Water ingress part II

[Happy Days]

My 718 had a water leak through the rear drains a few years ago (there is some relevance to this story, honest!). The foam holds a horrendous amount of water. I took the carpets out completely on the driver's side (on the 718 they are in 2 halves) thanks to Jeff Richardson's YouTube channel. The carpet hung up in my greenhouse for about three weeks until it dried out fully. And this was in the summer when temperatures get up to the mid-30s in there. I squeezed the bottom of the foam each day to drive out excess water. In my opinion, unless you remove the carpets and foam completely, you will be chasing your tail to find where the leak is coming in.

[Paul P]

3 hours ago, Happy Days said:

My 718 had a water leak through the rear drains a few years ago (there is some relevance to this story, honest!). The foam holds a horrendous amount of water. I took the carpets out completely on the driver's side (on the 718 they are in 2 halves) thanks to Jeff Richardson's YouTube channel. The carpet hung up in my greenhouse for about three weeks until it dried out fully. And this was in the summer when temperatures get up to the mid-30s in there. I squeezed the bottom of the foam each day to drive out excess water. In my opinion, unless you remove the carpets and foam completely, you will be chasing your tail to find where the leak is coming in.

^^ this ^^ 

[duff]

I am working towards getting it all out. The car has actually been out in the rain over the last few days and shows no obvious signs of new/increased water which is positive, but as noted there is clearly still a lot of water in the foam underneath the carpet.

 

I had been following a guide to get this far that I have just realised is for a 911. It  is extremely similar up until this point, although the discovery it is for a 911 explains the few minor differences I found along the way.

However the way the carpet is attached down the middle and hence what needs to be removed now does appear quite different. Has anyone got a link to a 987 guide for this or any experience/advice?

[duff]

6 hours ago, duff said:

However the way the carpet is attached down the middle and hence what needs to be removed now does appear quite different. Has anyone got a link to a 987 guide for this or any experience/advice?

It looks like the only bit left to deal with is the thick black wiring loom running from front to back. It seems to start under the dash and head into the engine bay with the shift cables. I am unable to work out where where to unplug this, but as it starts below the carpet and finishes above it I can't see how the carpet can be removed without disconnecting it.

[Happy Days]

On 4/24/2024 at 8:06 PM, duff said:

It looks like the only bit left to deal with is the thick black wiring loom running from front to back. It seems to start under the dash and head into the engine bay with the shift cables. I am unable to work out where where to unplug this, but as it starts below the carpet and finishes above it I can't see how the carpet can be removed without disconnecting it.

If the trim covers the carpet across the centre console, would it be worth looking at cutting it?

[duff]

1 hour ago, Happy Days said:

If the trim covers the carpet across the centre console, would it be worth looking at cutting it?

I was really hoping to avoid that if I can but it looks like I might have to.
 

I assume I am missing something but I just can’t work out where I can disconnect that loom at all.

[nelmo]

Do you have to completely remove it? Just lift it up high as you can each side and leave it to dry that way? Throw a few of those dehumidifier bags under it, leave doors open for a few hours when the weather is better - should work eventually, no?

My daughters Aygo had a leak and the boot carpet was soaked. Luckily, easily removed and it dried out after a couple of days on a radiator, although I was amazed it took that long - didn't feel that wet.

Edited April 26 by nelmo

[duff]

4 minutes ago, nelmo said:

Do you have to completely remove it? Just lift it up high as you can each side and leave it to dry that way? Throw a few of those dehumidifier bags under it, leave doors open for a few hours when the weather is better - should work eventually, no?

My daughters Aygo had a leak and the boot carpet was soaked. Luckily, easily removed and it dried out after a couple of days on a radiator, although I was amazed it took that long - didn't feel that wet.

I am hoping that without the carpet I can guarantee the leak is gone as it will be obvious if the water pools again.

