Water in the Battery Well

montravia

montravia

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This started in the tread "A Bit of a Redhead Moment": http://www.sportsmaserati.co.uk/showthread.php/23136-A-bit-of-a-Redhead-moment

During this it was discovered that there was water accumulated in the battery well. Condensation? Well, there was about 2 litres in there after I'd baled it out.
Clearly water had sloshed back up the well. Not a great thing to find amongst high current cabling, terminals, relays and servo motors.

Potential consequences:- soaked brake servo, wet battery cables and corroded relay terminals.

Can't perceive any water ingress, hints at rear indicator cluster, boot seal seem improbable; everything is bone dry dusty. The boot floor panels and vertical surrounds are bone dry too. Unless there's a hidden priest hole passage that exits into the well.

In any event, I'm not sure if any damage has yet been done; I'll find out after the battery has undergone a conditioning cycle (it was in good condition - CTEK MX5 cycled through first three phases to 80% capacity in about and hour and a half, looks a good newish OEM unit so unlikely to be the stimulus for the sudden burst of fault warnings).

This is most puzzling, there don't seem any drain vents.

So the question is, have any other GT owners encountered this, if so did you find the source of ingress, and what if anything has been done to overcome.

I've ordered some silica bags to act as dehumidifiers in the meantime.

What say to an incontinent Maserati?
 
CatmanV2

CatmanV2

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montravia said:
In any event, I'm not sure if any damage has yet been done; I'll find out after the battery has undergone a conditioning cycle (it was in good condition - CTEK MX5 cycled through first three phases to 80% capacity in about and hour and a half, looks a good newish OEM unit so unlikely to be the stimulus for the sudden burst of fault warnings).
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised. I'll see if I can take a look in mine tomorrow. I do remember that the 4200 also exhibited that bone dry aspect. I worked it out by putting newspaper in the boot with the liner out

C
 
Contigo

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I have a receipt with my car from H.R Owen detailing water in the boot and a fix, will read more and let you know.
 
spkennyuk

spkennyuk

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Just a thought. Is the boot actually clamping down on the boot seal or is it standing slightly off ? Put some chalk on the boot seal to check and open and close the boot a few times. If the chalk stays inplace without smudging on to the boot lid then its not making contact with the boot lid.

Also assuming that the placement of the boot lock plate is similar to the 4200 then water can get past your boot seal and run down to the lock plate which when you take the cover off is below the boot floor and in the tyre well.

Either put some chalk lines or tissue paper taped in place there and the water should leave marks there or wash the chalk away.

On my 4200 the boot floor was bone dry but the boot well had 3 inches of water in it.
 
montravia

montravia

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Fabulous Kenny, you may well have illuminated the priest hole with the lock plate.

Certainly easy checks to do.

Thanks mate
 
spkennyuk

spkennyuk

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montravia said:
Fabulous Kenny, you may well have illuminated the priest hole with the lock plate.

Certainly easy checks to do.

Thanks mate
Click to expand...

No problem at all. The other thing you can do is if its been raining or if you have washed the car open the boot and look at the lock plate area in the tyre well. Push the boot seal down that sits above it and see if it pushes water out into the tyre well. Mine was acting like a water chanel behind the boot seal.
 
montravia

montravia

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La Ragazza is booked in for a four year service Wednesday - reasonable price with a decent snag list. Impressed that they took the trouble to verify the service history, checking through HR Owen invoices, on-line history and calling the non-fanchise people who did the pre-sales 'service', so we all know what needs to be done, and just as importantly what isn't necessary.

On the snag list is the water accumulation in the battery well. It's been seen in a handful of cases at Swindon, where there is no ingress from above. The weld of the well pan perishes over time and allows water to ingress from underneath. A simple job of re-sealing. So they say.

So at least she'll be on spec with service and snags: they may quote a reasonable price for stove enamelling the wheels; they're aware that I know who they use and the price if it's not done in house.
 
azapa

azapa

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^^ mine too, bone dry, no rain here recently, but I do wash car with snow foam and a pressure washer, not too often mind!
 
philw696

philw696

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From my numerous years of cleaning cars I always like to dry the door, boot and bonnet shuts after washing the car.
I use a micro fibre cloth for this purpose.
When the car lives outside grime gets on the rubber's and when they are damp ooh ere they respond well to cleaning.
 
montravia

montravia

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Contigo said:
Robin , I checked my history and it said , reseal boot tub.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll see when I get her back from D Lovett next week. She'll have had the tub re-sealed together with four year service and half a dozen minor snags rectified

"On the snag list is the water accumulation in the battery well. It's been seen in a handful of cases at Swindon, where there is no ingress from above. The weld of the well pan perishes over time and allows water to ingress from underneath. A simple job of re-sealing. So they say"
 
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