Topaz Windscreen Leak?

Hi Everyone,

Hoping you might be able to give me some pointers to tracking down a leak:)

Over the Christmas break I was out and about in the van and on taking a right hand turn I suddenly had a stream of ice cold water appear from the top right hand corner of the cab and into my lap! I've removed the visors/interior lamp to try and locate the problem but not having much success. So far I have removed the external guttering above the windscreen, cleaned it up and resealed it with Sikkaflex. I've also put some around the screen below the guttering just be be on the safe side. I've hosed above the windscreen and there doesn't appear to be anything coming in but I still have the problem. I suspect it is pooling somewhere and then coming out but I cannot see where and it isn't necessarily raining when the water appears. I can't detect any wetness in the holes where the visors or lamp go.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Nige


Nige[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

From the look of your centre picture, if it was me I would ease out that external trim that goes around and down the side and expect to find something horrible.

Do you know for sure that you don't have any leaks around the roof windows? If for example you parked it very much nose-down at any time in the last month or so, it would not be impossible for any water leaking at the front end of the driver's side roof window to find its way to the front and stay there for a long time...

[Edit: I should add that I don't really think it's ~likely~, but dealing with a roof window leak is a lot easier than a windscreen surround leak, so I'd want to be sure it's not the easier thing first!]

I had a very similar problem a few years ago: When driving in torrential rain (being blown by strong winds onto right side of van), I started to get water dripping from above the top of the windscreen onto my leg. (Lots of water was running down the outside of the windscreen from the front of the gutter.)
The roof lining around where the sun visor is mounted was sodden.
I wanted to remove the roof lining above the cab area to investigate, but failed to find how it was fastened in place.
That was years ago and I haven't had a recurrence.
I suspected that there is a leak in the gap between the hitop roof and the van, but that it only leaks when the gutter is so full of water that some water gets pushed up through the gap.

Thanks very much for the responses chaps. I think on the next dry weekend I'll start with the guttering and then check the roof windows seals. Could be a slow process but at least the weather will hopefully improve now with spring on the way:)

Just thought I'd report back on this. I took Peter's advice and (carefully) removed the side guttering. Nothing too horrible underneath but the sealant placed over each the screws in the hi-top had perished. I removed it all and cleaned everything up. I took out the screws and they were all soaking wet. Dried everything out and then filled all the holes with sikaflex before replacing screws and then sealing over the screwheads. Replaced the guttering and resealed and also added sealant around the top of the windscreen. So far so good and no wet lap. Not 100% convinced this was the issue but time will tell:)