W126 300SE water ingress

[twodinners]

Hi everyone,

Our much loved family sedan has filled up with a considerable amount of water during the recent rains.

I have cleared the drains under the scuttle. But the problem persists. I have previously bodged a repair to some rot around these holes and that does seem to be holding up. Ate there other possible rot spots to look for? Also, how do I locate and clear the sunroof drains?

The consequence of this has been that the front and rear headlining panels have distorted due to the moisture build up. Can these be saved by removing and reshaping?

Many thanks for any help with this, we are desperate to keep the old girl on the road

 

[optimusprime]

Have you ever removed the door cards ? if the plastic sheet over the face of the door is not replaced, rain can get in to the footwell.

 

[twodinners]

Have you ever removed the door cards ? if the plastic sheet over the face of the door is not replaced, rain can get in to the footwell.

Hi thanks for the suggestion. I did remove the nearside rear door card to sort out a broken regulator. I'm sure I put it all back, but you never know. I'll take a look

 

[optimusprime]

I removed my rear passengers door to replace the check strap ..i never refitted the plastic type cover right .And after the first heavy rainthe footwell was soaking after that. I have W124 but i recon the idea is the same .

 

[RichardF]

I don't know if this applies to your model or not but My R129 had blank rubber grommets in each footwell. These had perished and collapsed allowing spray to come up from underneath. The carpets and foam backing were saturated, took me ages to dry out. Easy to inspect and replace from underneath.

I've just realised the above doesn't apply yours is defiantly coming in from the top.

 

[twodinners]

Hi everyone,

Our much loved family sedan has filled up with a considerable amount of water during the recent rains.

I have cleared the drains under the scuttle. But the problem persists. I have previously bodged a repair to some rot around these holes and that does seem to be holding up. Ate there other possible rot spots to look for? Also, how do I locate and clear the sunroof drains?

The consequence of this has been that the front and rear headlining panels have distorted due to the moisture build up. Can these be saved by removing and reshaping?

Many thanks for any help with this, we are desperate to keep the old girl on the road

Hi there,

Just a bit of an update to this thread, which is not altogether good news but does include some useful tips and pointers and may inspire someone to throw in a new suggestion.

After lots of testing and isolating by just applying gentle amounts of water to various locations it came down to just the nearside front drain. Any water introduced into this area would find its way everywhere except down the drain tube which exits in the front nearside wheel well (Part No A1268320594)

Having removed wipers and the scuttle cover things didn't look to bad although a fairly flexible electrical cable teased down the drain hole would just disappear and never make it out the other end! Further prodding from under neath revealed that the drain tube had some serious cracks just where it passed through the inner wheel well plastic cover, not good.

Sockets out, deep breath and set about removing the nearside wing. The lower trim came off with no drama as did the indicator, all bolts removed, side repeater disconnected (twist and pull) and it was wing off.

At last you can get to see what is going on and it wasn't pretty. The drain tube (A1268320594) had perished and cracked in several places and had come adrift from the drain at the top. Worst of all was the collar on the drain hole over which the tube is a push fit had rotted away over nearly half of it's circumference. Not good.

As a temporary measure, I blocked that drain hole, which will mean some pooling in that area but at least nothing entering the car as water can pass to the centre drain quite easily (aided by parking offside to the kerb).

I took it to my local classic body shop this morning but the prognosis was gloomy. He had seen all this before and a proper fix not only wasn't easy, apparently involving complete dash removal, fair enough, but more dishearteningly this was something he wasn't prepared to do.

Keeping these old cars going requires a constant evaluation of what is practical compared to the value the vehicle holds both financially and emotionally.

We love our old Sedan, and would like nothing more than to keep her going for a few more years, but sometimes you need to know when to say goodbye

 

[mioba]

Keep it going - fpr the sake of a drain. you got this

 

[twodinners]

Keep it going - fpr the sake of a drain. you got this

Thanks for the encouragement, much appreciated. With renewed resolution I've ordered a new drain hose - I'll figure out how to attach it later