![]() 03/01/2019 at 15:11 • Filed to: Smart Roadster, Vaseline | ![]() | ![]() |
Came back to my car today in the pouring rain and found that closing the door behind me did not provide the respite I expected.
Water pouring in from between the door mirror and the door seal at the rate of about a drop a second.
According to the Facebook page, a light coating of this should do the trick at least for a while.
Tried it and so far so good
![]() 03/01/2019 at 15:26 |
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Your Smart has a proboscis
![]() 03/01/2019 at 15:32 |
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Because the original owner didn’t stump up for power mirrors. T
here’s a rod inside there that snaps if anything hits the mirror housing and your mirror then no longer adjusts unless you either find a new one or more sensibly use a narrow
piece of piping to connect the two ends.
![]() 03/01/2019 at 15:37 |
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Hmm. I'll have to try that for my Miata
![]() 03/01/2019 at 15:56 |
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It least it isn’t leaking onto your SAM!
Make sure you clear any of the car’s drains of debris or you may be experiencing this issue throughout spring.
![]() 03/01/2019 at 16:11 |
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Not so far, no. I’m guessing a previous owner has had the wiper tray sealed properly (which is the root cause
of most SAM water ingress)
![]() 03/04/2019 at 15:42 |
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There has been a 450 F o r t w o C a b r i o in the family for... quite a few years now ! It was bought second hand and, to be honest, i t has not been a paragon of reliability . N o t h i n g t e r r i b l y s e r i o us . . . but certainly no Honda .
On the other hand the soft top has never ever leaked. To such an extent that I sometimes forget it is actually a cabriolet.
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![]() 03/04/2019 at 15:58 |
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The Roadster doesn’t usually leak through the roof either. The problems are water getting between the door seals and the side windows, through the mirror housings, down the back of the roof where the drainage system is ineffective and (worst by far) down past the wipers and on to the wiring for the SAM. The water than travels along the wires and damages the plugs going into the SAM.
There’s a thick layer of spongy soundproofing under the carpet, just like the 450, and this can hold li
tres of water unseen. The car then gets permanently damp inside and the SAM doesn’t like that either.
![]() 03/04/2019 at 16:07 |
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Touch wood, we’ve never had problems with the electronics (it probably helps that the car has a/c). Still, the amount of water that can be found under the “spongy bit” is astonishing. Every summer we roll it back and let it dry properly in the sun.
Although the 450 is a brilliant little car, I feel a bit disappointed that Daimler-Benz didn’t make more of an effort to fix so many little silly faults before approving it for production.
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