Second job of the day was to fit a new insulation/water membrane barrier in the passenger door. The car now lives outside on the road as I don't have a garage and there is a tiny amount of water coming in to the cabin when it rains heavily. Before the heavy storm we had last week I'd already done some checks for the drains under the front scuttle as that's fairly common. I've gummi pfledged all the rubbers and also sat in the car while it was raining and it's not from the window rubbers.
The other likely candidate is the water/insulation barrier which is of foam construction. Any rips or the sealant failing allows water in to the door card, and then in to car as below.
So I took the door panel off and there was some damage to the foam panel in the area just where it's coming in.
BMW still make these panels and they are relatively cheap at around £30 a side. Forgot to take a picture of it, but here's a generic image so you know what I'm on about.
Fitting is relatively straight forwards, have to remove the door airbag which is 3 bolts and a connector. Peel off the old membrane and then pick off the original BMW sticky black mastic. I then loosely aligned the new membrane in place and refitted the air bag module as that helped keep it all aligned where I wanted it. Then ran a bead of clear mastic (from B&Q) around the door and pushed it firmly in to place. There are slots already made for the cables so you just poke them through.
Here's another before pic for reference so you can see what everything looks like!
The other likely candidate is the water/insulation barrier which is of foam construction. Any rips or the sealant failing allows water in to the door card, and then in to car as below.
So I took the door panel off and there was some damage to the foam panel in the area just where it's coming in.
BMW still make these panels and they are relatively cheap at around £30 a side. Forgot to take a picture of it, but here's a generic image so you know what I'm on about.
Fitting is relatively straight forwards, have to remove the door airbag which is 3 bolts and a connector. Peel off the old membrane and then pick off the original BMW sticky black mastic. I then loosely aligned the new membrane in place and refitted the air bag module as that helped keep it all aligned where I wanted it. Then ran a bead of clear mastic (from B&Q) around the door and pushed it firmly in to place. There are slots already made for the cables so you just poke them through.
Here's another before pic for reference so you can see what everything looks like!
