Hey @David993S and forum, this was originally a question asked by Dave but I thought I would share my borderline shameful looking but effective prevention of water ingress for my RWD R (applicable to any RWD car with the water ingress issues). 4 sheets of high temp silicon rubber with a slightly sticky backing placed under the engine cover and just enough to cover the "holes" where water can run down the side of the motor (and into certain injector locations). It ain't pretty but I threw it together when I knew I had to drive through rain (usually garage and sunshine only) a while back.





Hope some of you find this useful.

 

Better than the alternative!

 

That's not ghetto, thats just fixing an issue ,in the ghetto they live in poverty and learn how to be productive, go to college be lawyers, doctors, teachers, help others ETC

 

I apologize if I offended anyone, it is an old (and unfortunate) euphemism from my youth that I knee jerk use sometimes. I will think twice next time.

 

Pretty sure most people understood what you were trying to get across. All good, and thank you for making the contribution you did to the forum. This will help some folks.

 

unbelievable, now saying ghetto also offends. Ups, i said it, i apologize

 

Good solution. With the engine cover on, it's not objectionable. It's functional and removable if necessary.
Thanks.

 

Trust me we are not sensitive offended to anything people say we are passed all that, we are used to it ,all I'm saying putting ghetto in a title isn't even worth the typing ! when you simply fixed an issue and should be rewarded with praise

 

Well good, at least we’ve established that nobody is offended and we can move on and focus on the fact that he did everyone a solid showing everyone his solution…A good one at that…

 

Lol next topic: what is the best way to clean your engine bay embarrasing!

 

Question as I looked at engine with cover on yesterday. How or where does water get in? Looks like it seals up to the sound deadening covers pretty well.

 

Surprised those fat seemed pipes have not failed yet?
I would plan to get those swapped out as they are a real failure prone setup!




The new plastic ones have no seem and of course the metal ones will solve all of that.
.
.
.

 

Surprised? Yep mine is a 2015, and about 36k miles, and plan on keeping them to ensure my car has maximum collectability.

 

I will be happy to collect it from auction with a blown engine😁

 

Sorry, will never happen, I take good care of my car. The secret is to periodically apply 303 Aerospace protectant to restore the plastic and keep it malleable.

 

I was interested is what you suggested. I looked it up and it only provides UV protection to stop plastic cracking and drying so unless you’re driving with your hood up and the engine exposed to the sun it’s not going to help with the cycling heat damage that is the real culprit. I guess for a few bucks it will look good as least.

 

Crap, I'm sorry, that was me being facetious to be clear, that is NOT a thing. It is a matter of time, these are wear items like most coolant system components. Even with those new metal pipes, eventually the rubber orings will fail (but not so early and dramatically). I actually am planning on having my cooling system refreshed in a few weeks. Just goes to show however, I have the "notorious" seamed pipes that are 10 years old on my car but they are holding.... now that I have put that out there I am sure they will fail tomorrow 😆

 

bfrank1972 makes a good point that if your aware of the potential problems and keep and eye on things you can catch it before it's a disaster. So many people never open the hood at all until they are on the side of the road with a blown up engine.

One suggestion is to at least run something that gives you the real coolant temperature. I have been using Torque Pro for years now.

Even those terrible fat seamed pipes usually start weeping at the seams long before it becomes a major leak. On my 2014 XJR at 29K miles when doing an oil change at the dealer they noticed this small weep and I got both front cooling pipes replaced under warranty. I still have plastic but smoothed seamed versions at the front of the engine.
.
.
.