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Fixing the water in the boot problem

38K views 54 replies 22 participants last post by  norguar 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hi

Well I got my Xf back following it being in for its first big service as per my other post.

In end it cost me £366 so slightly cheaper than original discounted price of £370 and much better than original £462 they quoted me!!

I didn't take the service plan and will wait to see if I am keeping car and maybe go for the 3+ plan later in year.

Whilst it was in they sorted the flickering interior light and say they have now for third time checked the rattling door panels and secured the wires behind, we shall see. They also said the spot of oil dripping on my differential which I discovered was an 'oil weep' and they think it's nothing to worry about. They have retorqued the bolts and cleaned it all up. They want me to drive another 1,000 miles and will then check it again. Lastly they said I had a flat spot on inner side of one my front alloys likely due to a pot hole but was nothing to worry about as such.

However they said that on Heath check they had found the exhaust heat shield loose and that I needed to get a new one fitted which they don't have in stock right now. Also even more worrying they said they had found water in the boot and done a test. They are saying it's a vent in the rear causing water ingress which is something know to happen and they intend to replace it but that it will be in the body shop for two days at least to do this! Anybody got knowledge of this apparent known fault? Where exactly is it that it needs to be in body shop for two days and is it serious ?

Cars booked in again for end of February so guess at least it's being dealt with.

Fubs
 
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#2 · (Edited)
The vents are either side of the boot, roughly positioned under the light clusters and they are there to allow the air pressure out as you close a door for instance. I have read of previous occurrences of water in the boot caused by these vents coming dislodged. Bumper off job I believe to rectify so with that and time to allow any sealant to go off a couple of days is probably on the safe side.

Didn't D3GGY have this problem, might be wrong here - I was right see post #3
 
#3 ·
Such a shame you are up north.

I have fixed both the problems. The heat shields are an easy fix and from memory are around £20 each. Dropping the exhaust off makes it a simple fix. Basically the heat shields are thin alloy which corrodes around the steel fixings.

I don't have a photo of the shield I'm afraid.

On the seal, first off take the drain plug out of the tyre well, this will mitigate any future events. The vent is also a reasonably easy fix. Remove the boot lining and remove the rear light clusters. You will now see a rectangular vent with a rubber seal. This seal benefits from a bead of silicon and repositioning. It can be done without removing the back bumper but the best job can be done with the bumper off since you can get all around the seal

Automotive exterior Bumper Vehicle Automotive lighting Car
 
#5 ·
Hopefully that's a before repair shot and not an after repair shot :)
 
#7 ·
Thanks D3ggy that helps me understand what's going on as I was bit concerned and girl at dealer whilst very nice wasn't really able to say exactly what it was other than just repeating its a vent that needs replacing.

Whilst I agree it would be great if I was closer to the Sunday club for a number of reasons, I guess I am thankful they have actually discovered these issues and they are dealing with them under warranty.

Fubs
 
#8 ·
Oh another thing, I got an email from jaguar asking if I would agree to being part of customer survey satisfaction scheme whereby they would have someone accompany me when I booked my service and then go along with my to dealer wearing a hidden camera and listen to how they deal with me. I was to be given £100 for doing this apparently but as I had already booked my service which is part of the survey process I wasn't eligible in the end.

Damn! That would have been a nice discount on the service on top of the one I managed to get!

Fubs
 
#9 ·
Basic question, but how do you tell there's water in the boot? Is it obvious or not generally observable. I'm getting terrible misting up at times which I'm hoping is a blocked/drenched pollen filter. Service is due in a couple of weeks so will ask for it to be looked into.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Happy to be proven wrong here, but having used this really useful thread to identify possible causes of the leak into my spare wheel well, and fixes for same, if the vents were to blame most of the water ingress would end up in the 'v' between the outward sloping boot floor and the rear wing. What I did find was the large grommet beneath the right side lamp cluster out of its orifice and what appeared to be water tracks in the dust leading from them. I am assuming it was disturbed when the tow-bar was fitted. Hopefully - having replaced it (without any 'gunk') - the leak will cease.

Edit to add that the water can be seen between the battery tray and the big plastic sub-woofer echo chamber thingy. A torch helps. Small amounts can be mopped out with a towel pushed into the gap with a suitable stick. I have had to bale mine out with a sponge on several occasions which entails removing the spare wheel and the sub-woofer box = PITA.
 
#14 ·
I had a similar issue with water in the boot of my 2014 Sportbrake. I found that the black plastic fixtures for the reflective panels inside the tailgate had a gap where they are meant to fit flush against the drain channels from the roof. I bought a tube of black sealant from Halfords when I was over recently and filled the gaps. Problem (and a big worry) has gone! I could have gone back to the concessionaire in Caen, but that would have involved a lot of travel and goodness knows what length of time to sort out the problem.
 

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#16 · (Edited)
You can easily service your car yourself,
I done mine for £98 all inclusive with Castrol magnatec oil and fuel filter change. The service reset sequence is available on YouTube or if you buy the foxwell nt644 pro scanner you can use that to reset the service intervals and use it to maintain your DPF with forced regeneration when needed.
 
#17 ·
Just noticed water in my boot for the first time - I often check having read these forums. Despite everything around the vents looking dry yesterday I took out the rear lights to get a better look and the seals were in pieces - RHS worse than the left with sections missing but both broken. My guess is the foam degrades over time and absorbs water making them expand and pop out of position. My seals were also very perished and easily broken. Surprisingly the seals are not available as a separate part, but even more surprising is the fact they are quite reasonably priced at around £10 each from Jaguar for the whole thing. At this price replacement is perhaps an easier fix than adding silicone and trying not to get it everywhere.
 
