Fix this NOW! Sprinter/Crafter Van DESIGN FLAW!!
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- Опубліковано 13 гру 2019
- There is a HUGE DESIGN FLAW with the Mercedes Sprinter/VW Crafter waterproofing. The black plastic side trim is attached to the van with plastic clips that are loose and have NO WATERPROOFING on them whatsoever! This leads to the small problem of having water leak through the clips and straight into the van - not the best thing when you need to put insulation in said walls.
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➤ Spare Trim Clips: ebay.us/j1hLsW
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#vansidetrim #sprintersidetrim #sidetrimsealing - Авто та транспорт
you are doing a really thorough job on identitying corrosion problems and rectifying them. One point that you probably know already is the undersill. These have drain holes which become blocked up from road dirt. If they are blocked the sill will fill with water which cannot drain away. Great job and video.
Thanks - Yes we did see the drain holes, ours weren't blocked (except the front ones) - it's a good reminder to keep checking them though 👍
What a great, if not even perfect video! Very entertaining and informative, but most of all the confidence shown was what people need to see in how to do the job right. These two make a great team
Thanks, glad it helped 😊
Can't believe VW and Mercedes don't already do this, I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't seen this video.
The best van build videos I have watched so far. Best all round videos so far, will keep watching, thanks😀
Glad it was helpful :)
You need to go along the bottom of the sils with a small flat blade screwdriver and unblock the drain holes. Quite a bit of water might drain out.
Very very good tip for everyone to know! We actually did that yesterday and filmed it, fully expecting water to gush out due to all the rain we've had hit nothing came out which is a relief - thanks for the reminder 😊
Thank you guys!!👍🏽
Our pleasure! 🙂
We followed your video and it was perfect. Thank you!
Great to hear it! 😀👍
If you used a nut nr 6 it would be easier from the inside en push with the nut. Greetings.
Thank you !
You're welcome 😊
Fair play to you for identifying this. I am doing the same on a Renault Trafic and the clips are identical! No little foam sealing washers included like there should be.... So I made my own foam sealing washers from some 2mm thick eva sheet foam & a laser cutter. Lots of prerssure to get each clip locked into its hole. STILL LEAKS PAST THE FOAM! 😲
So I shall be adding sealant to the foam.
My last bit of advice... Silicone sealant should never go anywhere near a vehicle. Never. Should be a ban on it. PU based adhesive is what you want. For these clip though I'll be using 3M 08509 mastic. Check it out.
Cheers for the advice, amazing after even putting on that foam and pressuring the clips to go into place that it still leaked!!
Nice one guys!
Cheers 👍
great vid
Cheers 👍
You can also go inside the van and double check the fasteners have gone through, at least the top row of them as the bottom row is not visible from inside the van, if you want to go OTT and really protect your insulation from rain then you can put extra sealant on the fasteners and holes from the inside after doing the first part, you can even then put waterproof gorilla tape over all that just to be extra sure /OTT
Thanks for the extra tip 🙂
I must do this to my van as well! Thanks for the vid
😊👍
Hi water is sloshing in my mercedes sprinter rear panels, is this same way to drain them.
Thanks
There should be some drain holes under the van, they easily get clogged up with fort so take a flat head screwdriver and clean the holes, this should allow the water to drain 🙂
Hi guys great video! What would you recommend to cover any holes where the old cover has come away?
Yours doesn’t have it as those big bolt things are on there, but a couple of mine are missing and struggling to think of what to use to cover the hole. Many thanks for any tips and all your content ☺️
If you have missing clips, you can either buy more clips, they aren't too expensive (➤ Spare Trim Clips: ebay.us/j1hLsW), or, you can just use some sealant and fill the gap with sealant. We did that for 1 missing clip and it's been fine.
If your van has some bigger holes, you can use something like waterproof tape or a waterproof sheet and stick that over the top of the hole, with your sealant as well. Hopefully, this helps 😊
Easy job I must do on my new sprinter BUT will this not be a nightmare to remove if and when the bulbs blow ?
We've replaced a few bulbs, the plugs stay stuck in the van and pop off the plastic instead
You can use pliers from the inside of the van to squeeze the panel clips that remained and push them out. Honestly might be able to get them with your fingers as well.
Not a bad call, we never tried although it might be easier on the fingers!
