04 Z4 water in trunk?

**Elhua Po** · 03-03-2017, 07:20 PM

I left my 2004 Z4 parked in the garage for about a month after being out in the rain. I opened the trunk today and it's moldy with about 1/2" of water in the battery box. Is this a common problem? I do not see where the water came in, the rubber parts around the trunk lid look fine and there's no water/mold issues in the passenger compartment. I didn't see a similar post here, so has anyone solved this one before?

**jclausen** · 03-03-2017, 09:08 PM

There are drains at the left and right cavitys where the hinges are all put together. If you look in the rear forward parts of the wheel wells the is a removable panel in the fender liner the where you can see it. At the end of the drain pipe BMW puts these rubber tips that have a slit in them pull those off and throw away. While looking down in the hinge area it is really hard to see while looking in. Check the carpets around the seats to see if the carpet is wet. You could also check the tail light gaskets.

**Elhua Po** · 03-05-2017, 05:15 PM

Thank you JBird. I found the drain lines with your instructions. They were clear and when I poured water around the top, it came out right as it should, down the lines and not into the trunk area. The passenger compartment carpets are dry. My third stoplight is cracked and I've siliconed that for now. I did drill a few small (1/8") holes in the plastic battery box low spots to get that water out a few days ago. That should stop any accumulations in the future, but of course I still have a leak somewhere. Maybe like you suggested in the tail light gaskets, it was a desert car before I got it so rubber parts have suffered. When the weather gets warmer, I may put it under a sprinkler and observe the results. We did get an amazing 48" of rain in January and February here in the Foothills, so something got overwhelmed.