Water in Trunk - 1st time

[VQTRVA]

So went to open my wife's M.3 trunk last night to see if there was a 12V outlet back there & saw water all over the Maxpider trunk mat.

I've washed her car numerous times since we purchased it back in late March'19 & never have encountered this problem.
So searched old posts here on the boards & it could be 1 of 2 things:

Seals around the opening being defective or installed incorrectly.
or
User leaving the hatch open.

I'm ruling the latter out since I would think - we wouldn't be able to lock the car if the hatch was not fully closed & there would be a notification that it was still opened.

But the rain we had yesterday - while it was a good drenching (1.3" around my house based on my rain gauge) - I can't imagine seals failing esp. when compared to a lot of wash water being sprayed by me in a very narrow & direct way.

Questions:

Is seal failures a known issue?
If yes - then it's a service call - true?
If no - do I have to replicate the issue before service will do anything?

 

[640k]

i had one issue where there was water in the trunk after leaving it out overnight and I haven't had another issue since. i'm convinced the trunk was open and I hadn't realized it. i haven't tested walking away, but the car will remain locked if you open the trunk. the trunk also is not obvious if it's open or not.

 

[VQTRVA]

i had one issue where there was water in the trunk after leaving it out overnight and I haven't had another issue since. i'm convinced the trunk was open and I hadn't realized it. i haven't tested walking away, but the car will remain locked if you open the trunk. the trunk also is not obvious if it's open or not.

g

I do agree that hatch is not obvious when it is open/close but it shouldn't allow us to lock or notify us at least if it was open?

I tested it this AM while wiping off the water from the trunk mat.

I had the trunk hatch open & lifted up - tried to lock the doors & it wouldn't let me on the app - saying hatch was still open.

 

[dennisvab]

I recently also had water in the trunk, but the trunk was pulled down and not closed. I can’t remember if the car was locked. If it’s a one time thing, it is probably not the seals. Try walking away and seeing if it locks the car with trunk open. Opposed to manually locking it on the app.

 

[neptunesfinest]

99% chance the trunk wasn't latched. Always pull up on the trunk after shutting it to make sure it's latched. The car will lock even if the trunk isn't latched.

 

[Watts_Up]

Inspect all the moldings to see if they are fitting correctlt.
Check if the molding lips are making contact correctly to fill the gap between the trunk lead and the body frame.

I would put some pieces of paper towell or napken above the moldings, close the door and try to pull each paper piece.
May be there is a gap somewhere. There are some "rubber bolt" above each rear ligh allowing to adjust the trunk lead height.

Another approach is to put some towell paper inside the trunk.
Spray the car, and then look at each paper towell piece to localise any spot with water.

I hope this can help.

BTW, I would also like to have a 12 V plug in the trunk. The Model X has one on the left side corner.

 

[VQTRVA]

99% chance the trunk wasn't latched. Always pull up on the trunk after shutting it to make sure it's latched. The car will lock even if the trunk isn't latched.

Part of me is doubting my earlier statement.
We'll incorporate that into the procedure from now on.

Inspect all the moldings to see if they are fitting correctlt.
Check if the molding lips are making contact correctly to fill the gap between the trunk lead and the body frame.

I would put some pieces of paper towell or napken above the moldings, close the door and try to pull each paper piece.
May be there is a gap somewhere. There are some "rubber bolt" above each rear ligh allowing to adjust the trunk lead height.

Another approach is to put some towell paper inside the trunk.
Spray the car, and then look at each paper towell piece to localise any spot with water.

I hope this can help.

BTW, I would also like to have a 12 V plug in the trunk. The Model X has one on the left side corner.

Excellent feedback thanks all!

 

[LarryT]

yup I had that issue although more soaking wet than standing water... took it to the Milford CT Service Center and turned out to be a "water vent" behind the carpet that needed to be "adjusted"... tech said they've seen it before... got the car back that afternoon so didn't take long... tech was really great about it..

 

[Bill Foster]

Inspect all the moldings to see if they are fitting correctlt.
Check if the molding lips are making contact correctly to fill the gap between the trunk lead and the body frame.

I would put some pieces of paper towell or napken above the moldings, close the door and try to pull each paper piece.
May be there is a gap somewhere. There are some "rubber bolt" above each rear ligh allowing to adjust the trunk lead height.

Another approach is to put some towell paper inside the trunk.
Spray the car, and then look at each paper towell piece to localise any spot with water.

I hope this can help.

BTW, I would also like to have a 12 V plug in the trunk. The Model X has one on the left side corner.

Also this is a great time to put your kid to work, buy throwing him/her in the trunk with a flashlight while you hose down the car.


And I also had water in the trunk once, and never again. Im convinced Ieft my trunk open

 

[pcpro]

I just had my trunk seal replaced with a bigger one because of this issue. Honestly can’t tell you if it’s fixed or not but my trunk is a little tougher to close but not too bad. And the car will tell you if it’s open when you try to drive it. So yeah....call service to get it replaced. They can also adjust the trunk itself if need be but I bet the seal would be it

by the way: I made a video of the issue with phone in the car recording it as I poured water on my back glass so it showed them what was going on

 

[mrsandman]

Had this happen. When I purchased the car the trunk needed to be slammed hard to close. So they adjusted the trunk latch slightly. This fixed the slamming problem but then it caused a leak in the first hard rain. Took it into the service center and the rubber seal was not pressing against the trunk lid enough to form a watertight seal. They ended up replacing the seal with one that was slightly taller. Problem fixed.

 

[Ludatik]

yup I had that issue although more soaking wet than standing water... took it to the Milford CT Service Center and turned out to be a "water vent" behind the carpet that needed to be "adjusted"... tech said they've seen it before... got the car back that afternoon so didn't take long... tech was really great about it..

Any idea where this water vent is located? I’m still having water ingress issues after my trunk seal was replaced. I find some water after a rainfall on the right hand side, close to the trunk opening.

 

[LarryT]

I needed to be on a conf call so didn't see the work as it was being done.. on my car it occurred on the bottom of the trunk on the left side (looking toward the front of the car) toward the back of the trunk...I'm told the "vent" was on the other side of the carpet (between the carpet and the body panel) apparently venting water runoff from the exterior of the car (I suppose near the upper trunk opening) to an exit underneath the car.. but again I didn't actually see the vent... the rubber seal around the trunk opening was working just fie so that was not the issue... you could always ask your SC call the Milford CT SC since Milford has seen the issue a number of times...

 

[Altes]

So went to open my wife's M.3 trunk last night to see if there was a 12V outlet back there & saw water all over the Maxpider trunk mat.

I've washed her car numerous times since we purchased it back in late March'19 & never have encountered this problem.
So searched old posts here on the boards & it could be 1 of 2 things:

Seals around the opening being defective or installed incorrectly.
or
User leaving the hatch open.

I'm ruling the latter out since I would think - we wouldn't be able to lock the car if the hatch was not fully closed & there would be a notification that it was still opened.

But the rain we had yesterday - while it was a good drenching (1.3" around my house based on my rain gauge) - I can't imagine seals failing esp. when compared to a lot of wash water being sprayed by me in a very narrow & direct way.

Questions:

Is seal failures a known issue?
If yes - then it's a service call - true?
If no - do I have to replicate the issue before service will do anything?

FWIW I had defective sealing of my model S 2016. 2weeks to diagnose and fix wASNT A "SEAL" But a lack of sealant on body panels in the trunk