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Just thought to share my findings with what appears to be one of several common root causes for water leaks in the boot / trunk area. From searching, it appears there are generally 3 types of boot leaks:
Leak through the gap between bootlid and numnberplate garnish / beaver panel (symptoms: felt liner on inside of boot is wet at the bottom - leak is through the bootlid itself, cause: missing or compromised clips on underside of garnish panel)
Leak through the weatherseal at boot opening (symptoms: puddle in spare wheel well, water path can be traced, causes: dirt build up and/or damaged grommets, plastic trim piece, tail light gasket, weatherseal)
Leak through centre brake light (?)
A bit of info on #2.
1. Firstly, clean up the muck. Take off the black plastic trim covering the water channels and clean this up. Debris and dirt over time will block the channel and lead to water ingress.
2. As shown here, the underside of the plastic cover has a small channel to redirect water towards the boot itself where it can drain away more easily. You can see mine has broken leaving a small gap. Seal this up to redirect the water away from the tail light area.
3. Check the condition of the tail light gaskets. They should be firm foam and not cracked. You could replace these if broken and/or apply a line of sikaflex here to help drain water downwards towards the bumper. The gaskets are ok to get wet, but if in doubt, remove the tail light and check whether it's wet on the inside. If yes = water can get in.
While you're at it, may as well clean all the rubber, apply gummi pflege or whatever and then re-assemble. Good luck and happy dry floors for years to come!
Please feel free to add clarifications or additional information if you've had a different experience.
I had minor water entry to the spare tire well on our W211 2008 E63 sedan, and I replaced the trunk seal (probably not worth it, in hindsight), the plastic drip trays on each side of the trunk (def an issue) and as long as I was in there, I did the tailllight assembly gaskets, too. All dry so far. I think the plastic drip trays should be considered wear times. The plastic rivets can get old and brittle, and mine tore when I pulled them out. A ton of gunk was under there, and the car is garaged 95% of the time, and some rust had set in on the right side (cleaned, hit it with rust converter). I ran water over the car before I took everything apart, and then carefully ran water over some suspect areas, and I am pretty sure my culprit was the drip trays on each side. Look closely in the trunk and you should see the signs of water entry - either actual water or dust trails where it has dried.
I also found that our local dealer charges up to 50% above Mercedes MSRP for parts, so shop around! I mean, I get dealers are not giving us deals, but WOW. In my case, driving another 10 miles got us the drip trays for $16 each, plus the plastic rivets at $3.50 each (x8) vs roughly 50% more. For the tail light assembly gaskets, there are two per side, the main one, and a small oval one for the last nut on the side of the car.
Just thought to share my findings with what appears to be one of several common root causes for water leaks in the boot / trunk area. From searching, it appears there are generally 3 types of boot leaks:
Leak through the gap between bootlid and numnberplate garnish / beaver panel (symptoms: felt liner on inside of boot is wet at the bottom - leak is through the bootlid itself, cause: missing or compromised clips on underside of garnish panel)
Leak through the weatherseal at boot opening (symptoms: puddle in spare wheel well, water path can be traced, causes: dirt build up and/or damaged grommets, plastic trim piece, tail light gasket, weatherseal)
Leak through centre brake light (?)
A bit of info on #2.
1. Firstly, clean up the muck. Take off the black plastic trim covering the water channels and clean this up. Debris and dirt over time will block the channel and lead to water ingress.
2. As shown here, the underside of the plastic cover has a small channel to redirect water towards the boot itself where it can drain away more easily. You can see mine has broken leaving a small gap. Seal this up to redirect the water away from the tail light area.
3. Check the condition of the tail light gaskets. They should be firm foam and not cracked. You could replace these if broken and/or apply a line of sikaflex here to help drain water downwards towards the bumper. The gaskets are ok to get wet, but if in doubt, remove the tail light and check whether it's wet on the inside. If yes = water can get in.
While you're at it, may as well clean all the rubber, apply gummi pflege or whatever and then re-assemble. Good luck and happy dry floors for years to come!
Please feel free to add clarifications or additional information if you've had a different experience.
Hi, mine leaks from the marked places in the attached picture , the water goes through the inside of the seal and enter the trunk , please help.
Hello,
Had the same problem for years on my w211 had to replace "EVERYTHING" in the trunk. Trunk seal, taillight seal, third brake light, trunk recces drain plug, realign trunk, etc... It was a big pain in the butt to solve the issue. Great post with your findings
@Moanes I have seen on other threads that some appear to be leaking through the boot (trunk) lid itself - you may need to run a hose over areas systematically to find where the leak is. Water can be very tricky to trace!
@Moanes I have seen on other threads that some appear to be leaking through the boot (trunk) lid itself - you may need to run a hose over areas systematically to find where the leak is. Water can be very tricky to trace!
The water is coming through the seal from inside , it is wet from inside of it .. I'm not sure if it is the lid
Does this cause the battery to die overnight? so out of no where i started getting convenice feature disabled warning right after starting for a few mins then it would go away. the last time we had a big rain i went to start car and it was completlely dead. i went to jump it and noticed everything under there was damp so i dried it up, eventually got it started and it was fine two weeks, then we had another big rain i next moring i went to start it and it wouldnt start, its at 9.5 volts so and holding. im kind of confused as to what i should start with, ive also had a belt pully issue but when my batt is good it would had staedy voltage.
Does anybody have the part number or know where to buy the plastic rivets with the rubber grommets that go into the plastic water channel trays on either side of the trunk? Mine are all ripped or missing.
06-15-2021, 06:00 PM
