Rear Door Seal Replacement

With all this lovely British summer weather we've been having recently the rear door seal on my Freelander appears to have given way to letting the wet stuff in. Although there are no obvious signs of where it is coming in, the cubby box is drenched (too much to be condensation I think).

The local dealer have suggested that a new (and modified?) seal is required, and that as we are still the original owners of the vehicle LR would contribute towards to costs, even though the car is nearly four years old and out of warranty.

They said its a sod of job to do. But I was wondering if anyone has done this job themselves and what is involved. For it is awkward for me to leave the vehicle at theirs for the day, and I'm still left with some expense in having them fixing it.

But having said that if it *really* is a sod of a job, then I'm happy to let them do it!

Cheers.

Is this a passeneger door?

No its an easy job to do, and it should take all of 15min to refit. The dealers are shafting you with a days labour.

you just need a mallet or hammer to push the seal home, lower plastic strip from door comes off too.

Have you checked behind the door/cubby box to see if waterproof membrane is intact?

It could also be a window seal, but they are just as easy to fit.

Thanks LR1976. Sorry I should have been clearer, its the rear door, or boot on a 3 door Freelander.

I haven't really looked into it too much, to be honest. It was flagged up at the service, where the main dealer said it was a common fault with the boot seal failing, and that the new modified version solves the problem.

They did however say that it was very difficult and timeconsuming for them to remove the (bonding?) from the old one during the process.

I don't mind spending a sunday afternoon doing the job myself if its not going to be too difficult. With this this modified seal, is it just a case of removing, cleaning any old mess off, and then refitting a new one? ...I presume with some sort of sealent too, if the old one has to have this picked off the bodywork.

Many thanks.

Ok...... if your boot door has water in the cubby hole it will be one of the following:

1) Ripped/slashed waterproof plastic membrane behind door trim.

2) Horizontal window seal, the one that runs behind high level brake light

3) Window surround seal, on the hardtop itself, this is the only bonded seal on a hippo.

But most certainly it IS NOT the door seal as suggested by your dealer. If this was the case you would just have a wet boot carpet but not water higher up in the cubbybox.

For the case of point 3, yes they are bonded to the fibreglass hardtop. You simply peel away the seal with sharp razor blade scrapper. Its held on with black mastic.
Three pieces of black trim on the hardtop that need to come off, a sharp tug does the trick, the two side parts are mounted on three studs, whereas top piece of trim is attached by metal clips.

These metal clips are the bane of my life, used in various parts of the hippo. I have seen hippos with rust/metallic stains running down the rear window due to them rusting... very unsightly!

I havent heard of a new improved seal??? do they have two different parts numbers for these items?

Thanks LR1796.

Based on what you've said, I think this needs me to take a closer look at where the water could be coming in, before I go spending any money, either directly with the main dealer or the myself.

I'll also try to find out what this modified part is for the door seal. Although to be honest, I wouldn't be supprised if there is some confusion. The dealer was not aware of a modified coolent bottle with the level sensor on (for the 2005 model of the 1.8), when I asked.

But I definately recall the service manager saying that the door seal is a problem and "design fault", that causes the locking box in the boot floor to get flooded when it fails, and the new seal stops this from happening. It was at this point we said, that if it is a "design fault", then why should be have to pay for it. Which is when he equired, and got LR to agree to making a contribution.

I'll take a close look at all these seals now to see what I can find, and I'll also see if I can find out the part no for the modified seal too. Thanks for the advise, and I'll let you know how I get on.

Oh, and btw, the dealer did call back a few days later saying that they had managed to locate the Part No for the coolent sensor and bottle for the 2005 model, but it does not fit the older Freelanders. They also suggested I should not rely on a level switch. But my view is that I check the coolent level every week in any event, so would not be relying on it full time. I had a radiator leak in another vehicle earlier in the year, and this was only picked up becuase that car had an indicator already fitted. Which saved me the hassle of finding the problem some way along a journey, when it would have caused more problems. And from what I can tell, 1.8 hippos are very unforgiving of any issues in the cooling system.

The dealer's other comment was that I should just get a TD4 instead...

LightSabre said:

The dealer's other comment was that I should just get a TD4 instead...

Click to expand...

Your dealer is a muppet for saying a narrow minded comment like that!

Brown & Gammons MG sell the modded cooler sensor, the bottle is swapped over as well.


Back to window seal:

Regardless of design fault or not, all seals have to be seated properly to 'bed in' and take the shape of the join/seal. A good example of this is Porsche Boxter - power folding hoods. You have to fold the hood by hand first few times until it forms its own crease. You would hardly think it in a £30k German car but thats materials for you

If the seals were not fitted correctly in the first place then they will never be right.

