The usual 400h boot water leak story

[Planner]

Of course it did. And yours is particularly bad.  Plus when you search for "water leak 400h" & come across page after page of problems it can feel like everyone's having the same issue, but I'm going to guess it's usually pretty rare. It could also be an age thing; they're not getting any newer.

I've liked the 400h enough to look at it's successor when the time comes. There's a lot to be said for Japanese reliability.

 

[Greisingel]

Yeah I had a Y reg BMW e39 540i SE. Beautiful V8. Purred. Was a bit knackered. Needed £3K spending on it.

Got rid of it. One word. Sills rust. I do miss a V8. Mind you the RX400H gives V8 performance. Brother had the e39 M5. By god that was a beast. Collectors now with prices to match  

I fancy an e92 330D. Pipe dreams at the mo. Better fix my RX first. 

[Barry14UK]

On 1/31/2021 at 12:22 AM, Greisingel said:

Yeah I had a Y reg BMW e39 540i SE. Beautiful V8. Purred. Was a bit knackered. Needed £3K spending on it.

Got rid of it. One word. Sills rust. I do miss a V8. Mind you the RX400H gives V8 performance. Brother had the e39 M5. By god that was a beast. Collectors now with prices to match  

I fancy an e92 330D. Pipe dreams at the mo. Better fix my RX first. 

All cars I have had (and that's quite a number), have had actual or potential problems.  Blocked sun roof drains is pretty common one to all makes/models with them.  This is due to the misconception that the exterior seal is going to keep water out.  It doesn't, and over time a build up of dirty water in the channels can lead to blocked drains and water in the car.  Also, non operation of the sun/moon roof can lead to the operating mechanism seizing.  This was the case on an E39 530i Sports I have just broken for spares.  Another water ingress problem on the E39, (I don't know if this might apply to Lexus) is the coming away from behind the door cards of the vapour membrane which requires a new gasket or heat sealing back the original at around 10 years.  I haven't heard of panel seams coming apart as on some earlier RX models.

The sills on the E39 I broke for parts were OK but the rear wheel arch valences were badly rusted as was the area below the external boot handle, a typical rust point for this model and made worse by a previous owner living close to the coast. There was some rust under the car but the 20 year old exhaust looks fine and was thick where I cut it.  My current E39 530 SE has only a very small area of rust on the front corner edge of the bonnet.  This will be dealt with this summer along with a couple of other jobs.  The E39 530 is marginally faster to 62mph than the RX450h on figures given and experience, so enough acceleration for me.  BMW's have a reputation for needing replacement parts, particularly suspension parts and parts relating to the cooling system.  Indeed I replaced the former at reasonable cost through need, and proactively the water pump when changing the serpentine belt and replacing the radiator and expansion tank.  It now also needs replacement adjusters in the Hella headlights, a fiddly job  All in all, the cost of repairs for 14 years motoring in the E39 has cost me less than the 2 air struts that my RX450h needed at circa 40K miles in the 2 years I have owned it. The only reason I bought the RX was because  it is more comfortable for my back on long journeys I occasionally make  and more easily for me to get into and out of.

(I have excluded the cost of upgrading the lighting on the BMW as this was through choice and not because it was  necessary.)

Incidentally, the E39, E36, E90 and Z3 Roadster were largely designed for BMW by Japanese designer Jogi Nagashima.

[Planner]

Quick update.

At the wrong time of year, in the wrong weather I used some random German car filler a few days ago to patch up the most common areas for leaking.

I was not particularly delicate about it as I don't care about the aesthetics.

having had heavy snowfall since then and a fair amount of rain, I can confirm I can't see any leaking at the moment.

I'll do a better job when the weather gets better but at the moment I just wanted to stop water getting in

 

 

[Planner]

1 hour ago, Planner said:

Quick update.

At the wrong time of year, in the wrong weather I used some random German car filler a few days ago to patch up the most common areas for leaking.

I was not particularly delicate about it as I don't care about the aesthetics.

having had heavy snowfall since then and a fair amount of rain, I can confirm I can't see any leaking at the moment.

I'll do a better job when the weather gets better but at the moment I just wanted to stop water getting in

 

 

As an aside, in my quest to find the leak, I accidentally broke some of the tabs on the luggage rack end (a long black plastic piece). Thought I'd see if I could get one cheap off eBay. No chance. Mega expensive. Stupidly so.

Looks like I'll have to get the clear mastic out for it.