Great video!! I think "pinching" them (where accessible) from the inside might make the job easier but I will be doing this... It also occurs to me that applying the sealant then individually inserting them (each plastic clip) back in to the van body first then clicking the black plastic piece trim panel onto the now remounted/existing/sealed clips might make things easier and maybe cleaner (from having misaligned bits of sealant maybe?).... Also, does anyone know if this is the SAME on the newly released North American model (2019 and later)? (PS: US vans don't have that amber light mid-body)
We debated for a while whether to pin pins in van or pins in black strip first, but we decided it would be easier to aim for the van holes than aim for the black plastic side trims holes but either way it will work out.
As for the US modles, not 100% sure but the newer Sprinters (2018 onwards) in Europe still have this issue so probably best to take them off and check, or better yet check from the inside first and see (you can spray a water hose and see if they leak from the inside)
Definitely use pliers and pinch the fixings, pulling will weaken them if it doesn't break them
You can get a cheap panel kit for about £12 to remove all your plastic panels even your door card I put sound puffing in my doors and the van is a lot quieter now
Do you mean the plastic covers inside the front doors? You put sound deadening material inside there? That would be great actually, we've been looking at possibly removing those panels ourselves, first for sound deadening and secondly to possibly repaint it. Do you have a link to that kit?
Freedom Strider yes inside they are called door cards , I put stick on sound proofing that is normally used for the underside of the bonnet once I did that I replaced the material some manufactures use plastic sheets to or other materials, ai removed all of it as I had to to fit the sound proofing I replaced the covering with viper barrier, then I Lined the door card with foam backed leather . That was only because my van is a old van and I don’t really like the look of plastic , I put the sound barrier on all doors my van is a 2004 Iveco .and as soon as I get a few dry days I’m fitting a tow bar to the back and a winch to the front then my under body gas tank . Which I should of really done before I insulated the floor or put the ply down . And next year if I can afford it I will be fitting air suspension to the back axle for a smoother ride .
Thank you soooooo much. Is it not a good practice to run a line of silicone sealant ontop of the plastic sideskirts to avoid water running behind them in the first place, as well as ontop of the guiderail for the sliding sidedoor...? Grtz from Belgium
🙂 Is it good practice?... honestly, depends who you ask. We haven't run silicone on top, but logically it's not a bad thing to do as it will deflect the water from the back and reduce the water that may sit behind the panel. However, if that silicone starts to weaken and starts letting water behind you probably wouldn't notice - so, over time, water will collect as the remaining silicone will be preventing it from draining or it will drain too slowly (which can cause rusting). So I think if we were to add silicone on top, I would feel like I have to redo it every year in order to maintain its effectiveness. - Polly
I’ve just completed the panels and was enquiring if you did the same treatment to the driver’s and passengers doors panels also ?
At first we didn't but then later on he had a leak and thought it was coming from those front pannels so decided to remove and seal them (ua-cam.com/video/jMOkmO_BjT4/v-deo.html)
Turns out the leak wasn't coming from there, but the panels were the same, having no seal protection so we'd recommend you seal them as well. :)
Hi thanks for this. How have you used the alcohol? Is it sprayed on its own on to clean?
We had a spray bottle with water and soap, the alcohol used is just on a microfibre cloth 🙂
Great tutorial. Any idea where to buy replacement clips as a few broke when I removed the trims
eBay have them, just search "sprinter side trim clips", cheap as chips on ebay
@@FreedomStrider amazing . Thank you. Currently going through process of rust repair and going to take all side panels off then respray a Matt black. Maybe get it finished when or if the uk weather is more settled 😂😂 appreciate the super quick response
Hi guys, great video. What sealant did you use? Many thanks
It was neutral cure sealant, here's a link: amzn.to/34S8kHQ 👍
Thanks for your reply guys. You are a lovely couple
Yikes! Given the importance of keeping water out, I'd consider hitting the inside of those clips with some Flex Seal... although I can't imagine your fix leaking.
There can never be too much sealant 😂. As far as we know the amount of sealant we put has worked so far, though redoing it every few years is probably a good idea
You don’t need to remove the bolt, if you start from the other end it will slide off
A question: Why not replace the clips/trim straight up, and then use that neutral cure silicate on the inside of the van wall around each clip? Or do both the flat surface of the clips outside and a blob on the interior side?
Struggling a bit to visualise exactly what you are describing. You can put the silicone from the inside around where the clips come through, without needing to remove the trim off the van, though the silicone is more effective when squished between the clips and the van metal (air bubbles are less likely).
