Water ingress in garage 2017 apache 634

[roadwarrior]

I am sad to realize that I have water ingress to the garage, having bought it during the pandemic I have not been anywhere for some time like everyone else, this of course rules out water during travel or from underneath. As the van is on a slope even though it's on ramps the slope means the nearside rear garage is the lowest point. Normally I would turn the van round to experiment the effect but it's impossible on my l shaped drive.
So, anybody else had this and cured it?

 

[Diabalo]

The first thing to check is the door seals.

 

[steven2002]

Mine leaked round the window seals and down inside the wall onto and round the locker frame into the locker.
Dealer kept replacing and adding extra locker seals before I had to work it out myself.
Lift the seat cushions off,pull the rubber trim back from the locker frame.
Run hose lightly over top of window and keep an eye on the top of the locker frame from the inside.
Hopefully that makes sense..

 

[roadwarrior]

thr door seal seem fine, but i have sprayed some silicon spray around just in case. i have placed a sensor in there and without heat its dropped from 7 to 5c and from 50% humidity to 71% as night falls which is too be expected.
Tomorrow i will check for any pools of water - there has been no rain at all, so im suspecting now its condensation. do you know if warm air is sent into the garage at all ?.

 

[steve 6644]

Cover the floor with cardboard, makes it easier to spot the source

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[Carolyn and Kev]

Our 634 had a fault with damp in the garage. The doors showed water ingress on the internal paper lining (Vinyl) . Tried everything...even bought a seal fitted by Hymer on their rear doors and it still did not solve the problem. Eventually sent it back to Autotrail who fitted new plastic doors and a new garage liner in plastic. Job was sorted . Why they could not have done it from new really puzzles me? Common sense does work....sometimes!

Kev.

 

[roadwarrior]

sorry kev, i im having a thick moment - are you saying they replaced both garage doors with plastic doors and a new floor liner in the garage ?

 

[Carolyn and Kev]

sorry kev, i im having a thick moment - are you saying they replaced both garage doors with plastic doors and a new floor liner in the garage ?

Hi there. Only the linings

Basically the lining on the doors is of a thin ply type material which is covered with a vinyl type paper for want of a description . The lining sucks the moisture in from around the door because it can't escape. Thus damaging the doors and surrounding linings.
Ours went in and they replaced the ply linings with plastic and did the floor tray too.Basically any water getting in from around the door seals now cannot be sucked into the linings at all now.
On Our Delaware ...it too has had the new doors and flooring fitted to the garage ...again because of the water ingress issue. Its a common fault that many have had issues with. It can be sorted but if outside the warranty or if warranty is void or out dated, then it can be expensive ...bare it in mind

Regards Kev

 

[roadwarrior]

thank you for that.. i will chase it - thank you

 

[roadwarrior]

Well I have had a good look, and with the help of the pouring rain I can see what happens, as Steven says it runs off the roof and down to the windows around them (giving them a Good testing as well) and straight down to the garage doors and the dodgy seams. I then realized the seal rubber joins itself at the middle on the bottom. Perfect for allowing rain in..... So that was removed and refitted so the join is at the top not the bottom where the water gathers. I have looked at the run of water how it drops down the side off the roof, another design fault like the entrance door, which we stopped with rain guttering fitting on the roof and diverting the rain away from the door. I will provide some pics when it stops raining in a few days.

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[roadwarrior]

the first pic shows the bottom of the garage door after the rubber seal has been turned round so the join is at the top and not at THE BOTTOM, which is a silly idea and definitely down to the guy who fitted it at autotrail. the second one shows the seal looking up as it now. As it is still raining pretty hard its impossible to say that fixed it but i will say its dry in there now. Also I noticed there are two hard rubber spacers on the bottom of the door which i assume are intended to centralise the door, i have moved them to the centre of the door as i noticed they were pushing up the door and allowing water in past the dodgy rubber seal. again wont say its cured but its a very big improvement so far. Also i will move the water flow path coming down from the roof if it ever stops raining with the rubber water strip that i used to great effect over the habitation door, what pillock thought that was acceptable as a van design ??

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[canopus]

You would think Autotrail would have twigged by now and once and for all eliminated leaks before the end user has to suffer the consequences.

 

[steve 6644]

Looks like there may be beer at the end of the tunnel theres nothing quite like solving a mystery leak. Hope you nailed it.

 

[roadwarrior]

You would think Autotrail would have twigged by now and once and for all eliminated leaks before the end user has to suffer the consequences.

from what i have read about autotrail after care, they dont give a damn, which is even worse..

 

[roadwarrior]

i hope so too Steve, but not passing out the cigars yet.. sometimes commonsense is enough.. but isnt it scary when you think such stupid thinking allows a habitation door to be a waterfall and nobody fixes it ? the upside down rubber seal is too silly for words too. I love the van though.. just wish i could use the soddin thing .........
philosophically speaking i suppose it will be as perfect as i assumed it was when i bought it .. The Bolero i sold was perfect in every way, fast economical and water tight as we had fixed that down the years - as you do - but when we bought it and it rained we realised straight away why they sold it... the heki roof was a waterfall !!!
ah well - here we go again eh..

