Thank you, this was exactly what was wrong with my Chevy Equinox. The passenger door vapor barrier had failed, and that along with a clogged drain, caused the passenger floor board to get soaked every time it rained.
Back footwell on my E60 is looking like a paddling pool atm 😒 Gonna have to pull the carpet out most likely but not before I check this on all the doors! How is that butyl tape holding up to time? Still working? I was thinking bathroom silicone sealant might be a better bet but that takes hours to dry properly and stinks as it does so, might try the tape instead.
butyl tape was holding up no problem until i sold the car! now its in texas. I always use butyl tape for this job over sealant because its the OE product for it
Good video! Never really put much thought into vapour barriers and the job they do. Definitely going to make sure I put them back 100% in the future. 5:44 thanks for acknowledging us back. From the reply’s back, hearts and likes etc. it’s nice to see you interacting with your audience. One day when you have too many comments to ever reply too. you will look back fondly on these days. ❤ 10:00 glad to see the Amazon link shout out and I checked, You did remember to put it in the description too but it does say Currently unavailable for me. Might be a error as I’m from the uk but worth a check.👌 13:25 you said that with passion in your voice. I don’t think you will ever willingly do that job again. 😂
Thanks for the awesome comment as always Phantom. Ill do my best for as long as I can hahaha, it really is a great community Yeah thats too bad about the link, I posted up an alternative link and threw it in the regulator video too :) Yeah no tint for me, not my thing hahaha
Came here to say this. I love car content from people like me. I wish I was as good as Day Off DIY. What seems to have taken him about 4 weeks to do, would have taken me about 10 years. lol. Practical advice, done well, calmly and with style. Perfect!
I had an '04 325i manual in the same color blue Brenda is and the exact same thing happened to me on the vapor barrier. I bought butyl tape and a new barrier and no more water. Used the wife's hair dryer to heat up the tape. I think this happens quite often with E46's.
i don't understand how this helps, to be honest. If the drain holes are clogged, sealing the doors wouldn't help much, it would just contain bigger amount of water. Yet if the drain holes are not clogged, then the water would simply drain where it should. Can someone please explain this to me? :)
It no doubt could be both issues, the sunroof drains clog and cause water intrusion, on this car it was through the door as well. I gotta do sunroof drains on my other e46 so I’ll document that process
I just spent 2 months and $400 finding out that my leak in my twin turbo fusion was cause by a crack in my trunk caused by my 13000watts of bass lol. I had and e46 back in the day though great car when it worked
Good video, I personally would have replaced the door clips too as some were missing the black seal and the others are prob flat due to the age of the car. Water can leak through those too.
My daughter has a 2007 Pontiac G6. The back passenger floorboard gets a puddle of water every time it rains. The front gets passenger gets damp. But everything is dry around it. We can't figure this out.
Had a 2006 325xi got in it last year, started it and all the lights on the instrument panel came on and the car had a surging idle. Both the front and rear passenger side foot wells had water standing in them, wheathertech mats were full. Ended up pulling the entire interior out as well as the passenger rear door card. It was dry but I put new butyl on the moisture barrier and reassembled. Waited till it was pouring and went out to check it , no leak there but found the leak, front passenger sunroof drain. Puller the headliner and all the upper interior trim. Found the drains under the car, squeezed them and they opened up. Checked everything again, waited for rain, all good. Spent a few hours reinstalling the interior, cleared all the codes and gave the car to my son and bought a 535 x drive.
I have the same issue on my E91 tourer. I'll be stripping the door soon when the weather here is back on the plus side. This may be down to a repair the car had after that very door was hit. 😢 Thank you for the super clear and concise video, looks easy to follow, I really appreciate it. 🙏
Great work Alex, you are the first guy I have seen say how to repair the integrity of these vapor barriers. New ones are $100 each up in Canada so buttle tape is way cheaper. Thanks.
Thanks for this....we were completely confused about the wet carpets. Unfortunately it is on both back carpets so we'll have to spend a lot of time doing both sides. Also, the trunk had a s*it load of water. Your coment at the very end gave me the idea that the light in the rear might be the culprit!
