Driver's door seal leak

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by stephend

Reminds me of the Challenger disaster and the role of temperature on the O-ring seals...

Door alignment looks spot-on to me, but I'll look at it again.

As far as I can make out, the Volvo seal has three parts: the O-section rubber tube that plugs the gap, the U-section clip that fits over the flange, and a trim strip to match the interior trim colour (blue on mine). On the passenger side, water seems to be emerging between the trim strip and the clip - visible on the photo. On the driver's side, when I pulled the trim strip off the vertical flange, I found drips on the inside face of the flange up near t top of the vertical section (near where the side window air duct is). So my impression is that the materials of the seal may have become porous.

If you squat down by the rear door with the drivers door open and slowly close it, you may see it rise a little as it contacts the striker - also you may see witness marks on the striker to confirm this.
Sometimes adding a straight edge at a suitable reference point so a point on the door can be monitored as the door shuts is helpful to see if the striker is lifting it, not always easy to see by eye alone.

There are two possibilities on how the water is traversing the seal from outside to inside. First is capilliary action, second is a minor rust hole, possibly almost invisible on the lip/flange the seal sits on. Pull the seal off and see if there are any such breaches. If so, rub them down, treat with Kurust or similar, let dry and then either paint or protect with a piece of duct-tape, maybe both. Duct-tape is thick enough and waterproof so if you fold it over the lip/flange, it will act partly as a seal and partly as a filler to help the original seal fit better if the metal thickness is compormised.

If it's capiliary action, clean the inside of the seal, the door lip/flange and check the seal is a tight fit on the lip. If not, maybe the duct-tape will help.

[Gareth2510]

Hello. Just a thought as I'm having this same issue of a stream of water coming in by the drivers door seal. Can't see any obvious entry point. Done the soaking with a hose on powdered floor. As I had removed everything I went ahead and removed the vent plug down by drivers footwell (what a nightmare) unbroken too which was lucky. Resealed with marine grade pu18. so that can be eliminated from the suspect list. My car does have roof rails & I'm suspecting that the seal on the d/s front rail mount has gone leaking water to the inner side of the door seal. Anyone else had this issue if so what was your fix. I'm looking at the plugs ipd sell but not paying stupid postage. Or anyone know the size of holes on the roof so I can order something similar.

[stephend]

Gareth, I was hoping somebody who knows the answer might reply. Mine hasn't got roof bars, so I can't offer any advice, I'm afraid.

[Gareth2510]

Originally Posted by stephend

Gareth, I was hoping somebody who knows the answer might reply. Mine hasn't got roof bars, so I can't offer any advice, I'm afraid.

No worries. After many soakings with a hose & with the monsoon level rain last night. I'm happy to report that she's now bone dry. Was the door seal in my case.

[stephend]

Originally Posted by Gareth2510

No worries. After many soakings with a hose & with the monsoon level rain last night. I'm happy to report that she's now bone dry. Was the door seal in my case.

Glad you got it sorted!

[stephend]

Quick update: I tried a liberal spray of silicone on both front door seals, then parked it out in the rain overnight. Result: leaking exactly as before, both sides. More investigation required.

(Work on the Volvo is currently taking second place to work on the Disco, hence the slow progress. The principal leak on the Disco turned out to be the windscreen seal, and I found a couple of rust holes under the rubber trim as well. So I'm in the middle of filling and resealing. When that's leak-tight (fingers crossed!) I can investigate other leaks without water pouring through that one!)

[stephend]

Weather's warmed up, and the rain has returned, so I did a bit more investigating - this time with the door seals removed altogether to see if I could see where the rain gets to.

The big discovery: it's leaking at the top of the windscreen. I spotted drips coming off the end of the clip that holds the headlining to the windscreen frame. They fall down into the space between the A-pillar trim and the A-pillar (the sound-deadening felt was sopping wet), trickle down, and emerge at dashboard level, roughly where the trunking for the side window demister vent is. It's definitely doing that on the driver's side, and I'm pretty sure it's the same on the passenger side.

There's corrosion around the windscreen, which is on my to-do list. It looks like the screen's going to have to come out, so it's turning into a bit of a project.

The other thing I found relates to the stainless steel trim that forms a gutter down the windscreen pillar. Where it's riveted to the A-pillar, rainwater is oozing out between the trim and the pillar into the door return. I don't know if that's supposed to be sealed, and I don't know if it's bad enough to get past the door seal, but it's worth further investigation. Not 100% keen to drill out the rivets though...

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by stephend

Weather's warmed up, and the rain has returned, so I did a bit more investigating - this time with the door seals removed altogether to see if I could see where the rain gets to.

The big discovery: it's leaking at the top of the windscreen. I spotted drips coming off the end of the clip that holds the headlining to the windscreen frame. They fall down into the space between the A-pillar trim and the A-pillar (the sound-deadening felt was sopping wet), trickle down, and emerge at dashboard level, roughly where the trunking for the side window demister vent is. It's definitely doing that on the driver's side, and I'm pretty sure it's the same on the passenger side.

There's corrosion around the windscreen, which is on my to-do list. It looks like the screen's going to have to come out, so it's turning into a bit of a project.

The other thing I found relates to the stainless steel trim that forms a gutter down the windscreen pillar. Where it's riveted to the A-pillar, rainwater is oozing out between the trim and the pillar into the door return. I don't know if that's supposed to be sealed, and I don't know if it's bad enough to get past the door seal, but it's worth further investigation. Not 100% keen to drill out the rivets though...

As a temporary/semi-permanent fix :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Captain-T...T/322512805440

I know people on other fora have had good results on similar leak points.