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[roadwarrior]

sadly the swimming pool continues.. strangely, or maybe not, the heavy snow didnt get in, but i do wonder if im cursed ... i had the idea of putting a camera in there so i could see what was going on, but while putting it in there, the boot door dropped on my head , made me swear a lot and i dropped my 5 day old phone on the floor and the glass screen has smashed as it hit the tarmac, and now one of the oval locks has broke on the door - you cant make this stuff up...

 

[Diabalo]

Life is real shitty sometimes.

Get inside with the door shut and have someone gently spray the outside with water, you may see where it's coming in.

Tip take the keys with you so someone cant lock you in

 

[steven2002]

Hi.recheck if the water is running down the inside of the wall(in between the inner and outer skin).from round the window.
Mine was only cured when I pointed this out to the dealer and they replaced the window seals.

 

[roadwarrior]

thanks diablo, i considered sending in the wife but as i said i have installed a camera in there now as i said, steve, im pretty sure the window is fine and not leaking, but of course its providing a nice channel down to the door .. and as you see one of the locks is now buggered and cant be locked/sealed, and creating a further complication

 

[roadwarrior]

i think i can report a fix at last, i replaced the rubber seal on the garage door - i bought 3 mtrs thinking i would do both doors - bigger than i thought - each side was slightly more than 2 mtrs, so if i want to do the other side at some point ( and i think i might) the rubber is a bit crap considering its only 3 and a bit years old - the new stuff was bigger and more resistant to the point where the locking bar needed to be turned round to prevent it being crushed too much.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-...0001&campid=5338547443&icep_item=112670999584

the rain still runs down the van - hits the windows and runs round the frame, and runs directly into the garage door frame and then running round the rubber seal till it find a way in, i actually found a pin hole in the rubber as well.
later on i will look at a way of diverting the rain path like i did over the habitation door - now THAT was a bloody awful design fault someone should of definitely had his arse kicked over that ... literally a waterfall greeted you if you opened the door and walked out.

definitely a case of spoiling the ship for a happ'eth of tar -.

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[roadwarrior]

lock replaced so lets see what the rain and snow does to it over the next few days.

 

[Diabalo]

I bent my catches in a bit more, the locks are stiffer to engage but it pulls the door in tighter against the seals.

 

[roadwarrior]

Yes Diabalo, i found my hatch levers were all bent inwards for extra tightness, sadly it goes to show how truly pants the rubber trim seal fitted at the factory it really was, the thicker rubber trim i bought from ebay ( link above) is waaay better and i actually had to slack off the levers to get it to close. But - very happily job is all good now.

 

[Diabalo]

I will need to look at replacing mine at sometime as they are a bit past their best so thanks for the link.

Fiamma do a drip stop gutter that goes over doors, windows etc to divert water away but its not cheap.

 

[CazPaul]

I will need to look at replacing mine at sometime as they are a bit past their best so thanks for the link.

Fiamma do a drip stop gutter that goes over doors, windows etc to divert water away but its not cheap.

But the Fiamma drip stop looks awful and like a DIY bodge to me, it’s just an afterthought to terrible design.

Everytime I see the drip stop above a door or window I immediately think how much water does that let in and that van has a problem with water ingress. I would never buy a van with it on, a telltale sign of problems.

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[roadwarrior]

i think i mentioned our fix for the habitation door - we put some strip ON THE ROOF edge over the door area - completely invisible and effective.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/White-Ca...d=link&campid=5338547443&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

 

[roadwarrior]

ok so.. this was my fix for the awful waterfall that the apache has and for all i know, many other autotrail models too , we put it on the ROOF and placed it behind the awning between the gap on the roof as you look at it that is just visible with the awning wound away as in the pic. Tricky to see on the photo but lets face it, that is the whole point.. unless you are on the roof it is totally impossible to see but works in stopping the waterfall over the habitation door perfectly. Needless to say it does not impede anything and is invisible.

 

[Beehector]

i think i can report a fix at last, i replaced the rubber seal on the garage door - i bought 3 mtrs thinking i would do both doors - bigger than i thought - each side was slightly more than 2 mtrs, so if i want to do the other side at some point ( and i think i might) the rubber is a bit crap considering its only 3 and a bit years old - the new stuff was bigger and more resistant to the point where the locking bar needed to be turned round to prevent it being crushed too much.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-...0001&campid=5338547443&icep_item=112670999584

the rain still runs down the van - hits the windows and runs round the frame, and runs directly into the garage door frame and then running round the rubber seal till it find a way in, i actually found a pin hole in the rubber as well.
later on i will look at a way of diverting the rain path like i did over the habitation door - now THAT was a bloody awful design fault someone should of definitely had his arse kicked over that ... literally a waterfall greeted you if you opened the door and walked out.

definitely a case of spoiling the ship for a happ'eth of tar -.

Hi we are having trouble with one of our locker seals and wanted to replace it. I can't get the eBay link to work. Is there any chance you can let us know what it was you bought so we can search it on eBay?
Many thanks
Tom and Barbara

 

[roadwarrior]

sure, you will find it is of substance, MUCH better than the naf thing that autotrail put on it a the factory , you will find the door will now sit proud for a while and you might even need to bend the locking bar for a while. Dont force the door to fit trim at first, i have also found the locks like to break as well , so go easy and endure a slight ajar hatch for a couple of months till it beds it - i guarantee it wont leak. i pointed the hose on it - dry as a bone - at last.

 

[roadwarrior]

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