Nice Video! I used a heat gun to reuse the actual OE black Butyl Sealant Tape. I had sliced it with a thin blade knife and i used my the heat gun on low, it worked like a charm and I got the old strip to glue like nothing happened. I had no other choice as I had to do a quick door leak fix for my wife's E83 X3. heat gun would have been great for removal as well but i chose a box cutter it was faster in that case. PS: I just subscribed.... 🙂
thanks for the sub my friend! I actually just showed that procedure on my most recent video, used a torch and heated the butyl tape back up to reseal everything. Appreciate the comment and welcome to the channel!
Nice, great work as usual! It must be so satisfying fixing these kind of issues, knowing that the car was so cheap. I wish people were throwing away E46's for those prices here in Germany.
nice detail on where the tape gets placed. Not remembering ever seeing that highlighted. . That's why we love your presentations! Suggestion to consider: Maybe a swap on vacuum lines using poly type lines. I dream of red for fuel and blue for vacuum. lol Nice work. Appreciate it so much.
Hi Alec, just wondering if you are feeling any love for Kismet, the pretty 84 , 318i! I miss it. Love how people in the comments recognize what a pleasant and honest man you are. Okay, later,!.
I was dealing with water in the cabin myself for a while (not in a BMW), and it wasn't successful until most of the interior got stripped off and extensively tested under falling water sources. The point of entry was also very-very different from a single door - bottom of the firewall where some factory spot welds went bad. That exercise alone was quite more damaging and exhausting than a door panel, and I can definitely relate here. But a question I have is probably a prompt for a follow-up mention - whether that vapor barrier was the only fix and the one that did indeed fix the presence of water in the cabin.
That sounds like a nightmare. Getting access into the dash for that kind of work is some of my least favorite... So far so good! Done some proper testing, no evidence yet. Will continue testing and parking in the rain, but I will keep you updated, and if there is another leak, you might just see a video for it first. Thanks for stopping by
@@DayOffDIY Yes, IT WAS. Not that you're asking, but I would share it for everyone's education at my expense. Buckle in. Initially I was investigating on my own, and found nothing for months with more and more instances of water coming in by the rear seats. Some times only on the passenger side, later on both. And front carpets were always dry. I found some splatter on the wheel wells but way above door jams and figured it was from body trim holes and cracked plastic or sun roof drains. Cleaned and sealed all of that. Did not help. Curiously enough water happened only if the rain was strong enough and with a significant wind at a specific angle - the car was usually parked at uneven elevation with the front end up, passenger side curbed down. Yes, it took me time to assemble all of that detail together after it would flood time and time again. I would vacuum water out, and eventually after months of this defeated I went to my mechanic and explained what I saw. He figured it out when the car went on a lift after multiple water flooding attempts that he did - spot welded stud mounts for the steering pipe on the firewall rusted through and let water in when the streams from the windshield and cowl drains above were strong enough compounded by the wind from just the right angle to put even more water onto the windshield. And inside it would travel under the carpet and my rubber mats by way of pressed channels in the floor to the rear seat foot wells and pool up, where I would find it and ponder life in general. ✌
Love the videos. I have an e46 with 313k miles. Manual transmission. Just replaced ALL bushings, front to rear including shock absorbers. I have had a creaking noise from the rear when ever I load or unload the car. Still exists after replacing all suspension components except for the rear springs. What do you think it might be?
I always set the parking break. I forgot to mention that I had a whistle sound also with the creaking. So I just checked and looks like the whistle sound eliminates when the parking break is not set but the creaking is still there.
@DayOffDIY maybe you could do a raffle for repairs on viewers cars. And have more content that way. It can show your versatility on different platforms. Just have to figure who should cover the parts...that's where sponsorships come in bro.
its quite common especially if youve replaced a window regulator and cut the vapor barrier out. Its been a problem on all 3 of my 3 series BMWs. two e46s and a e90
