water leak through interior light ?

[daddyfixit]

mk2 year 2000;  The car has had a damp musty smell for months, so after checking under carpets for water, renewing pollen filter, getting seats valeted the smell is still there......Tonight we have had torrential rain, the Mrs is driving along and as she brakes water pours out of the front interior light !!!    the car is a non-sunroof model with no aerials or roof-mounted things at all apart from factory black roof rails ??                  any ideas ?

[Chrispb]

My bets on the windscreen bonding as opposed to the rails leaking.

[brianh]

I can't see the rails causing water to come though the light either - I'd start by removing the light to see whats going on, but if its ever had the windscreen replaced, I'd be expecting that to be the source of your leak. I've had it on the Disco where the screen had been replaced previously and I'd guess they scraped some of the paint in doing it around the screen mounting, it had actually rusted through on one edge enough to allow water to leak when it rained. Noticed as the carpet was soaked. Took a while to find it on that as they suffer with a poor design of sunroof as well (drains all on one end of the roof so if you park with the back lower than the front the drains don't work!).

As far as the smell is concerned, a few things may help once you sort the source of the leak. One of them is a wet vac on the carpet with a shampoo, another after that is to dry the carpet out as best you can, I've found a through going over with a wet vac to remove as much as possible out of it, then running the engine with A/C on set to recirc worked fairly well. A dehumidifer left to run inside is better still. They also do a can of deodoriser that you place inside the car, set the a/c to recirc, operate the can and shut the doors and leave it for a while. That kills a lot of smells, just leave the windows open after its been in there a while to let the spray out afterwards.

[SirDavidAlhambra]

Don't forget to spray Febreze over everything too hehe

[Mirez]

I'd also be looking at the windscreen as the culprit but it actually could be coming from where the rails are mounted, they sit in a recess channel (the long rubber strip you see covers it) and are bolted in. There are three per side with a rubber seal so that's potentially 6 points of entry. Are they loose in any way if you give them a good pull?

[daddyfixit]

I am re-opening the roof leak thread !!!

torrential rain yesterday, car parked outside on the flat--I drove off pavement then done a u-turn and as I did a load of water came out the interior light !  All over passenger seat/floor, gear lever & my left hand.
  This car is trying to see me off, I'm sure ! its just taken me a week to sort out the roof lining that looked like a Bedouins bedroom -draping down all over the place !
  I intend to PU seal the top edge of the front screen and corners, plus try to drop headlining and PU the 3 x bolt holes for the roof rails.........

Theres no roof aerial or sunroof to cause it, so I hope to cure this one way or another. 

[daddyfixit]

I removed the drivers roof rail, cleaned all the moss off it, wiped the 3 mounting points clean...and used plumbers mate  !!

and the water carried on dripping;  I ragged the roof lining down in anger to see a puddle waiting to drop---it was the offside top corner, so I used P>U adhesive and went 6 inches along the roof and down the A-post.

And it worked     and I am on here now as the keyfob has packed in (getting weaker all week)--so 2 new batteries here now, and hope it works first time.