Like many copens, my copen is suffering from water in the boot. I don't think its coming from the boot mounted stop light as I have done the test with the hose pipe. The water is entering via the boot lid/rubbers. I know this has been covered in many other threads and I also know as an owner of previous soft tops, they have all leaked sometime in their life. Step one was to clean all the rubbers with silicon and the under side of the boot lid where the rubbers press against. One thing I have noticed is that the boot hinges are not identically aligned, so does this mean that because of this, the boot lid is not sealing correctly, hence it leaking water into the boot? Before I make any adjustments I would appreciate any feedback and advice as I don't want to make things worse. Left hand side boot hinge below (from back of car) you can see the vertical and horizontal marks on the boot and hinge to aide adjustment. Right hand hinge below. You can see the adjustment points are different to the left hand hinge.
I would not touch the boot hinges! Check the panel gaps with the boot closed. If all is well, open your boot and smear some water based lubricant (KY or similar) onto ONE of the sealing surfaces. Close your boot, wait a short while, open and look for witness marks. Any dry spots would suggest that a seal is not making contact.
Hi, thanks for your advice. Another method I used with an Old Alfa 147 which was leaking water was to brush chalk dust around the seal and then wait for the rain or water and trace where the dust trails from and too
Alfa's water and rust do not go well together!!!! I was speaking at the meet yesterday and someone was saying that they have had to adjust their hinges due to miss-alignment and that the 2 hinges were at different locations in respect to each other. Due to the complexity of the hinges and systems, this is entirely possible. Even new panels from the same jig can have alignment issues, without throwing in complex tilting and hinge systems. It is how the boot aligns when closed that is the main concern and not how it looks when open and you can see the marks. Just a pity you haven't got a small person that could fit in the boot and see from the inside, maybe a camera with light could do just as good? I would check the seals themselves and possibly some washable food dye so that it is easy to see trace marks than by just using water.
You can buy these very cheaply. Arctic Products Smoke Matches 75 Pack Light a few in a metal tray, close boot, watch for smoke escaping.