Mine has never leaked, use silicone spray to keep the rubber 'watertight' otherwise it loses flexibility and eventually cracks.

LR1796 said:

But most certainly it IS NOT the door seal as suggested by your dealer. If this was the case you would just have a wet boot carpet but not water higher up in the cubbybox.

Click to expand...

On the contrary, it seems quite likely to me. This was a problem with my 1998 Freelander and I discovered it is quite a common problem, as illustrated by the many threads about it.

Not all moist boxes are seal problems, but it is a well known problem.

See this page: Known Problems Body

I havent heard of a new improved seal???

Click to expand...

You have now ....

CKE100960 - Seal - Taildoor aperture

Cheers

Blippie

i had my door seal done twice by the garage i bought it from... first time they didn't bond it at the corners

all sorted now......
oh.. top tip
drill a small hole in deepest part of box and if it fails again the box wont fill up with water!

OK, let me shed some light. Firstly i have a 98 5 door so not sure if this is the same for the 3 door. I had the same problem when i bought the car. Golden rule, water due too the nature of gravity travels top to bottom. Check you rheadlining at the top of the window edge. If this is wet, then its comming from there. What has commonly happened is thet the three piece rear trim, ( top of window and two on each side of the window), are held in by plastic type studs that losen with age and vibration. The top one has a rubber lip, and it can perish, unstick itself and leave a non water tight seal, (Not that i think they were ever thatwatertight in the first place. You need to remove the two side ones and then the top one. Be very careful as the studs tend to break off. You will find the three plastic plugs and metal fixing strip with three screws at the top going in to the body, and that is where the water is coming in. Basically what i did, and trust me it 100 % cured my leak, was to get some black mastic, removed all the trim, and placed the mastic on all the holes at the top. I then also stuck back the rubber strip on the top plastic part, put mastic around all inserts and along the metal fixing strip at the top, did the same for the sides and put the lot back, ensuring that the top mental strip is as tight against the body. I was not happy with just the rubber lip at the top and placed more mastic between it and the body, ensuring it was smoth. Anyway the whole operation took an hour and cost me £5 for the sealing compound.

Blippie said:

On the contrary, it seems quite likely to me. This was a problem with my 1998 Freelander and I discovered it is quite a common problem, as illustrated by the many threads about it.

Not all moist boxes are seal problems, but it is a well known problem.

See this page: Known Problems Body




You have now ....

CKE100960 - Seal - Taildoor aperture

Cheers

Blippie

Click to expand...

Ok cheers Blippie..

Let me clarify, the rear door seal on the 5dr is an intact piece. More than likely the case if water in the cubby box on a 5dr.

Whereas in the 3dr hardback, the rubber seal is split into two pieces, an upper window seal and a lower door seal. The lower half (door seal) is not bonded whereas the upper half is (window seal).

Thats right, but i was refering to the outer plastic black trim pieces. These are fixed into the body and that is where the water is coming in from. The rubber seal around the whole opening, weather 3 piesce or 1 piece is very unlikely to be the cause, as you can adjust the tilt of the window and there is also very slight adjustment on the door too to ensure it seals. Have a look at the headlining of the car under the rubber seal. If its wet, the refer to my previous mail. Hope you get it sorted. cheers

jms1 said:

Thats right, but i was refering to the outer plastic black trim pieces. These are fixed into the body and that is where the water is coming in from. The rubber seal around the whole opening, weather 3 piesce or 1 piece is very unlikely to be the cause, as you can adjust the tilt of the window and there is also very slight adjustment on the door too to ensure it seals. Have a look at the headlining of the car under the rubber seal. If its wet, the refer to my previous mail. Hope you get it sorted. cheers

Click to expand...

You mean these pieces of trim - see attachment

I have modded the fittings on them, simple and effective. Chuck the metal clips away and use suitably sized pan head bolts for the side pieces, and self tappers for the top part.

Thats right, those pieces. I did something similar, but used Auto black sealant all the way around. That sorted my problem. However whilst fitting a tow bar, i also notivced that there are some rubber bungs under the reare of the rear whell arch on both sides. If these are missing, it is possable that water is getting in from there. It may be worth taking the rear carpet out and checking for any holes. Its realy easy to take out in about 10 minures. At least you can dry it!

The carpet is pretty much watertight.

I have seen hippos in the scrappies with the rear doors off them. Underfloor stowage box was filled with water but underneath was dry.

Guys, Thanks for all the words of advice. I'm going to use the nice weekend weather to take a look at this further and see if I can work out where its coming from.

Cheers.