[Barry14UK]

4 hours ago, Planner said:

As an aside, in my quest to find the leak, I accidentally broke some of the tabs on the luggage rack end (a long black plastic piece). Thought I'd see if I could get one cheap off eBay. No chance. Mega expensive. Stupidly so.

Looks like I'll have to get the clear mastic out for it.

Is it possible that you could plastic weld the tabs back on or if you have lost them make up replacements using a similar plastic? (It's important that any new plastic is the right type so it will react and meld with the original). I have done this on a number of car parts, toys and other things using mainly a fairly small soldering iron to start with and on larger jobs a broader soldering iron to quickly draw over to smooth. Where finish is important,  I have sometimes  added filler and then further smoothed with various grades of wet and dry.  The last job I did  was to repair impact cracks on the under tray of a car where finish was not so critical.  With small parts where the type of plastic will take superglue, I use this first with various ways to help retain in position such as using wooden clothes pegs or making wooden splints to temporarily hold in position.  For better strength I meld the plastic in from both sides.   It needs some skill to achieve a good result, sufficient penetration but not too much heat as material will buckle and collapse if too much heat is applied or the iron held on the plastic for too long.  Ideally the ambient temperature should be fairly hot or the workpiece warmed.   It is important to minimise intake of fumes that this process gives off.  There are a number of videos showing this but as a person who has been doing this for many years, I am not very impressed by some of the results they show.  

[Greisingel]

10 hours ago, Planner said:

As an aside, in my quest to find the leak, I accidentally broke some of the tabs on the luggage rack end (a long black plastic piece). Thought I'd see if I could get one cheap off eBay. No chance. Mega expensive. Stupidly so.

Looks like I'll have to get the clear mastic out for it.

Useful to see the mastic job you did. Will be doing same when stops bloody raining here. Yes, those roof rack caps are very expensive. I am looking for two rear ones. Have to have the slide in the middle that clips to a bolt. 

[Planner]

3 hours ago, Greisingel said:

Useful to see the mastic job you did. Will be doing same when stops bloody raining here. Yes, those roof rack caps are very expensive. I am looking for two rear ones. Have to have the slide in the middle that clips to a bolt. 

Glad it's not just me. And they're crazy expensive for some cheap plastic.

And yeah I was stupid, didn't know there was a middle bit. All but one of the clips broke. Guess the plastic gets brittle after a while. There was crap and mud inside, so once that's gone I'm literally gonna use clear bathroom silicone, just to stop it flying off. 

 

 

 

[Greisingel]

https://gbr.grandado.com/products/oem-63493-0e010-roof-rack-side-rail-end-cap-cover-passenger-rear-for-lexus-rx350-rx400h-rx330-2003

Was the best I could find for the 4 caps with the middle slide that hooks to the metal prong.

Build quality? I don't know. It's coming from China.

[Planner]

35 minutes ago, Greisingel said:

https://gbr.grandado.com/products/oem-63493-0e010-roof-rack-side-rail-end-cap-cover-passenger-rear-for-lexus-rx350-rx400h-rx330-2003

Was the best I could find for the 4 caps with the middle slide that hooks to the metal prong

Yeah I saw similar prices. If I could buy one for £12.50 i would.

Metal prong? On mine it's a yellow plastic pop stud. 

If you lived in Russia you could get the full set for £25

https://baza.drom(blocked word)/novosibirsk/sell_spare_parts/kryshka-rejlinga-zadnjaja-lexus-rx330-rx350-rx300-zaglushka-87081643.html

 

 

[Greisingel]

6 hours ago, Planner said:

Yeah I saw similar prices. If I could buy one for £12.50 i would.

Metal prong? On mine it's a yellow plastic pop stud. 

If you lived in Russia you could get the full set for £25

https://baza.drom(blocked word)/novosibirsk/sell_spare_parts/kryshka-rejlinga-zadnjaja-lexus-rx330-rx350-rx300-zaglushka-87081643.html

 

 

This plastic stuff is ludicrously expensive. Yes it may be a plastic rather than metal stud. Think you're right. I checked a few breakers. Most of the RXs in SE England have been gutted.

Great to hear your RX is dry. I want the same result now.

[Planner]

9 hours ago, Greisingel said:

This plastic stuff is ludicrously expensive. Yes it may be a plastic rather than metal stud. Think you're right. I checked a few breakers. Most of the RXs in SE England have been gutted.

Great to hear your RX is dry. I want the same result now.

I thought it would be easy to get parts from breakers for the Rx series, as there's so many around.

I needed a couple of door cards & other interior bits (previous owner had kids).

But I had to do a load of eBay messaging & calling till I got what I needed at a good price.