Kingham rear door panel

On Tuesday night the van was parked in an exposed position, at home it is sheltered, and in the morning the offside rear door panel was wet at the bottom. This is the first time in 2.5 years. I contacted SMC with pictures and got a quick response saying they would make a warranty claim but that they also needed a picture confirming the mileage, quite how 17000 miles is relevant escapes me. In the meantime I cannot believe this is a unique issue. As far as I can tell the damp seems to have spread from the bottom hinge side of the door and the door card has acted like blotting paper. SMC did wonder if the card had slipped as was touching the metal floor but as far as I can tell there is a gap. From the shape so the patch I don’t think it’s coming from above. If anyone else has had this problem I would be grateful to know how it was resolved. If I can manage it pictures are attached, if not will be separate. Thanks.
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Ha. Managed technology

From Paul's link some have had water coming in through from the rear brake light.

In July during a habitation check A-S found damp in our floor which I eventually discovered was coming in through an inadequately mounted upper fridge vent. During my work on reducing the damp one morning when I opened the rear doors I found a 50p piece size drop of water resting on the metal between the aluminium capping strip and nearside rear door. It had been raining overnight. On closer inspection I found that the nearside lower rear door seal at the corner wasn't properly fitting tightly to the metal. It's probably too that I'd see drops of water here on previous mornings but put it down to water simply falling from the top of the door as I opened them. Keeping an eye on this area I subsequently could see small drops of water hanging down from the rear door, because the lower door seal wasn’t doing it's proper job. Last week A-S apart from them fixing the upper fridge vent, I got them to properly fix the door seal at the corner.

glyne lock and I have also reported that when sitting on the toilet in our Kemerton Xls we can see daylight between the rear doors. In my case the area is about 50cm up from the floor.

Looking at the photo I'd say a lot of water has come in, possibly more so towards the corner of the door. Was the van parked nose down (normal for a Boxer), but also lower down on the offside?

I don’t know the likely route that water ingress from the rear brake light would take. Have a critical look at the door seals.

Should be covered by your warranty -just, it's 4 years I believe.

Virtually certain to be door seal, we've just had same problem with top of driver side doorcard. Came about when the E Europeans were blasting it with hp water.

Adjusted door lock loop seems ok now will be checked next wash!

Having said I can see daylight between the rear doors, I'm going to investigate further when it's dark. I'll get Mrs R-V to shine a torch from the outside whilst inside I'll find something convenient to sit on.

Wouldn't any water ingress from the rear brake light show up more in the middle of both door cards?

Solaris wrote:they also needed a picture confirming the mileage, quite how 17000 miles is relevant escapes me

At a guess, they're hoping you've exceeded the warranty mileage limit.

RogerThat wrote:

Solaris wrote:they also needed a picture confirming the mileage, quite how 17000 miles is relevant escapes me

At a guess, they're hoping you've exceeded the warranty mileage limit.

Is there a mileage limit?

I had a Warwick XL in 2014 new. It leaked in the rear corner on that side & the wall was wet down from the internal covers where you access the back of the rear vehicle lights. I took it back to the service centre & they found a poorly sealed Peugeot body panel join / seam around the door seal. Water would track in the seam. They fixed it & never happened again. Only disappointment was they pulled off glued on lining material & re-stuck it back down with a tear / crease in it & it looked bad.

Having removed the high level brake light to upgrade the reversing camera and had a good rummage inside, I struggle to see how water ingress at that point could result in the water mark shown in the pictures. Furthermore the pattern of the staining and the fact that it looks slightly darker at the bottom of the door, suggests to me that it has spread upwards.

Given the nose-down aspect of the van I find rain water often pools on the top surface of the rear step, so any weakness in the door seal could allow water to track into the bottom of the door, especially if accompanied by a gale.

Hope you get it resolved promptly.

Tim

Kemerton-bath wrote:Having removed the high level brake light to upgrade the reversing camera and had a good rummage inside, I struggle to see how water ingress at that point could result in the water mark shown in the pictures. Furthermore the pattern of the staining and the fact that it looks slightly darker at the bottom of the door, suggests to me that it has spread upwards.

Given the nose-down aspect of the van I find rain water often pools on the top surface of the rear step, so any weakness in the door seal could allow water to track into the bottom of the door, especially if accompanied by a gale.

Hope you get it resolved promptly.

Tim

Tim
I cant see like yourself how any water going in the high level light brake light would make this panel wet it should run down  inside the door pillar and out the drain holes at the bottom . the only small possible way is on a joint on the steel panels the top panel to the door pillar may have a bad joint seal .
the first check is to make sure the rubber seal is clean and the contact area as if not just in the rain will track up the door as Tim has said and in heavy wind will get a vacuum in the door seal and make the panel wet as per the picture. the leak will not be a warranty claim if the seal is found to be dirty .you do get lots of dust and grime from the vacuum when driving build up around the doors and seals so do require regular clean for the seal to perform as required

Interestingly the door card on later models than ours has been extended right to the door edges, presumably to cover as much bare steel as possible and minimise cold spots. I can understand the logic, all part of AS's claim that their vans can be used year-round, but it leaves little margin should even the slightest water ingress occur through the door seal. Picture below shows the difference.

