Wet footwell in Discovery

Try checking the door pillar where the metal check strap (sorry - not sure what it's really called, it's the bit that stops the door flying forwards when you open it in a high wind?) passes through. There is a rubber seal there that can sometimes get nipped and allow water to pass through when driving in the rain. There may be a pinhole (or worse) in the floor - have a look underneath.

Final suggestion - my RR always gets a wet footwell if parked on a sideways slope and it rains, never have worked out which bit leaks around the drivers door - we just park it with the passenger side uppermost on the slope.

Graeme

Have you eliminated heater and aircon leaks?

Andrew

Good thinking, aircon is a classic cause of this. If you have aircon, odds on this is it. Something to do with a blocked drain tube IIRC.

David

Thanks for suggestions, dont have air con, heater is ok, dont think there is pin hole in floor as it gets wet just standing there. Will have a look at door strap area tomorrow. thanks again any other ideas welcome. Dodge

Used to have this a lot in a Mondeo a while back, only when it rained. It was the heater matrix (no aircon on that car). Strange thing was that the heater worked perfectly throughout. Dealer fitted a new heater matrix which sorted it - it was a well known problem apparently.

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

Graeme,

In the course of replacing the front wiper motor on my 1988 RR I have found the reason for both front footwells getting wet: at the bottom of both 'A' posts, under the decker panel, is a hole where the bottom panel under the screen and the panel that forms the outer side of the each footwell meet the 'A' post. On the nearside the hole is about 10mm in diameter, while the one on the other side is slightly smaller. You can't see the hole from inside or from outside with the decker panel in place. I think that the strip of foam that seals the decker panel onto the top of the footwell panel guides the water towards the hole.

Quality British workmanship!

Rgds Richard

Graeme wrote:

It has been a problem since the first four door Range Rover that water gets to the wrong side of the door seal. The Companies remedy was and is to cut two pieces out of the door seal, which is fixed to the vehicle side door surround, across the bottom horizontal section to let the water out LOL.

Huw

So the seal is actually forcing water in?! That would explain the extremely soggy door seal on my RR- bottom of the seal, hinge side, about 2 inches from the corner bend.

Dave

"Dave Wheatley" > >

Oh yes! I can assure you that they are all like that Sir. It is quite normal and is something that we have experienced since 1983. We are working on a modification though, the latest, which was initiated in

1987 and carried over to the Discovery, is to cut two slots in the bottom seal to let the water out. This is an immense engineering success story which we British should be proud of.

Huw

We don't have any doors leaking water in, but the sunroofs are again on the Disco. I wouldn't mind if it was warm water running down my neck but it was bloody freezing cold the other day, after a large downpour on the way back from Aberystwyth.

Water may also be leeking inside a Discovery series 1 from the upper left and right corners of the windscreen's weathestrip.

Try lifting up the weatherstrip and adding liberal amounts of silicon (better still the thing windscreen fitters use) over there.

This may sort out your problem with water in the footwell.

BTW is your car fitted with A/C?

If yes then you may also have blocked A/C drains.

Take care Pantelis

I was just pondering...I watch Top Gear and the likes, and see all these shiny new cars with so much gadgetry it would make James Bond's eyes light up! Service intervals that are light years apart, no mention of in-built leaks, warning light problems, dodgy switches, etc...why do we put up with all these problems on Land Rover models and continue to 'update' to the latest version of the problem car- with most of the same problems plus 'New Improved' ones at well! Are we all mad?

I'm just the same - the other day someone said to me 'why did you get rid of your other car for this, you know the problems you're gunna have?' My reply? Because I always wanted a Range Rover!

You would think above all else, with our climate, they would be rainproof. At least then while you've broke down and are waiting for a tow you'd be dry!

Dave.

I think the new models are sorted in this respect. I'm not aware of any leak issues with the current Range Rover, Discovery or Freelander. Defender is probably a different story! Or have I missed a load of "my Freelander drips on my head" stories?

That doesn't excuse the appalling way that Land Rover never fixed known problems throughout the 80s and 90s. Range Rover tailgates, Defender doors, R380 gearboxes etc etc,, but I think the story is very different today. It will take a long time to shake off the 'unreliable' tag though.

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

Probably - although we're sticking with our old Disco and RR until we win the lottery;-)

Touchwood we've only ever had to tow the Disco once in 7 years when the fuel pump went on it. I only get wet when I go round a corner - different story for the kids who get to go in the back. The sunroof leaks and drips on them whenever its wet!

Certainly no leaks on my current vehicle, apart from the usual aircon drainage under the car after being on a long run in hot weather.

Let's face it, it's all been down to financial investment (or lack of) by previous parent owners of the Land Rover group. Since Ford (PAG) took over things have improved somewhat.

That's certainly the regular excuse. However I don't buy it in many cases. How much would it have cost to fix the design fault that caused Range Rover tailgates to rust badly from inception at 1971 through to at least the late 1980s? How much to fix the non-lubricating mainshaft issue on R380 gearboxes (chuff all, just a slight modification to one of the components).

'Lack of resources' is the siren call of all failing public sector industries and a regular 'middle management' excuse for things going wrong. Beneath 'lack of resources' you often find "we've always done it like this", "it will just take too long" and three dozen other reasons to keep turning out crap instead of fixing a problem that requires a bit of thought and 12 bob to sort out.

The crazy fact about so many companies that 'cannot afford' to fix problems in their products is that they had previously been very profitable and sat on their laurels whilst someone else (so often Japanese) reverse engineered their technology, built it better and sold it cheaper.

Why has the Defender gone unchanged for so many years? They couldn't be arsed to design a new one! Too difficult! It's an icon! People like the current one! For eight quid they could have produced a new Defender on the Discovery platform and been bang up to date.

Coat on....

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

Is that including vAT?

Or was it rubbish metal in the first instance, (from similarly under funded British steelworks)? Most BL or indeed UK built vehicles suffered similarly?

Lack of funding, this time in terms of the gearbox designer's salary, perhaps?

Or typically British trade union wording? (By which I mean the way the UK trade unions throughout the 70's/80's tended to be perceived, not my own personal opinion).

The (comic) author Tom Sharpe quotes in "Ancestral Vices" that X amount of money would keep five UK car plant workers in employment, two Germans, or half a Japanese, depending on which make a person bought.

But would the farmers have bought it?

Or, more importantly, the dozen or so armies around the world that have traditionally bought Land Rover products? Is it a coincidence that just as LR decide not to tender for a major UK military contract the long overdue Defender replacement looks like it might actually happen?

Regards Steve G

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