The Safrane.Info Forum!

This is courtesy of SAFRANEV6RXE who tipped me off on this recently.

The safrane has a strange issue with the doors and windows. The water on the drivers side is able to slowly leak down through the front of the window seal and down through the door. Somehow it manages to get into the speaker, leak through that, out through the plastic casing, over the kick panel and down into the carpet where it then pools with no drainage.

The simple cure is to remove the lower plastic panel, speaker and anything else in the way and make a T shaped piece of plastic from a freezer bag. Stick it to the remaining door panel with the top of the T and then put the lower part of the T through the hole where the speaker sits. Fit the speaker and plastic panel back and thats it - job done! The water will not divert back into the door instead of into the speaker and will now drain out through the door drain holes instead of into the car.

Job done!

EDIT: Also see the post below as the sunroof can also build up water which then allows it to seep into the roof liner and down the inside of the door seal.
Click here

This seems like a common Safrane problem,i have owned 2 Safranes that have had this issue and Renault didn,t offer any form of mod to prevent this from happening,i found this way cured the problem,if you make the sheet of plastic a little to big you will hear the window touch it when fully down,so check all is fine before maybe replacing the speaker.

Speakers are quite hardy when it comes to moisture. Although the main speaker cone is technically paper, it's paper thats thicker than a bank note and it dries out well too. I personally wouldn't worry about replacing it unless it's so soggy that it's falling apart.

The speaker in ours was pretty damp but certainly not endangered! That reminds me though, I do have 4 doors sat outside behind the shed with speakers that should probably be savaged before it's too late

Well today I found another larger leak that has been contributing to the problem for an age without my knowing. The sunroof drain was blocked

I went to the car to have a look and found that water was still getting in and running down the inner side of the door seal from the roof. Upon closer inspection of the roof liner it was soaking wet but only on the drivers side. Removing the sun visor, handle (sun glasses holder for most - i swapped them round) and the panel that covers the seat belt, I managed to pull the roof liner down and a bit more water spilt out from above it where there was a little pool.

Opening up the sun roof (inwards and sliding back) I noticed a large puddle was in that corner of the sun roof mechanism and it clearly wasn't draining. The safraine sunroof has a drain on every corner for water drainage so it was pretty apparent that this was blocked at the front of the drivers side.

Faffling about in the dark and cold removing the wheel arch liner isn't a lot of fun - especially when you find a huge arachnid hiding in there.. Anyway I eventually managed to get hold of the drain pipe and suddenly something popped and the entire lot came down. The drain pipe is usually covered with a rubber one way valve thing so I think this had become clogged and popped off when I pulled the pipe out. For the time being, I've left it without as it's clearly more hassle than it's worth.

So, if you have a puddle in your footwell, check your sunroof isn't accumulating water!

Did you know very,very early Safranes launched in the U.K had no sunroofs,they became standard fitment from March 93(one month after U.K launch)

This is an update as I've found I'm still having problems..

I've been battling this recurring puddle in the drivers footwell for quite a while now. It got to the point where the puddle has not only soaked into the foam under the carpet but when lifting the carpet and foam, the puddle was at least an inch deep sitting on the metal

Anyway I tried everything to soak up the water. Wooden blocks, kitchen rolls, towels (swapping every day) and nothing really seemed to work terribly well. I could keep the water under control but the foam under the carpet was still posing a problem

As luck would have it, the missus decided to try some different cat litter for our feline friend. She came home with a bag of wooden pellet cat litter from ASDA:



We noticed that not only does it stop things smelling, it also soaks up fluid like nothing else on earth. Not only does it break up (the pellets are condensed saw dust) it also absorbs liquids VERY well.

Anyway I stuffed some of that under the carpet into yet another puddle and spread it all out under the carpet. Next day the result was staggering - Not only did the carpet have a mountain of swollen wooden cat litter pellets under it, the foam had also completely dried itself right out in large patches. Getting the stuff out was interesting as you can only really do it thoroughly with a hoover which fills up in around 4 seconds - lots of on/off/empty action (don't worry although the stuff is slightly damp it's not really wet). I've since put in a second dose and the water seems to be holding back. The foam under the carpet is now BONE DRY too in the middle. There are still a couple of spots that are damp where the water is leaking in but this is now under control and being absorbed.

So if you're having a problem with a spill or puddle, ASDAs £2.50 wooden cat litter pellets are the way to go!