2008 vantage water ingress behind head

[Mrgiggs]

As a new owner to Aston Martin I was delighted to finally own a marque I’ve always yearned for. I finally bought my 4.3 v8 coupe about 6 weeks ago and so far I’ve done 1000 miles in it and loved every minute….apart from 1 niggling issue, whenever I wash it or if it rains I get water leaking from the headliner trim behind my head which runs down the alloy brace and then into the boot which makes the interior smell a bit damp.

I’ve yet to see a post with this specific leak but wonder if there are others suffering with this same issue??
It got to the point where the alcantara panels were never drying out so I’ve pulled the trim out to dry and done some initial investigations.

After raining or washing the car if I drive it, once I turn left or right the water was running out the end of the roof trim panel behind my head. Having removed that panel, the water will run out of the holes that the trim panel is clipped to….the fibreglass section itself is not filling with water, the car needs to corner for the water to start running which leads me to think the water level is lower than the fibreglass part.

Trying a process of elimination, if I run a hose over the front of the roof at the windscreen….theres no leak, running the hose at each rear quarter window….theres no leak, running the hose at the corner of the roof and tailgate, there’s no leak but running the hose on the roof panel along the rear 12” of the seal between roof panel and rear wing/pillar we seem to get water ingress. Is there a history of the roof panel bond cracking at all? This appears to be my source but I have a couple more tests to do before I start digging out the existing sealant in order to replace it.
I’ll be a bit miffed if after all this it still leaks!!

[Mrgiggs]

Hopefully photos upload this time….

[Jon39]

A most unfortunate situation, but it appears that you have located where water is entering the car.

I cannot remember ever reading on AM PH, of these circumstances before.
On that basis, it presumably must be considered quite a rare fault.
Hopefully your car has never had crash damage.
One would assume that the water ingress was most probably happening before you bought the car.
Did you buy from a motor trade seller?

Films inside the Gaydon factory, often show the panel bonding process. All done on a jig.

[Mrgiggs]

Morning Jon, I did think this was a bit special….i couldn’t find a similar issue on the ‘net’, yes, I bought it from a dealer and I’ve a 6 month warranty with it. I had a vehicle check done before purchase and there’s no history of an accident but this leak has been happening for some time by the look of it. It also looks like someone had taken the roof trims out before too….probably trying to find this leak!
I’ll speak to a bodyshop I know to see what their opinion is before getting on to the dealer/warranty provider.
It’ll be a shame if I can’t fix this as the rest of the car is great and it’s only got 48k on it.

[LTP]

Mrgiggs said:

As a new owner to Aston Martin I was delighted to finally own a marque I’ve always yearned for. I finally bought my 4.3 v8 coupe about 6 weeks ago and so far I’ve done 1000 miles in it and loved every minute….apart from 1 niggling issue, whenever I wash it or if it rains I get water leaking from the headliner trim behind my head which runs down the alloy brace and then into the boot which makes the interior smell a bit damp.

I’ve yet to see a post with this specific leak but wonder if there are others suffering with this same issue??
It got to the point where the alcantara panels were never drying out so I’ve pulled the trim out to dry and done some initial investigations.

After raining or washing the car if I drive it, once I turn left or right the water was running out the end of the roof trim panel behind my head. Having removed that panel, the water will run out of the holes that the trim panel is clipped to….the fibreglass section itself is not filling with water, the car needs to corner for the water to start running which leads me to think the water level is lower than the fibreglass part.

Trying a process of elimination, if I run a hose over the front of the roof at the windscreen….theres no leak, running the hose at each rear quarter window….theres no leak, running the hose at the corner of the roof and tailgate, there’s no leak but running the hose on the roof panel along the rear 12” of the seal between roof panel and rear wing/pillar we seem to get water ingress. Is there a history of the roof panel bond cracking at all? This appears to be my source but I have a couple more tests to do before I start digging out the existing sealant in order to replace it.
I’ll be a bit miffed if after all this it still leaks!!

I think a bit more work before you start digging out sealant might be in order - especially as the exterior of the joint is painted - because you won't be able to seal it from the inside (or success is not very likely).

I've just had a look at the roof on my V8V. The cant rail; and C-pillar pressing is steel, and the roof panel is not steel (aluminium?), so there's obviously a sealed joint between the two panels. There's also joints where the tailgate opening panel (that's the channel that the hinges and the electrical conduits are in and that carries the tailgate seal) which is made from SMC (looks like fibreglass) meets the rear of the roof and one where it meets the C-pillar. The advantage of this SMC channel is that it's one-piece so, unless it's cracked (unlikely) it's pretty much leak proof.

My first candidate would have been the grommet on the end of the electrical conduit where it seals into the tailgate opening panel on the vertical wall, but the work that you've done seems to eliminate this. So, if you've been correct so far, it looks like that last 12" of the joint between the roof and the C-pillar is to blame.

• If you look at the joint carefully, can you see any obvious cracks or holes in the paint?
• Have you tried taping along the joint?

You could do an A-B-A test where you get water ingress; tape the joint and, if you're right, no water ingress; remove tape and get water again. If this works you could progressively reduce the length of tape from the door end until you get a leak, go back one iteration then start reducing the tape from the tailgate end until you get a leak, then go back one iteration and the piece of tape you have left is your target area.

As an alternative to tape you could wipe the joint with something like Vaseline to temporarily seal it

[Dungman]

You can buy a cheap smoke device on eBay. I have traced several hard to find leaks this way.

[embdenb]

Do you have the radio antenna on the roof? If so that’s the likely area to check.