Jimny boot filled with water after driving through torrential rain (pics inc!)

Last night my partner and I drove down from the Scottish highlands, through Glen Coe and back to Glasgow. It was absolutely chucking it down with rain for about 3 hours. Easily the wettest conditions I have ever driven in, we were stuck going 40mph it was that bad. Window wipers on full, monster puddles that splashed water all over the windscreen, just crazy amounts of rain.

Anyway, 15 minutes ago I was coming back from the gym and randomly decided to look in the boot where the jack lives, underneath the wooden panel, and it was filled with about 2-3 inches of water. I pushed the rubber gasket through and it all splashed out onto the ground.

Question is - what the heck causes this and can I do anything to stop it? Is it just because Suzuki only spot welded the boot so it seeps through? Bad seam sealer? Something else? The last time I was in there was about 2 weeks ago and it was dry but it looked like a flippin' aquarium just there!

 

There are all sorts of places it might have got in, some suggestions

Do you have rear seats fitted? If not the seat mounting holes go all the way through.

You might have a hole or leak from one of the rear wheel arches, you would need to take the side panels off to have a look.

Then there is the rear door seal, is it ok? What about door adjustment, does it fit tight enough?

Do you have the roof rails fitted, it might be leaking there and running down the inside of the side panels.


The boot floor is a known rust spot, usually from the inside out so I would guess it can be quite common. Does your Jimny show any rust here, it might have been happening for some time?

Hope that helps

Robin

Hey Robin, thanks for the response. I have the rear seats in place and no obvious holes in the arches (I removed the side panels 2 weeks ago and put in sound dampening material / rear speakers), no roof gear equipped.

In the back I have some rust but nothing as terrible as I've seen online or had before on my last Jimny. It's the usual spots, a patch at the bottom of the jack area and then two little patches in the rear corners. My gut says it's one (or both) of those corners that is letting water in and contributing to rust, probably due to Suzuki's dodgy seam sealing. Both sides have quite ugly dollops of it in those places. Still, it was a lot of water in there, more than I'd expect from that alone.

Your point about the back door seal is interesting though. I'll need to have a closer look! You mentioned adjustment, is there anything I can "tweak" there to might it tighter? I do wonder if we didn't shut the door fully or something, the car was packed to max capacity with 3 passengers + luggage.

I'll have to do some tests with a pressure washer, see if I can manage to spray into the car. Only issue is waiting for it to dry out now...

There is a small amount of adjustment on the latch striker plate at the rear. Mine was a little slack at one stage and the back door rattled. Check the seal all round for any gaps, you get quite a back draft when moving along and this could have forced water in.

Whilst we are on back doors the hinges gunge up and stick, mine shut ok, but was stiff to open fully until I forced some lithium grease in to the hinges.

The problem is the boot is the lowest point so any leak will gather in there.

The boot sits above the exhaust back box, so that would tend to get in the way for spray from the wheels.

Robin

Ah wow, I didn't realise it had any adjustment at al! I'll take a proper look tomorrow and see if the door seal looks ok and how it's draining etc.

The other thing that just struck me was that I have a small rust patch on the back window seal. I don't think it was that but yeah, need to spray the car with a pressure washer and see if I can make it happen again.

Might even be time for a micro-fibre cloth and a hairdryer (to dry out the area) and then the old talcum powder trick ( to reveal exactly where the water ingress is and where the route of travel is). The left over talc might then prove handy to aid wriggling into your neoprene wetsuit before heading down to ASDA for a pint of milk and a loaf of bread. Trust you can work out the point of entry and resolve the situation - even it is simply down to 'operator error' and you didn't fully close the rear door before setting off in a downpour.

One other thought, do you have a rear wash wipe and does it work? Perhaps the rear washer is leaking, the pipe must be routed down the drivers side somewhere. Although I doubt the rear washer would cause that much water in the rear.

On the passenger side behind the rear bumper is a rubber flap about 8x3cm covering a rectangular hole, it’s to let air out when you close the door, if the flap is missing or stuck you might have got some water in there.

You can only see it with the bumper off unless you have a drain camera or similar.

Robin

I did think about the window washer, I remember reading about some people having leaks, but the water wasn't blue like my fluid and it ejects fine so no problem there. Interesting about that rubber cover, never heard of that before so looked it up. For anyone reading you can see it in this vid at 20m54s:

I want to go out and check the door seal (maybe try this talc idea) but it appears my aquarium may now be an ice rink!

Nice snowy scene, I expect to see polar bears soon.

Robin

The plot thickens. I went out earlier and jet washed the outside, trying to get into all the possible nooks and crannies. Sprayed all the boot door seals, underside etc. No sign of any water ingress.
However, I then checked the rear wiper and turns out my fluid reservoir is totally empty! Thinking back, I was parked on a reasonable incline for a few days (back of car at lowest point) - could be it all just slowly drained out the back? I know some people have had problems with this before and had to replace part no. 38496-61A00.
The thing is my wiper fluid is quite blue coloured, so I thought I'd be able to tell that's what it is. Needs more investigation but could be onto something...

The blue comes from the antifreeze (usually alcohol) and this evaporates out to leave largely water, when it’s left on a surface. It’s the same reason your washer jets freeze up if you haven’t used them for a while, the alcohol evaporates from the nozzle and then the water freezes.

If the contents of the washer bottle emptied in to the boot there must be a leak in the pipe somewhere, unless the faulty part you quoted is somewhere at the back?

Robin

The part you have quoted is a one way valve, it stops the screen wash from draining out of the pipe back in to washer bottle. If it is the cause of the leak it must have a split in it, from the inside of the pipe to the outside. If the valve wasn’t working then it wold just drain back in to the tank. I think it will be in the rear door somewhere close to the nozzle.

Robin