URGENT HELP PLEASE - pints of water in passenger well 211 E270 Estate

[Mercedes270]

Hi all
I am in urgent need of advice.

For some time our E270CDI Estate (2003 UK car RHD) has had some water leakage into the passenger footwell (nearside).

I have read earlier posts about drainage from windscreen and heater boxes, so removed the front nearside wheel and inner wheel liner, but could not see any drain hoses like the 460 in the attached microfiche pic.


The main drain hose from the centre of the windscreen (20 in the second microfiche pic) was not blocked and when I pulled it out of the seal into the inner wing it had just about 1cm poking through into the inner wing.

When I poured water down the windscreen it flowed out of this pipe and then into the inner wing coming out randomly around the windscreen water bottle fitted behind the inner arch which blocks any vision or access further into the inner wing.

Water was also draining down from the windscreen and pillar into the gap where the front wing meets the windscreen. This also seemed to be randomly coming out everywhere and not through a single drain hole.

However, very quickly water started appearing on the carpet on the side of the footwell immediately in front of the passenger door.

I removed the sill in an effort to find where the water should drain, but could not see anything obvious.

Today, after heavy rain, the whole footwell is sloshing with water - extremely worrying as all the wiring runs down the side there under the passenger door opening.

I managed to remove the carpeting where it was showing the leak and also the rest of the padded carpeting from the footwell.

Water was clearly coming in around a black foam rubber type seal on the side of the footwell and when i removed this it was clear water had built up from the inner sill up.

Photo 1 shows the hole left after removing the foam rubber, Photo2 the water inside, and Photo 3 after drying with towel the inside of the hole facing forward where there is a gap into the inner sill.

All this was swimming in water.

I can only assume there must be a drain of some kind out of the inner sill which I am not seeing and which is blocked.

With more rain forecast for tonight I am desperate to sort this out - any help very gratefully received including info on where this should drain, and also the whereabouts of the 460 drain tubes if these are relevant (photos?).

Thank you for any help you can give!

 

[Blobcat]

Hello and welcome

It’s normally the scuttle drains at the bottom of the windscreen that block with leaves and rubbish. The water then flows into the car through the heater.

I’d be opening the bonnet into service position then checking all around the base of the windscreen for blocked drains

 

[Mercedes270]

Thanks, but the water seems to have got further than that, it is in the bottom of the inner wing and sills and flowing through the hole in the first photo into the passenger footwell.
There must be some sort of drain out of the inner sill that this water should be escaping from, but isn't.

 

[badger_wazzala]

That's awful, I feel for you.
If the screen is a bonded one water ingress occurs when the resin breaks down. Would it be worth buying some Dow785 clear sanitary silicone sealant and running a light bead around the screen externally? If you do and this stops the water, you then know you need to organise a windscreen removal/refit.

 

[Mercedes270]

Screen seems to be okay, but worth doing the sealant thing anyway once it is dry I'm sure.

Nightmare at the moment is baling out the passenger footwell with the rain hammering down - maybe I should just build an Ark....

 

[Frontstep]

Some fluorescing powder might be useful.

 

[badger_wazzala]

Is that invisible and only detectable with a uv torch? If so that's an excellent idea.

 

[Mercedes270]

Spent last night going out to the car every couple of hours and syphoning off water from the hole in the passenger side wall to stop it building up in the footwell and wiring.

Stripped out inner wing again today and it is clear the drain nozzle which blocks (normally where the hole and two mounting points marked in photo) has been removed in the past so that's not the problem.


Still cannot find any sign of the two drainage pipes marked as 460 in first microfiche picture in my original post!

If anyone has photos of these insitu in a 211 I would be very glad to see them!

You can also see from this photo and the following how the windscreen washer bottle prevent access to any other drainage behind it (ie where the drain hole from the top of the wing meets the windscreen pillar).


The windscreen washer bottle and pump are impossible to move without cutting the braided tubing (seen just above the white water pump) as this is so stiff it won't slide off.

Water draining from the windscreen through the top of the wing just seems to cascade out around all this with no proper sense of it going to a drain hole.

Any thoughts or help welcome - thanks!

 

[onefortheroad]

The exit point of water can be a long way from the entry point. Have you looked under the scuttle where the fan is.

 

[Mercedes270]

AFAIAA the only drain from the scuttle on the 211 is the central one (20 in second microfiche pic in my first post).

This is clear and running ok on mine, and I have shortened it so water goes into the compartment where the front battery is and drains through the hole ringed in red in the photo in my last post, so shouldn't be getting into the footwell (not to say that it isn't!).

Frustrating thing is trying to understand how water running behind the front wing is making its way to the inside through the inspection hole in the side of the passenger footwell (as shown in the photos in my first post). How can this be???

Thanks.

 

[onefortheroad]

AFAIAA the only drain from the scuttle on the 211 is the central one (20 in second microfiche pic in my first post).

This is clear and running ok on mine, and I have shortened it so water goes into the compartment where the front battery is and drains through the hole ringed in red in the photo in my last post, so shouldn't be getting into the footwell (not to say that it isn't!).

Frustrating thing is trying to understand how water running behind the front wing is making its way to the inside through the inspection hole in the side of the passenger footwell (as shown in the photos in my first post). How can this be???

Thanks.

My thinking is because its built up over time. And found a way out . Which has you fooled.

 

[brandwooddixon]

Have you tried checking/clearing the water drain itself to see if its blocked? Two metres of net curtain wire is usually sufficient.

 

[EmilysDad]

....

The windscreen washer bottle and pump are impossible to move without cutting the braided tubing (seen just above the white water pump) as this is so stiff it won't slide off.

.....

Boiling water usually helps

 

[drmw]

I don't know the car, but " impossible to move without cutting the braided tubing" - I may well be wrong, but I didn't think MB use braided tube - it's possibly a hiding to nothing, but it seems to be close to where you have the problem.