a hard right corner.
Unblocking the elbow required pulling a panel from the centre console. After the third time I stopped bothering to reattach it properly.
Awesome work, VAG.
Same car. And also on a Golf.
Rear boot wash wipe.
Pipe was clipped on to a widget that allowed the jet to be on the base of the wiper.
The pipe routinely disconnected itself due to piss weak clip - filling the boot with washer fluid in the process.
Dismantle boot to reach said clip and reattach.
Awesome work, VAG.
Update:
Those pouch things seem to be working.
I also removed the damp rags that my missus would use to clean the windscreen then chuck in the passenger footwell.
With the drying bags, a wet car needs different handling than a damp car- the bags can completely wet out much quicker than the instructions suggest and will take a lot more drying too. Basically just change 'em more often than you think you have to and you won't go wrong- they're most effective when fresh anyway.
The main thing is, when they're fully wet, a normal spin in the microwave generally won't dry them- they'll come out hot and moist and continue to steam off for some time. (easy test this time of year- sling it on the dashboard, see if the windscreen steams up). I go with microwave then the rest of the day on a radiator for maximum drying outness, it's overkill but there's not much point in putting moisture back in
well i found (part of) the rear washer pipe, by accident really as i removed the high level brake light to silicone it, and found i could access the '90 degree elbow' section. i took that apart and checked it, no problem there. water did come out but slowly (although that may be normal, it just might become higher pressure when it needs to go through the tiny nozzle).
however, it just doesnt really come out of that nozzle very well at all, if anything just a drizzle (so it must be connected, it just doesnt squirt out)
ive just siliconed that light now so ive no appetite to remove it to play around any further behind it, but will the nozzle pull off at all to check the join there?
by the way, i also siliconed the clips at the top where the light clusters clip on. im like a dog with a bone now looking for places where water can get in 😀
thanks
Might be the filter in the reservoir there causing the low flow.
Might be the filter in the reservoir there causing the low flow.
easy to get at/check?
thanks