Water in boot
 

Hi,

Looking in wife's 2003 XC90 and found 3 or 4mm of water below the battery. No sunroof but we have roof bars. From best I can see its running down the side of the tailgate and then along the underneath of the tailgate/lower hinged flap and leaking through the seal at the middle. But I am not certain at all. Anybody any ideas?

Dry out the back
Remove the access panel to the boot floor.
Remove any stuff that's in there you can remove. You want as much visibility of where the water might come from as possible.
Sprinkle talcum powder over all the rubber seals and the metal work around the tailgate seal, over the rear cargo area so there is a white powder coating on everything.

Now you can see a water trail when it happens, and see where it comes from.

Close up the car.
Park the car in the rain, or hose down the car liberally.

Open the tailgate and look for the water trail.

Can be as simple as the boot rudder seal not sealing tight enough any more. Replace with new, OR do the hack of putting 1/4 inch plastic pipe inside the rubber seal air space to give it more volume.

Have your rear lights been changed/replaced ... if so, most bodyshops do a shocking job and almost never replace/renew the grey foam sealing pads on the rear of the lights ... guess what .... the water then enters the car via the rear lights.

worth checking ... removal is via 2 hex nuts ... careful you dont drop them into the floor/boxsection ... PIA to retrieve.

Hope it helps. :regular_smile:

Good suggestions plus one more
 

Good suggestions already.
Mine was slightly different in that it was running down inside the upper boot lid and appearing as a pool on the top of the lower tailgate about 6 inches from the edge. From there it could run inside.
The actual cause was a gap between the inner and outer upper boot lids between the hinge and the corner.
If you suspect this remove the inner tailgate trim and check for water on the rear window lower edge, it should not be effected if the issue is the seals.

Thanks Binty but I don't know what you mean by-

"The actual cause was a gap between the inner and outer upper boot lids between the hinge and the corner."

I guess at the top of the upper lid, near the corner, between the outer skin and the inner liner.

I haven't looked at mine lately but I assume the inner liner is what sits against the seal and if there's a gap between the inner liner and outer skin, that's where the water could get in.

Of course, I could well be totally wrong, but that's how I read it.

Cheers

Dave

Between inner and outer skin
 

Sorry I wasn’t clear but Harley Dave is correct.
The upper door is two pieces of plastic bonded together inner and outer.
Over time the bonding can start to have gaps in it at the top edge between the hinge and corner.
On mine water was getting in this gap, then running invisibly in the box section at the side of the window. Then down inside the inner trim panel on the rear and eventually becoming visible when it dropped out of the Bottom of the trim panel on to the lower boot lid.
It was easily fixed by spraying a few coats of waxoyle onto the gap between the inner and outer panels at the top, letting it dry overnight and smoothing it in. The gap will have been small but enough to allow the water in.
Completely cured it (once I found it).
Hope this helps.

Thanks gents for clearing that up I'll have a look see.