Advice about leak, water in spare tire well

[momoivanoff]

Originally Posted by RMcG

Does anybody know where I can get instructions on how to remove the rear seat?

R.

One thing I can tell you is to be EXTREMELY careful when trying to remove the e-torx bolts holding the back seat.I was careful and still managed to round the heads of 2 of them.Many people have had problems with those and it looks like they are made of some softer metal.I would suggest using a powerful impact wrench with the right impact socket for them (E-10 I think).Don't bother with a ratchet or a breaker bar...

[RMcG]

Originally Posted by momoivanoff

One thing I can tell you is to be EXTREMELY careful when trying to remove the e-torx bolts holding the back seat.I was careful and still managed to round the heads of 2 of them.Many people have had problems with those and it looks like they are made of some softer metal.I would suggest using a powerful impact wrench with the right impact socket for them (E-10 I think).Don't bother with a ratchet or a breaker bar...

Thanks Ivanoff,

Did you have to remove the rear seat to examine or dry out your carpet?

~12 hrs later edit: attached is a picture of the bolt attaching the front of the left side of the rear seat to the car floor (this bolt goes through the area of the carpet that is wet). There is another similar bolt on the other (right) side. This bolt has a simple, common hex nut head. I can feel, but not see one or two bolts that are behind the seat.

This is a base model hatchback, it does not even have a rear windshield wiper. As an aside, this morning when out changing out the cheap towels, the carpets feel pretty dry, BUT in kneeling on the carpet (to change out the old towels I am using for drying) my pants at the knee became visibly wet. Indicating, I think, that the pad/sponge material under the carpet there is still quite wet. And this unfortunately is the side of the carpet that is the driest (most dry). This probably means I will have to remove the rear seat and get the carpet up and remove those pad/sponges in order to get the car & carpet really dry.

Any more tips from anybody will be appreciated.

Thanks,

R.