Did a quick search with no hits but I’m wondering if anyone else has ended up with water in their battery tray? I noticed a few months ago and then again this week. It seems to be rain related but I would also think there are drains in there since the floor is designed to be hosed out.

I’m not seeing anything indicating a leak, no stains in the ceiling, no water on the floor.

Obviously I can take it under warranty but I also know tracking down a leak can be tough so thought I’d throw it out there in case anyone else had the issue, got it resolved and could give me a good starting point.

 

Can't really help, sorry. Volvo's used to have issues with the sun roof drain pipes that wood cause flooding inside. Maybe it's the same?
Let us know what you find!

 

Get it looked at. There are no drains in the floor / it's *not* designed to be hosed out, unfortunately.

They'll prob need to pull the passenger seat and flooring underneath. There are little seam sealer patches/seals/grommets on the floor. May be one of those... or a leaky door seal / sunroof seal running down the B pillar into there.

(ps this is my worst nightmare with these Defenders over a 10-20 year ownership... you have no way of knowing whether the metal is wet under the plastic / composite / foam flooring pieces. (at least w/ carpet, if it gets wet enough, the top is wet)

 

I had a 3gallon cooler leak its contents into my trunk area one day. I ended up with about 1/4” water in the battery tray.

in this case I knew the source and volume of water.

I have seen many reports over the years on the forums of water ingress via some seal in the A pillar I believe. More commonly reported in early year models and on the 90.

There is no low point bung that can be removed to evacuate water from the monocoque.

I suppose that’s either a good or bad thing, depending on your viewpoint.

The Defender is buttoned up tighter than a fishes backside or at least it’s supposed to be.

definitely good for wading. No leaky bung to worry about.

I’d also shy away from hosing down the inside. The brains live under the drivers seat (NAS). Even with my small water snafu I was encountering a few glitchy oddities for a few days. I assume related but have no proof. They never appeared before that or since.

 

Water (read rain) infiltration…….not worried here in Albuquerque as our local weather guy was doing backflips last night as we had just received 3 one-hundredths of an inch of rain - at the airport ​​​​​​……🥺

 

Good evening everyone. Well finally found the water in the battery tray culprit - apparently it was the AC drain tube. It had gotten disconnected so when there was enough to produce a good amount of water it would run down the outside of the tube, under the floor and into the battery tray. That explains why I wasn’t seeing it all the time. Typical drives would have produced some water but not enough to fill up the battery tray and slosh around.

So having a 1998 Disco for 23+ years I know all about AC tubes getting backed up - the diff is in the “old” days the carpet got soaked so I knew to climb under the car and clear the drains. Now with this new flooring it could have just been sitting there making a mess. Glad it’s resolved. Hope this helps someone in the future.

 

The nice thing is, you won't have to worry about rust...

 

If you mean "rust" as in Hydrated Iron Oxide (the red/brown stuff), you're correct. But aluminum does corrode... in different manners under different conditions. So I'll still fret and worry about my floors. I mean, if I wasn't worried about interior water leaks and resulting corrosion of my floors, it would not be a true Rover experience. Hopefully I'm wrong and these floors can have water sitting on them for years without issue.

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