#18 ·
im getting water in the boot and struggling to work out where its coming from. ive had the vents out which look fine, ive got toilet paper taped around them and its been bone dry. whats the foam your talking about? mine is just a rubber seal didnt see any foam?
it seems the water comes from underneath the battery tray first so guessing the waters coming from behind the fuse box/electrics at the right hand side of the car somewhere, can the fuel cap leak water in?

its taking me a good 5-10 minutes to clear the inside of the window screen of condensation before i can set off which is annoying
 
#20 ·
Hi, the foam seal I was referring to was the foam gasket around the plastic vents. On mine, the right hand one was in several pieces and the left was broken and appeared to be too long to fit in the groove of the vent - I assume a result of soaking up water as they have become perished. I have just put the new vents in this morning - less than £20 for a pair that includes the seals. When I first looked for a leak, this area appeared to be dry but after some rain I did spot some droplets of water getting through. They are really easy to replace and quite inexpensive so worth doing. The light clusters appear to not have a seal to the body, so water can get behind them, although the holes where they bolt through are sealed - I guess some of this water also runs over the vent seal and will eventually get in the car if the seal is damaged.
Pic is of the left vent - the right seal was in several pieces and some bits were missing.
Musical instrument
 
#25 ·
Hi, the foam seal I was referring to was the foam gasket around the plastic vents. On mine, the right hand one was in several pieces and the left was broken and appeared to be too long to fit in the groove of the vent - I assume a result of soaking up water as they have become perished. I have just put the new vents in this morning - less than £20 for a pair that includes the seals. When I first looked for a leak, this area appeared to be dry but after some rain I did spot some droplets of water getting through. They are really easy to replace and quite inexpensive so worth doing. The light clusters appear to not have a seal to the body, so water can get behind them, although the holes where they bolt through are sealed - I guess some of this water also runs over the vent seal and will eventually get in the car if the seal is damaged.
Pic is of the left vent - the right seal was in several pieces and some bits were missing.
View attachment 175096
Do you have the part numbers of the vents??
 
#23 ·
Have you taken them out completely or removed the light cluster to see how the seals are positioned? A pic earlier in this thread showed the seal sticking out of the top - I assume due to expansion. My old seals were saturated with water and could be squeezed out like a sponge - if yours are the same I would replace them as I would assume they shouldn't do this. I could see how they could seal for while and only start to leak when they become saturated and can't absorb any more water.
Have you tried getting into the boot with a torch whilst someone hoses down the area - sometimes the only way - or set up a camera recording in this area and see if you can spot any drops getting through from a hose.
 
#24 ·
yes ive had the lights out and the vents are seated fine with the seal where it should be.
ive got talc powder all over it to try and catch track marks but still nothing. whats odd is ive had the jet wash on it and checked after a big pour down and no sign of any leak then i look again another day and waters gathered in the wheel well but still no sign on the talc or toilet roll. annoying.
 
#26 ·
Are the foam seals wet? My theory is they absorb water as they perish and eventually this reaches saturation point and water effectively passes through them. Mine could have water squeezed out and it hasn't rained for a few days. It's odd the talc isn't being washed away though. Have you cleaned out the filler neck drain too - not sure if this can cause any issues but it can't hurt to clear it out and check the pipe drains under the car. Hope you get it sorted - I know what it is like trying to track down a water leak - I had water getting into a Z4 that drove me crazy trying to track down the source.
 
#28 ·
ill have to wait for another rainy day to check how wet they are. ill clean the filler neck tomorrow, i hadnt done it before as i thought that would most likely be for diesel spillage but ill definitely check.
yes its definitely annoying alright! have yo any idea where the drain points under the car are?
 
#29 · (Edited)
I think the fuel filler drain is to take any water away from that area as the filler cover it isn't sealed - it drains through a tube which (I assume) exits behind the bumper. Once cleaned you should see water coming out if you pour a bit in the top. Strimmer line is supposed to be a good thing to use for this.
Not sure of any other drain points - the bumper is open at the bottom and anything that runs down the rear window, boot lip and past the vents discussed, ends up down there. I looked for other points of entry and couldn't see anything obvious other than the rear window.
With the Z4 leak it was easier to find with less water sprayed onto the car - hosing it down seemed to do little but a spray similar to actual rain showed up the problem of a door card membrane leaking.

Everything I have read comes back to the vents - even if they are OK now and replacing doesn't fix the issue, you'll know they are good and it does seem that they regularly fail, so you are just changing them early.

I had put some kitchen towel under the vents in the boot having removed the seal after I spotted it was broken. With the vent in place but no seal the towel was quite wet with only light rain, so it clearly was getting through. My research suggest this could be more an issue when parked so maybe the angle you park at determines where and when the water enters the car. Just lucky my sub in the boot wasn't underwater and I caught it early. Also, I thought I had dried it out but there was a fair bit of water under the battery box that I could only get to by removing it, so the new ingress of water could actually be existing water, sloshing about when driving. Good luck.
 
#30 ·
Just a thought - it's not getting in when you open the boot lid after it's been raining, is it ?
You know, rain running off the boot lid and sloshing into the channelling.
 
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