Hi,

Last night I parked my L bug facing slightly uphill and it rained all night. This morning the carpets on both sides were wet at the front. The rear footwell on the drivers or battery side is like a fish bowl!

The same thing happened last time we had massive rain, but I had driven through floodwaters the day before, so I figured it was just water getting in from below.

I think it's coming from the airbox behind the dash, but I can't work out exactly where. I did remove the cover from under the bonnet and rustproof in there when I bought the car and there were no holes.

Could it be that the drain tubes have blocked or do they simply not cope with massive deluges?

The seats are not wet, so it's not getting in the door seals.

Thanks,
Brett.

Yeah mate in ur bonnet unscrew the black pannel where the air Fan is. Clean out all the leaves and crap. Fix the rust you find there then put a hose down the drain tube that goes out horisonally not vert. straight down. Shove the hose down there but before you turn the hose on pull out your carpets and find where the drain tube goes down the center under the dash and dis-cinnect the tube from the bottom where it trains under the car and place that end in a bucket inside the car. Now turn on the hose and unblock the tube. They block up over time and then leak. Hope this helps it did for us. im assuming you are having watter drip down from the fuse box?

From Dylan

There's a couple of seals in there where the wiper motor wiring, washer hose etc go through as well as the blank seals for LHD wipers

The other place they leak is where the plastic drain hose pushes onto the metal spigot on the bulk head behind the radio.

The factory used a type of sealant that goes hard over time and tends to crumble which leaks water down into the fusebox.

Check under the windscreen rubber. Mine looked ok but when I checked there was rust under it.
I pumped a whole tube of windscreen sealant under there and the leak was only 5% after that.
I then did what Dylan posted and hardly get any leaks now.

Phil

If you are facing up hill the drain point of the air box is not at the lowest point

Take the cover off and you will see the drain hole
To the left of the hole it actually curves away and water gets in there
they rust at the join and seeps through

Other places are the windscreen seal as stated ^^
The rubbers curl up in the corner and water gets in there

The other place is the radio antenna hole

Gets in there and comes out the access hole in the A piller for the heat / screen air hose

Hi,

I had a quick poke around on the weekend but ran out of time. The water does seem to be coming from the fuse box area to the passenger's side, but not sure about the drivers side yet.

The screen rubber is six months old and is not leaking.

I did take the cover off the box under the bonnet when I bought the car and it was clean inside there. But I didn't clean out the drain tubes at the time. I actually took the cover off because I thought it gave access to the rear of the instruments and radio.

If it's coming off the fusebox then it's probably coming from the airbox through the panel.
When you next take the black panel off the airbox, check along the join between the floor of the airbox and the panel it is attached to. It really is a terrible design.
Any small defect can allow water to go through. Have a good dig around with a screwdriver and weep!
I had to remove the blower (and should have removed the wiper motor too) and scraped out the entire seam. The rust was treated with rust convertor and
the whole seam (and rust hole) was filled with fibrefill and smoothed out with bog. A quick coat of primer and several coats of acrylic was then brushed in.
It's a lot of fiddly work but it seems ok now. If you dont spend the time now you will just have to do it again in a few years time.
Phil

Hi

A friend of mine did a new catch tray for his wife's bug so that water never touches the inside of the air box.

The catch tray fits right up under the grilles and drains back through the factory hole, he made it out of a cut in 1/2 2 inch exhaust pipe, you could also use PVC tube as well.

Or you could do what I had done on my new 1303, eliminate the grilles.

Steve

Nice! If you'r going that far why not lose the extra wiper holes?

I thought about it, they don't really bother me but I'll probably fill them when I respray it.

I finally got around to this little job today.

First I took off the airbox cover. I found the drain tube area was almost totally blocked with plant matter. So I cleaned it all out. Then I removed the radio and removed the tube that goes from the air box to the front of the footwells. I blew that through with an air line. Water flows through it very well now.

I did find some surface rust in the airbox, so I cleaned it all out and coated with rust converter. When that dries I brushed on some killrust paint. There were two small rust holes on the passenger side of the airbox. Rather than bog them up I filed (not filled!) the holes larger with a chainsaw blade file and fitted a 1/2" grommet to each hole. Not a bad solution I reckon.

Now to wait for the next rain to see if it leaks again.

Cheers,
Brett.

Good stuff

Grommets. I like it! Here's hoping!

We had massive rains on Friday, and I haven't got any water in the front footwells anymore. So its seems the airbox fix cured that.

However, I still had loads of water in the back drivers side footwell. The fact I went through floodwaters on Friday afternoon that came up over the running boards at times probably caused that! I might get under her this weekend with some seam sealer.

On that subject I couldn't believe how good she was in the floodwaters. We kept chugging along with the front end getting a bit light but the rear wheels firmly anchored on the road. There were modern cars stopped everywhere but Olive didn't miss a beat. A guy in a Commodore tried to follow me through one part and he conked out in the middle. When I eventually got home (a thirty minute journey which normally takes 5-10mins) I patted her dashboard and told her she is a great little car.

Cheers,