Tim

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Relaxez-Vous wrote:From Paul's link some have had water coming in through from the rear brake light.

In July during a habitation check A-S found damp in our floor which I eventually discovered was coming in through an inadequately mounted upper fridge vent. During my work on reducing the damp one morning when I opened the rear doors I found a 50p piece size drop of water resting on the metal between the aluminium capping strip and nearside rear door. It had been raining overnight. On closer inspection I found that the nearside lower rear door seal at the corner wasn't properly fitting tightly to the metal. It's probably too that I'd see drops of water here on previous mornings but put it down to water simply falling from the top of the door as I opened them. Keeping an eye on this area I subsequently could see small drops of water hanging down from the rear door, because the lower door seal wasn’t doing it's proper job. Last week A-S apart from them fixing the upper fridge vent, I got them to properly fix the door seal at the corner.

glyne lock and I have also reported that when sitting on the toilet in our Kemerton Xls we can see daylight between the rear doors. In my case the area is about 50cm up from the floor.

Looking at the photo I'd say a lot of water has come in, possibly more so towards the corner of the door. Was the van parked nose down (normal for a Boxer), but also lower down on the offside?

I don’t know the likely route that water ingress from the rear brake light would take. Have a critical look at the door seals.

Should be covered by your warranty -just, it's 4 years I believe.

My day light from rear doors in one picture a cable tie is showing the light[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Given the potential for water ingress through a gap in a rear door seal, it's not just the door fabric that could suffer.  Damp could also enter the void between the wooden floor and the steel floor-pan, which is exposed via a gap of several millimetres between the lower edge of the aluminium strip and the van's steel floor. I've run a bead of clear silicon between the two as shown below. 

I did it in order to stop the cold draught that I found was entering the shower room from this void. I thought about not sealing it up, in case AS had left it to vent naturally to avoid any damp build-up. Others may feel differently but I took the view that there are numerous other routes for venting this void and for air to circulate, as demonstrated by the gale that was blowing into the van. The seal has certainly made a difference in preventing cold air from entering the shower room, which is known to be the coldest part in the Kemerton.

Tim

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rgermain wrote:
I just wonder if we expect too much from a Parcel/Builders Van?
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Richard

I think we probably do Richard.  I don't imagine many builders or delivery-drop drivers worry about draughts, or line their doors with soft fabric, nor do they (generally) sleep in their vans while parked in exposed, wet and windy coastal locations in order to access amazing landscapes!

A compromise, as ever.

Tim

Thanks for the thoughts. Haven’t checked further as weather not good. On balance still think water got in at low level on hinge side so will check rubbers . Van was parked level rather than nose down but the weather was coming at angle from offside so perhaps culmination of circumstances as first occurrence in 30 months. Wait and see what AS say.

Have a look at the rear seal in the bottom corners, see if it clipped in place correctly, mine wasn’t but is now [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I'll still like to hear from someone with a new panel van about how A-S might be sealing the gap between the aluminium capping strip along the rear of the plywood floor and the Boxer's metal floor, a photo would help. On our 2019 Kemerton XL about 4cm in from the aluminium strip the plywood floor has been bedded down onto some mastic. Last week at A-S the service technician gave me the impression that they were sealing things to stop water getting under the floor (if the rear door seals fail). On our van the mastic seal crossways wasn't complete, I used what gaps there were to create an airflow for my small compressor to dry out the floor with small plastic tubes. Are A-S sealing this gap differently in 2020 vans?

When we had heavy overnight rain here on 2nd September the next morning I got a stream of water coming out the back from the gap, about 30ml in volume. If it had not escaped it would have raised the damp levels in our floor. The water had come in from an inadequately sealed Thetford upper fridge vent. I triggered the water to flow with a wick of kitchen roll against one of the plastic tubes I'd inserted under the floor.

Solaris, do you know if also there is there any damp in your floor?

Relaxez
I opened my door to look at the area I was getting light through and the seal hits on the plastic step as is steps up as I well show in picture so this is a Peugeot fault to sort
I was going to say It may be best left open to breath but as you said A/S have put sealant under the timber but like other work is not fully sealed and may add this to my list that they req my van for over a week should I say fix or try and fix[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks glyne, I'd say the bottom line is how dependent we are that the rear door seals do their job, and the take home message to me is that I'll need to keep checking this area. I want the floor to get some ventilation but not allow water from outside in, should it get past the door seals then find its way under the plywood floor, oh dear.

I'll have a look at my rear doors tomorrow hopefully, I've been rather busy with home finances today, ASOF is my relaxation.

I've flagged up to Mrs R-V the benefit of us going to the heat of French Provence to fully dry out our van, post Brexit and all that.

Relaxez 
Haven’t checked yet as am waiting for a dry day. Van was dead level at time and on Kingham fridge is towards centre of van, quite a distance from rear door. There was only a couple of spots of water on the metal floor by door, as far as I could tell as rain was persistent. All the suggestions have given food for thought and will check with damp meter