I am also thinking I’ll fit the seats, pedal, gear lever and handbrake back in so it can used while I do this. 
 

in fact I am literally about to bite the bullet and chop through it. It will still be one piece as I only need to chop one end

[duff]

I did chop the carpet so that I could fully remove it. Now down to the bare metal it looks like the leak has been resolved. I have hosed the car all over and left it out in the rain for a week and there is no sign of any water in the cabin. The water I thought was still getting in was actually stuck in the sodden foam and being pull out by gravity. I know others have said it before, but it is crazy how much water the foam holds. The carpet itself can actually feel dry even though there are litres of water in the foam below.

So, after a lot of squeezing, hair drying, dehumidifying and natural airing the carpet is now pretty much dried out so I hope to get it back in and make the car usable again. For those that have done this before; did you re-glue the carpet? if so what did you use?

[duff]

So everything’s is back in and it looks like the only place you really need to glue the carpet back is under the glovebox where it meets the door frame. Everywhere else sits in nicely. Just need to work out what glue is best to use. 

Now with everything back in I have 3 issues:

- the airbag fault light is on. I am not sure why as I was careful not to start the car with the seats out/unplugged.

- the after market rear view camera isn’t working. Hopefully I have just dislodged a wire on the back of the head unit.

- the roof still doesn’t work. I was hoping it might have magically started working for me! 

is there anyone anywhere near Bristol who might be able to run some diagnostics to help trace the roof issue and also reset the airbag warning? Beers (or chocolates/flowers/cake/etc… ) waiting.

[duff]

It appears the airbag fault has gone away all on it own which is a plus.

The after market camera failure is down to me bolting the handbrake down onto the wire that runs to it which has basically destroyed it. A quick attempt at cutting out the bad bit of wire and re-joining the cores has not worked so I suspect I will need a new wire and/or camera. 

I still haven't worked out what the roof issue is, but as the sun is out and the Mrs wants to be able to run around with the roof off so I have jerry rigged a new switch that bypasses the logic in the control module and allows the roof to be raised and lowered. Not quite Porsche engineering, but it works!

Edited May 9 by duff

[Paul P]

3 hours ago, duff said:

It appears the airbag fault has gone away all on it own which is a plus.

The after market camera failure is down to me bolting the handbrake down onto the wire that runs to it which has basically destroyed it. A quick attempt at cutting out the bad bit of wire and re-joining the cores has not worked so I suspect I will need a new wire and/or camera. 

I still haven't worked out what the roof issue is, but as the sun is out and the Mrs wants to be able to run around with the roof off so I have jerry rigged a new switch that bypasses the logic in the control module and allows the roof to be raised and lowered. Not quite Porsche engineering, but it works!

Totally selfish requirement but if you are poking around are there any part numbers on those two 12 way plugs ( brown and black ) looking for something like 60Q 972 833 with or without an “A” on the end.  
 

If so.  Which is which. If the “catches are at the top” which one is on the left or the right. 
 

(I have a bit of a side project on at the moment - trying to see if the rear control unit from another model line (not 9x7) can be “re purposed” and the wiring diagrams don’t differentiate between those plugs - the pin layout is the same the externals are different - that’s the A suffix )

please ignore if you can’t be ars*d.  no issue. But I have spent a few hours trying to prove or disprove a theory and this would help. 

[duff]

I don’t remember seeing any markings on the plugs when I was looking previously. The wiring diagram I had showed the connections as A and C and I was hoping that would be stamped somewhere so I could differentiate them.

However by looking at which pins were in use and testing them I could see that (with the catches at the top) A was on the left (black) and C on the right (brown). This allowed me to wire in a momentary on-off-on switch to short either pin 8 (open) or 2 (close) on connector C to pin 11 (ground) on connector A.

Not sure if that helps, but I will be revisiting these plugs in the near future as  really don’t want this to be a long term solution. Hence I can have another look then and if there is anything else you’d like to know while I am digging around in there feel free to ask.

[Paul P]

that does help a lot.  Thanks.