The Lotus Grand Tourers

in the passenger footwell - I've replace the doorseal and its still getting in. Definitely not coming from heater matrix or vent.

Can the water leach round the seal (i.e. inside it) meaning it needs silicone applied before fitting ?

P.S. - I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Good to see you back here...

check the seal around the wiper arm, also check the windscreen seal.
I have traced my wet rear seat problem is caused by a leaking back window seal...

Definitely a door seal issue - the carpet on the sills is wet and only the footwell floor is wet - not the bulkhead carpet.

Also doesn't suffer from water ingress during washing so it seems to be related to spray from the wheels.

Hi Angus

Glad to see you're back

I had the same problem with my previous Excel. The water was flowing behind the door seal - i.e. via the U-shaped channel that fits onto the GRP. Bedding the seal on silicone mastic cured the problem.

Pete

Welcome back Angus!

Yes, I had the same problem. A good bead of RTV (silicone) around the door aperture and pushing the door seal firmly back into place seemed to do the trick.

Well - I'm tired of the 266A seal that I put on anyway - it isn't as good a fit as the factory original with the 90deg. join at the top of the door. The section that fits over the body seems to have a bit of a different profile and Lotus's version looks like it extends further down on the inside.

So - I've done the "washer tube down the hole" trick and will be refitting the old seals tomorrow with lots of mastic.

Even if they don't cure the leak, they'll still look better than the "new" ones.

If you have already done the tube in the hole trick ,not to worry but i did think of a better way than using tins of mr. min,that is to push a length of electric cable [with the end bent back] through the door seal hole,tape your new tube onto the wire and use it as a pull through,might take two of you but i;m sure that would be easier

best of luck Ian

Took about 10 minutes with plenty of Mr. Sheen.

I cut a slot in the compressible section, near the bottom of the trailing edge, sprayed lots of polish into that and then fed the tube through until I could feel it at the glued corner, then trimmed the rest of the tube to the right length to go up inside the trailing edge to the other side of the corner. Will glue the notch closed tonight and then manually compress the metal inside the "U", squirt in some silicone sealant and refit with the aid of a universal adjuster.

To make it easier I used a 5mm ID tube with 1.5mm wall. It's not a snug fit, but does make a noticeable difference in the sections that were really flattened.

As a side note - when putting the tube through, I noticed that the compressible section had parted company from the "U" section in a couple of places. That wouldn't have been helping either.

<sigh> - thinking about it - when Lotus did the new headlining, they re-used the old door seal, and that's when the water problems started....

Doors won't close - well, nearly won't...

Update : took the car down to Track Torque to drop it off for a C service + a couple of MOT advisories. No sign of water ingress, reduced wind noise and no draught through the driver's door. It seems to have worked.