w124 wagon third row seat water leak
 

Hello all,

After some driving in intense rain I have found that the third row seat footwell area was quite damp, I show no signs of leakage around my tailgate or rear windows. I checked inside the two side panels and all was dry in there.

Any ideas how this water is entering the footwell from below? I cannot find any obvious signs of entry.

Thanks,

How about the rubber plug just in front of spare tire.

LK, the spare is on the side, not under the passengers feet. That said, pretty weird, I would crawl around under the back to try to spot something. Another tactic would be to sit in the back and have someone hose the car down to try to find something from above, maybe the weatherstrip between the roof and tailgate right up above the rear window? Stumper.
Oh, there is an opening between the floor (footwell) area and I believe both sides, so it could be flowing from the right or left side into the footwell area back there, which would bring to mind things like the stationary (1/4 panel) window seal on one side, or the antenna mast seal, or possibly the sunroof drain? Not sure if that drain hose runs to the rear of the car or just behind the rear door (in front of the rear tire on one side or the other. Water leaks suck on TE's.
Gilly
EDIT: Also the rear washer solvent tank could be causing it, if the seal where the pump enters the tank is bad, or if yo use the rear washer, you could also have a bad washer hose squirting fluid into the rear area instead of the rear window, keep that in mind too. (rear washer working OK, and also is it low on fluid even if you don't use it much).

Does water collect around the point where the top of the rear shocks are attached inside the wagon? The water is very likely leaking form the rear cargo area windows.

Check the door latch on the body -- if full of water, either the door gasket or the rear window seal is leaking. It will fill up the latch and then flow into the seatwell.

Peter

Argh! Water leaks on S124s are a NIGHTMARE!!!!

My best bet would be you rear cargo door rubber seal, it is one of the first offenders in terms or rear water leakage and if it hasn't been change, it is time do to so.

About no signs of leakage, be sure this problem will not be obvious.

If the door seal is not the culprit, then I am sure is either one of the rear side windows rubber seals or the antenna base.

More complex leaks involve the sunroof drains, but that should not affect the third row footwell.

thanks to all
 

I'll keep checking for signs of entry, washed it down with a hose around the rear 1/4 windows, rear hatch glass, hatch and antenna no signs of leaks.
When this first occured I had the floor flat and a cargo mat covering the whol floor area. After the trip neither the cargo floor nor covering mat were damp at all or any area around the tailgate, just the third row foot well, checked the side compartments and they were dry.

I'll pull the carpet from the footwell to seal if there is a drain or missing seal that would have allowed the water in to just this area. Has anyone done this before? There are some blck plastic fasteners that I assume should be pulled straight up and out, is this correct?

TIA

Longshot ... Floor panel that covers the accumulators? This floor panel has a lip under the backrest of the 3rd seat. If loose, water could splash up and seap into 3rd seat footwell.

Bob
PS Hijack thread. I replaced self leveling fluid & filter and inde did accumulators. Rear end now stays up, controller won't change height. Any "Longshot ideas before I replace the controller?

Another possible leak source.

The shocks for the taligate have rubber bellows which are to fit snugly into the body. Maybe one of those is leaking. I would think if it was leaking from there it would not be to hard to detect.

I wouldn't pull any carpet out to look for a missing floor pan plug, just look under the car!
Gilly

This may sound off the wall but: when I was tracking down a roof leak in an impossible Rube Goldberg roof, an old fart told me to lightly spray water on areas of concern and dust with flour. Any water running across the flour will leave a 'trail'. I have done this with double sided tape on cars with a lot less mess.
Good luck and please post results.

I can just see Ron going down the road and "a good ol boy" SC Highway patrolman pulling him over. Ron, you better have a lotta "powdered" doughnuts in there and convince Smokey you're a baker. LOL :) :)

:) YIKES!!! I just realized the screen name of the flower man.

Ron, Lost Yankee might be setting you up. :)

Gotta better idea. Ron, I swap wagons with you. I'll send yours to my son in Arizona and you can have mine. It doesn't leak, but it does have a few other "issues."

Bob

If it helps any check the rear side windows (above spare tire). I pulled back the window seal from inside the car (124 wagon)
and found some rust. It was obviously leaking for quite awhile.
Steve N.

I just discovered this on mine last night (no leaks when I bought the car 18 months ago). We've had very heavy rain in the last week.

Arrgh...

woah ancient thread, but for posterity, My 1995 E320 Wagon was having the same problem. At first I noticed mild dampness. It perplexed me as I couldn't fine the source. Then one day after a particular heavy rain storm I went back there and it was literally flooded. That was it. I was going to find the source. By total accident I pressed my hand on the rear window and to my shock, it almost fell out. After resetting the rear window gasket my car is dry as a bone. In retrospect, I had been moving a lot of boxes and most likely overfilled the back "trunk" area and upon closing the hatch, something must have pressed the window out. At first ever so slightly, just enough to cause dampness. But it loosened over time and essentially detached itself. Luckily I caught it at home, and didn't have the window fly off on the highway or something.

Just to close my own post a few years late
 

well my leakage problem is finally gone after replacing the tailgate seal. The hard to diagnose condition was due to the fact that the seal was leaking from the backside by the latch. by the backside I mean the actual side that is typically glued into the channel not the front facing surface that makes contact between the tailgate and the seal mounted to the body. As with most wagons and SUV's the airflow dynamics are as such that wind and water is drawn back towards the tail end of the car in a vortex. In my case the water was litterally drawn up past the backside of the seal (between the seal and the mounting channel) and up into the footwell.

After installing a new tailgate seal and properly gluing it to the channel the problem has gone away.

Hope that helps others
Cheers :D

Sun roof tubes should flood mid section of car but remove the rubber drains from there and see if they are clogged with dirt, with them out also pour water on both sides of sunroof to make any other dirt go through with the plug out. I got 6 inches of water in my footwells when we had a bad storm last year that was a culprit.

I have also heard some other wagon owners that the antenna seal and rear hatch seal can allow water further back. I hope this helps.

My 300TE had water come in around the shocks that held up the tailgate, I think the rubber around the roof rack had gone bad. Had the same issue w/ W210 wagon, used black RTV to carefully 'reseal' the rack and haven't had any more leaks, knock on wood...