[e90yyc]

Has anyone here done this? Am I wasting my time?

I posted a little while back about an issue I'm having where a noticeable amount of air is entering from around the door panel (every door...) any time I'm driving with sunroof cracked or, to a lesser extent, wide open. In other words, with negative cabin pressure, there is an unusual draft.

The car has over 290,000 km on it, but the door seals *seem* okay. I both hope it is the seals, but also that it isn't, given the expense to replace them.

Should I expect this at the mileage I'm at? The consensus from my last post was that this is not normal, and since I have yet to see a post about door seals on these cars being an issue, I'm skeptical this is the case.

My plan is to smoke-test the interior using a machine. Obviously I'll need to create positive cabin pressure, which I assume can be done by operating blower with recirc off.

Most importantly––while I know that smoke-testing interiors is a bona fide diagnostic technique, primarily for convertibles––is there any risk with this? I believe the smoke tester uses a light mineral oil, so I don't want to use this if I'm going to coat the interior of my vehicle with a film of any sort.

Thanks in advance.

[Biginboca]

I think what you are describing is normal especially at highway speeds. I’ve noticed it on mine which was bone stock with only had 50k miles on it and lived a sheltered garaged life for the 8 years before I bought it.

[e90yyc]

Originally Posted by Biginboca

I think what you are describing is normal especially at highway speeds. I’ve noticed it on mine which was bone stock with only had 50k miles on it and lived a sheltered garaged life for the 8 years before I bought it.

Ah okay, good to know! Might be pointless for me to test in that case.

Do you also notice air coming through switch banks?

[tlow98]

95k miles on my e91 doesn’t do this. I’ve personally had all door panels off in my car previously

[S65Hunter]

Just find one of those people that #vapelife and make them sit in your car, windows up and vape the shit out of the interior and see where it leaks from

[Emilime75]

The door seals can flatten over time, so even of they look to be in good shape, they may no longer have the right shape to make good contact with enough pressure to make a good seal.

I've never tried this, but I've seen someone fish a length of caulking backer rod through the seal to make up for the "flattening" of the old seal.

[e90yyc]

Originally Posted by AlpineE93

Just find one of those people that #vapelife and make them sit in your car, windows up and vape the shit out of the interior and see where it leaks from

[BSM n54iS]

I was right about to post... w/e you do just don't vape

[fleet]

Originally Posted by e90yyc

Do you also notice air coming through switch banks?

Might be worth checking your vapor barrier behind the door panel (asssuming there is one, I haven't had to take a door panel off...yet.) Every other door panel Ive taken off (other manufacturers) theres a barrier of some sort (and generally a pain to put back on perfect)

[gamesfrager]

Vape? Just visit coopcannabis :P (I work on that site, that's how I know)

On another note, why not compare the seal with a new one? See if yours is more compressed like it was mentioned earlier.

[e90yyc]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will take a look at the seals and see. Will also check out vapour barrier, but I suspect this isn’t the culprit.

If I do end up smoke-testing I’ll be sure to update the thread with how it goes

[robthewrench]

If you do pursue the smoke test, you'll might need to block some other vents on the car to get the smoke to try and push around the door jam. Both the cowl vents and rear body vents are far bigger than the gap around the door.

[tlow98]

If it were the door seal on the outer edge wouldn’t the air flow be at that location and not the switches on the door?

[e90yyc]

Beats me honestly. I’ll have to pop the door panel off and look for possible entry points. The reason I’m increasingly thinking it’s the seals because it seems to be happening with every door...