1990 Volvo 240 DL sedan.

We had a good rain over the weekend. After the rain stopped, I opened my trunk and found a large puddle of water under the pad. I inspected the rubber molding around the trunk area; all looked good.

I do have a power radio antenna, but I doubt this could account for all of the water. Besides, water from the antenna would collect in the spare wheel well, and drain out the bottom drain.

Any ideas on where I should look for this water leak?

Thanks.

 

Were you travelling in the rain or was the vehicle stationary?

 

Just getting back to this.

The vehicle was stationary sititng at the top of my driveway facing forward. The driveway has about a 10 degree pitch (estimate), so water would be coming off the back of the roof. That would seem to imply that the rubber gasket was bad. However, it all looked good.

Even more strange was that I had some wood under the mat in the trunk. So the mat was not touching the base of the trunk. The mat was dry.

I've checked it once since then, and no water in the trunk.

Puzzled!

 

If you haven't put it away for the year yet, turn your hose on and put it on your roof....try to recreate the rain and see if it starts making the seal wet. The thing is, your seal could look just fine and still be dry rotted out. Capilary action would carry the water in through the seal and the wetter it gets the faster the water comes in.

 

My 240DL trunk leaked for years. I finally had the sense to figure out how to fix it. I had tried using a hose to 'rain' on the car, but water never entered the trunk! After every rain, however, there was a large puddle in the bottom.
I first thought water was entering through the factory drain hole beneath the tire well. I used the original patch and stuck that down w/2 sided tape to seal that up. Then, I replaced the tail lights and the tail light covers (inside of trunk). It still leaked, so I got inside the trunk while a friend slammed the lid. There was a gaping light hole in the trunk seal behind the hinge. I then bought a tube of rubber seal repair (not exact name but I got it at AutoZone) and repaired all of the weak looking dry rotted areas of the seal. I then bought rubber weatherproofing, the peel and stick type, and covered the entire original seal w/that. I knew it wouldn't stick so I glued it w/black E6000 glue, but I think the goop I bought at the auto parts store would have done just as well. I taped it in certain places w/painters tape, slammed the trunk (which wasn't all that easy to do) and left it overnight. Next day, I removed the tape and shut the trunk. It hasn't leaked since. I wanted to keep the original black carpet, even though it looked bad. I took it to the laundromat and washed it in a huge washer; then dried it. It looks really good. I bought a piece of new trunk carpet at the auto store and covered the original w/that. Only problem, it wasn't wide enough so I just covered what I could. 240's have an enormous trunk!

 

This year I started to have problems with leaks in the trunk. First thing is to verify the rubber seal around the trunklid. On mine the seal was fine. I used the hose to simulate rain and found that the water was coming in the tail lights. I had replaced the originals which were all cracked with some aftermarket lenses. The joints on the aftermarkets came unsealed and let water in. I ended up resealing them and drilling drain holes in each bulb chamber.

 

240 sedan tail lights are a real issue with water... after replacing our old cracked faded ones, less than a year later the new ones started filling with water, I drilled a set of small holes in the lower corners of each quadrant so that water would drain out the back rather than fill up then slosh into the trunk.