MG Midget and Sprite Technical water leak into footwell BBS discussion at MG-Cars.net

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - water leak into footwell

It's the resurrection shuffle (remember that?) time again. Anyway, it's because --- My Midget was letting in the rain. Surprising? Well as it happens, one place where it was leaking, WAS a surprise, – to me. Part 1. Since getting the MOT on it recently, it's hardly rained, so I hadn't had a chance to discover if or where it might leak. From the looks of it, I suspected the screen frame might leak, and wasn't surprised when the rain dripped in via the frame, with the car sitting on the drive. When I whipped off the screen and pulled the frame apart, I found what looks like hardened putty between the frame and the rubber glass seal. Not surprising at all that it leaked. Back together again now, cleaned up and minus the "putty", no more leaks from the frame. Tested by a hose pipe, and in heavy rain again today. So where's the surprise? See Part 2 in the next post.

Lawrence Slater

Part 2. Here's the surprise. When the rain was pretty heavy, it was getting past the gutter under the bonnet, and running down to drip through the pedal box. It's never done this on my Sprite though, even in the heaviest of rain. So why was it on the Midget? I filled a large jug of water and poured it onto the screen. The water ran over the top of the scuttle, down the gap behind the bonnet, ran down to the pedal box, and dripped into the RH footwell. So I thought there must be a split/hole in the gutter that I hadn't noticed, or a gap behind the gutter where it joins the scuttle. -- But there isn't. Taking closer look with the bonnet shut, I looked in from the top of the side of the wing along the gutter, via the gap between the rear of the bonnet and the front of the scuttle. I can see that there is a huge gap between the top of the gutter lip, and the bottom of the rear edge of the bonnet. The gap must be great for letting hot air escape from the engine bay, but not so good for stopping heavy rain. The rain was filling the gutter along the scuttle on the drivers side, overflowing it, and running down to the pedal box. But NOT on my Sprite. So what's the difference? Well not much as it happens, but it must be just enough to make a difference. Here’s a few pictures. You can see that the gutter on the RH side has been attached lower on the scuttle than on the LH side. Enough heavy rain, and the water overflows the gutter, drips onto the top of the footwell, and hence through the pedal box onto the floorpan. So my solution is going to be to add height to the gutter lip. I'll do it all the way along from the RH to the LH. This should ensure that the water flows out, before it overflows.

Lawrence Slater

Lawrence, Mine used to do that, years ago. Then one day when sauntering around the local scrapyard I found that many of the cars there had a rubber strip clipped along the equivalent part of the scuttle. I selected one - off a Fiesta I think it was, and fitted it to the Sprite. No more problem in heavy rain. Much quicker and easier than welding a taller lip on there, and when the bonnet is closed the rear edge flange just snugs neatly down into the rubber strip so no possibility for rattles.

Guy Weller

This thread was discussed between 19/01/2014 and 30/08/2014

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