Leaking Smart! But where from?

[watcher27]

Hi Guys,
seems I'll be ending up keeping my smart as I dropped the price down to £1900 and took out all the negative's on the ad, and STILL no takers
Poo on a stick!

So anyway, I thought I better get round to fixing some of her "issues" and a new one has cropped up

The drivers & passengers footwells are very wet. The water IS NOT coming in through the windscreen or rear windows.

I lifted up the passenger carpet and it looks to be running down from a seam in the bulk head just above the battery box (LHD remember). So I ran LOTS of black silicone sealant along this, but the water is still coming in!

Any other places it could be coming from?

[heinkeljb]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

Try this:-

In the passenger foot well, find the heater box between the the drivers side and the passengers side. There is a grill in the side which allows air to be blown into the foot well. Use the levers on the dash board to make sure the flap is open and then stick your fingers through the holes and see if there is water in there.
If there is then the drain tube on the other side of the bulk head is blocked. Easier with the offside front wheel off, but can be done with it in place. Looking in the hole where the steering arm comes out, you will find the tray which should hold the pollen filter, underneath that towards the front of the tray is a rubber tube with the end sort of pinched shut (It's molded like that). Grab hold of it and give it a good massage! Lots of rubbish and water should come out from it.

Now you just have the fun of drying out your carpets. You need to lift them up - use either old towels, newspaper etc to mop up the major part of the water, then use something to like a bottle to hold the carpet up and provide a barrier so you can stick your hover on blow and blow air in one side and have it come out the other side of the bottle. Air flow works wonders in drying out the carpets.

John

[watcher27]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

Cheers John, I'll go give that a try...

Nope, all dry in there. I think I need to pul the carpet right up and get my wife to stand there with a hose lol.

I'm guessing its just the accelerator peddle holding the carpet down on the drivers side, correct?

[heinkeljb]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

The other places water comes in is over the lowest point of the door seal. Sometimes in via the mirrors, but far more likely to be tired door seals and worn where your feet scrap over it.

Irrespective of actually finding and curing the point at which the water is coming in, you need to deal with the soggy carpets or the electrical box under the carpet, under the seat will corrode and you will have more gremlins to deal with.

John

[watcher27]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

Cheers again John.
Putting my hand under the carpet and running it back, it seems that the dampness is confined to just the footwell and doesn't go past the front of the seat mount/fire extinguisher.
Where a bouts is the box exactly?

[heinkeljb]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

If your car has one it will be under the carpet, under the nearside seat, towards the back.

Presumably you have done some searching on the various forums regarding leaks on the ForTwo? If not I suggest you spend a while looking and reading. There are some common leak points, and some not so common ones. Obviously as the cars get older, the likely hood of seams splitting due to rust etc become more common. The number and placement of leak points will increase. It is quite possible that you have a seam on one of your wheel arches or the front bulk head that has opened up sufficiently to let water in.

You have got both plastic under trays I take it? I have not heard of water coming in that way yet, but If the rubber grommet in the battery tray is missing, you could get water in there and then condensation would take it up to the carpets.

John

[Quickcoupe]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

I know Smart did a guide for the roadster

http://www.evilution.co.uk/408

But maybe worth having a look on google for something similar for your 450?

[watcher27]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

Just to update, I went in my smart for the first time today when raining since noticing the wet carpet, and I can confirm it IS coming in from the windscreen!!!
Pissing in actually, see the vid:

http://youtu.be/qSPLDpioI3w

[Paulleo]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

I have the same problem. I dried it all out and took her out for the first time today in the rain. The Cabrio soft top is water tight(claps with delight) but the passenger footwell is wet once again. I will examine all of the above in due course.

[RacingSnake]

Re: Leaking Smart! But where from?

Just to update, I went in my smart for the first time today when raining since noticing the wet carpet, and I can confirm it IS coming in from the windscreen!!!
Pissing in actually, see the vid:
http://youtu.be/qSPLDpioI3w

Good stuff at least you know what it is so it'll be fixed when you ge the seal done