V50 Water in Drivers footwell
 

Went out to the car this morning and found 2" of water in the drivers footwell. I park nose down on a sloping drive. Actually I had noticed yesterday there was a damp smell in the car and I must admit we did have a lot of rain last night as well. I don't have a sunroof. My first thought was AirCon drain. So I started the engine and put the AirCon on full. Checked under the car and the outlet was dripping so all OK. Checked I hadn't left any windows open and door seals. All seemed fine. Also checked the windscreen hadn't become un-bonded
Next thought was Scuttle drain.
Removed the wipers and the plastic cover and saw that the tide was in !!
The water was 1/2 way up the wiper motor. I removed the Wiper motor and assembly to find the drain. It is under the wiper motor. Gave everything a good clean, cleared the drain, greased the wiper linkages and reassembled.
Managed to suck over a gallon of water out of the footwell.
It will dry out over the next few days.
Although it was a pain to have the water in the car it was satisfying to find the problem and sort it

as a fellow member of the V50 swimming pool (mobile) club a Big thank you for finding another point of entry, how tight under the wiper motor is the drain, seeing as i have a Very long Very flexiable bottle brush already for my sunroof drains,,,

Hi
I think with hindsight I could clean the drain with the wiper motor in place, however until I removed the motor I didn't really know exactly where it was.
Once you have got to the point after taking off the wipers and plastic scuttle cover, it is only 4 bolts and a plug to remove the wiper motor and assembly. Took 5 minutes extra.
It is only a fairly small hole in a rubber grommet. With the motor out it is easy with a hose to blast the crud out of the drain. It also allowed me to clean all the area to reduce the chance of blockage again.
In the second photo you can just see under the water the rectangular grommet with the drain hole in the middle (only about 6 or 7 mm diameter)

Well that wasn’t the actual problem causing the water ingress.!!
Water in the car again this morning. I noticed drops of water on the carpet on the side of the car in the footwell by the A pilar.
Took the A pilar trim off and there is signs of water on the inside of the plastic trim. So it appears to be coming from the area at the top of the windscreen and running down inside the A pilar trim. I do have a little bit of rust just by the top of the windscreen so that looks like the area. Will give it all a good clean and pressure wash, give it a dry and will try some of “Captain Trolley’s creeping crack cure”
With the blocked drain now fixed at least the wiper motor is not sitting in a pool of water now.. just waiting for a drier day to try this crack cure.

Hello , Check windscreen sometimes can unglued him self , and Volvo was even have issue whit that

Hi
All sorted!!!

I have a small area of rust around the top corner of the windscreen. The rust is also visible on the metal on the inside at the top of the A pillar.

I did use Capt Tolley’s creeping crack cure. It did stop 80% of the leak but some remained. As it works with capillary action there must have been a bit of an area it wasn’t reaching. I could see the Captain Tolley’s appear on the inside so it was working and being drawn into the leak. Perhaps a few more applications would have worked. However as I was going up to Derbyshire I wanted to be certain. So went fo the silicone as well.

The screen does not move when pushed from the inside so the bonding seems fine. However when water is sprayed on the outside it does appear on the inside of the car, it runs down the inside of the A pillar trim and into the footwell. It looks like the rust could possibly be right through under the windscreen adhesive.
As the car is fairly old and didn’t want the hassle of replacing the screen, and sorting the rust, I decided to use a silicone sealant.
There is a recess all around the screen on these cars so I masked up the screen and body and injected the silicon to totally fill the gap so the gap between the body and screen is now filled flush. I went around all the top and sides of the windscreen. Everything has now dried up and appears sorted.
I have treated the rust on the outside and inside as well. I used clear silicone so is not at all noticeable and looks neat.

Your car may have had a replacement windscreen in the past ?

Perhaps some damage was done to the paintwork in the sealing area when fitting allowing corrosion to form and causing the subsequent leak ?

Hi
I have had the car since 2008 and I haven’t had a windscreen replaced. Could have had one before but as I have all the previous paperwork, I don’t think so. The bit of rust is only on the drivers side. The only other thought is a stone chip in that corner, there has been a bit of bubbling paint in that corner for a couple of years. I did rub it back and treat it a few times but it was obviously starting to rust under the rubber seal and the bonding.

If it's still the original screen it will likely have the Volvo logo visible on the glass. Most replacements tend to be generic.

Hi again !!

I thought !
Well it had dramatically improved (95% better) but I have had a few drops of water still coming in.
Had a look today and thought the bolts for the roof rails at the front could be leaking.
Removed roof rail, surprisingly easy.
The bolts and seals looked fine.
Prodded around on the front corner of the roof just above the windscreen and 2 holes appeared ! and some rust.
So finally found the culprit. Good clean, prime and fill today. Will finish it off on the next sunny day,
So hopefully this will be the end of the saga. The area just looked a little rusty, it is only when I prodded around and removed the paint and rust did I find the 2 holes