Alright, so I'm still hunting down water ingress into the cabin, which is ruining my carpets and causing mould. These day I get 4 wet spots just below the vents ... used to be 2 just below the rear ones.
Latest exercise: re-seal the pdoor window, which it turns out had been horribly sealed in the past. The space below the window was holding water and moisture it turns out.
No such luck.
Based on the location of the water accumulation, and the pattern of the water stains, I'm about 90% sure it's the ventilation outlets (In my PA-28-151, there's 2 on each side near the floor, with the intake on the wing leading edge).
Water ingress isn't constant though ... my best theory right now is that when it rains with wind in a particular direction, water makes it into the ventilation system and into the cabin.
I looked at the maintenance manual, and best I can figure, it's just straight piping to the vents ... nothing to stop water. But then this would mean, many others should be suffering from this ... assuming you park outside of course as I do.
The vent outlets have a seal between them and the airframe, I suspect those are old and crumbling, I'll look at replacing those. Still,, if the ater is just coming in from the intake ... why would it seep past the seal, and not just flow into the cabin directly? (The water definitely comes from behind the panels/carpet).
Anyone taken apart these bits that could shed some light on how all this is setup?
I've also read that water leakage from the wing can be common ... but there's no way it's coming in from the spars ... under the back seat is always bone dry.
Also I had the panels off recently to look at all this, and took a good look ... the way the ribs and longerons are setup, and based on where the insulation material was wet and showing signs of mould, it's hard to imagine the water coming from far away (i.e. window seals, etc.).
So, I'm left with those 4 vents. But I'm wondering whether anyone who's even dug in there could explain how this is possible, how the system is laid out, etc. just for my own education.
I've also brain stormed a temporary cover design that I could put on the leading edge intakes when parked ... just got to find the time to fashion and build this. Could be a relatively easy way to test my theory ...
Anyways, anyone have any thoughts, opinion or expertise to share?
Thanks,
J.F.
Latest exercise: re-seal the pdoor window, which it turns out had been horribly sealed in the past. The space below the window was holding water and moisture it turns out.
No such luck.
Based on the location of the water accumulation, and the pattern of the water stains, I'm about 90% sure it's the ventilation outlets (In my PA-28-151, there's 2 on each side near the floor, with the intake on the wing leading edge).
Water ingress isn't constant though ... my best theory right now is that when it rains with wind in a particular direction, water makes it into the ventilation system and into the cabin.
I looked at the maintenance manual, and best I can figure, it's just straight piping to the vents ... nothing to stop water. But then this would mean, many others should be suffering from this ... assuming you park outside of course as I do.
The vent outlets have a seal between them and the airframe, I suspect those are old and crumbling, I'll look at replacing those. Still,, if the ater is just coming in from the intake ... why would it seep past the seal, and not just flow into the cabin directly? (The water definitely comes from behind the panels/carpet).
Anyone taken apart these bits that could shed some light on how all this is setup?
I've also read that water leakage from the wing can be common ... but there's no way it's coming in from the spars ... under the back seat is always bone dry.
Also I had the panels off recently to look at all this, and took a good look ... the way the ribs and longerons are setup, and based on where the insulation material was wet and showing signs of mould, it's hard to imagine the water coming from far away (i.e. window seals, etc.).
So, I'm left with those 4 vents. But I'm wondering whether anyone who's even dug in there could explain how this is possible, how the system is laid out, etc. just for my own education.
I've also brain stormed a temporary cover design that I could put on the leading edge intakes when parked ... just got to find the time to fashion and build this. Could be a relatively easy way to test my theory ...
Anyways, anyone have any thoughts, opinion or expertise to share?
Thanks,
J.F.