Yes, I expect you could do that, and that would remove the necessity of removing the trim in the first place. But I get your comment about the application on the flatter parts of the clips.
Hi, would you mind telling me what made silicone you used ☺️
Sure, we used "Neutral Cure Silicone" (amzn.to/34S8kHQ) - This is the brand 🙂
This seems to be fixed in my 2022 sprinter as the clips have gaskets on them now.
I'm glad. I would check if their seal is holding by spraying water at the trim and the checking if any water made it through. 👍
Any idea if the Transit Custom has the same panel clips?
Not 100% sure if they are the same clips, but they seem to be attached with some sort of clip into open holes in the van, so water may still leak through, but we haven't seen the van in person, but there's every chance you'll have to weatherproof it depending on the exact model you get.
So, what happens when you need to change the bulbs?
You can still pull then off - as shown - some of the pins stayed in the van pulled out from the black strip, so we just pull the same way. If any of the sealant comes off, we just need reapply.
Wouldn't it be much a more guaranteed seal/easier fix if you just caulked the perimeter of where the plastic panel's edges meet the metal body of the van?
You could do that, we've seen it done, I wouldn't say it's any more of a guarantee plus if you remove the panel for any reason you'd need to do it again
the caulk is open to the elements whereas the fastener seal isnt so I think the latter would perform better in the long run
If you do the job properly, after how many years do you have to do it again, as those clips are only going to leak again eventually?
Well, it's been 4 years and they haven't leaked as far as we can see, though, we can't open our walls to check.
As an extra precaution, you can always run a sealing sealant bead or a rubber trim on the top (on the outside) of the trim that would stop water going behind at all.
Someone told me Mercedes had fixed this problem in the 2019 model... is that true?
I have heard conflicting evidence - apparently the newer Sprinters/Crafters have some sort of vinyl sticker behind each plug, but some people say it doesn't help with the waterproofing, and some say it does.
The easiest way to find out is to go into that model van, and if it doesn't have any cladding, you'll be able to see how the outside trim is attached.
Ford transit before 2014 don’t have this problem and come with headliner shelves built in too... saves time and money
I didn't know Transits sealed theirs up, good to know 👍
Ford transit was introduced in 2015
My sprinter van is 9 years old. Not a single leak.
That's great, hope it keeps its no leak win streak 🤞
That’s a torx, not an Allen key
I don't know the history of Allen keys and torx heads, but Torx heads in the shape of an Allen key is a bit of mouth full to say. Fairly sure Allen is a trade mark name for the original hex ones, the important thing is that the newbie van converter can quickly imagine what is being described.
And people wonder why sprinter vans are notoriously rusty 🙄
This is one of their weakpoints... 👀
Дружище!! Залей антикоррозийкой!! Это битум! Грунтовка! Мовиль!! На Украине так делают!!
😊👍
Sometimes I think that Mercedes sources it's design engineering from elementary schools.
Certainly seems that way some times! xD
Goes to show products are not built to last these days. Built in failure points...
They even coat the inside knowing water will come in with some sort of waterproof coating. Beats us 🤣
Dont use silicone on the van ... use a urethane product
Why not silicone?
@@FreedomStriderSome silicones contain vinegar, the panels vibrate slightly in use, rubbing the paint off letting in the slightly corrosive nature of the silicone sealant do its finest, very important if your keeping the van long term, the best product to use is a Neutral cure "silirub"
his accent is one of the few .. English accent that doesn't sound bad at all ... normally it pisses me off to hear them speak that modified way ... im like why don't they just speak the traditional English like us Americans do
Haha 😂
@@FreedomStrider I think he means WE Americans not US Americans
Think you know more than Mercedes you don’t. Seal the metal you rot the metal. Every van/car panel has drip holes at the bottom of doors and side panels for drainage and air flow too dry out again, not just for outside moisture but for condensation on the inside from cold bridging. If the holes are blocked it will remain wet.
Those holes make sense if you cavities open with no insulation. Bit in a camper when you fill the walls, having holes just get the insulation wet and cause mold and rust. So yes, covering them is the best solution. There's only holes at the bottom for drainage, which are the only ones that actually matter to leave open. Not these side ones. All they do is let water in (part of the reason you need drainage holes)
It's funny that all you UA-camrs call it a design flaw. Because it isn't.
Those plugs don't look like an umbrella and aren't in that tight without reason.
It's only when a van had damage on the side and those plugs weren't replaced after repairing when the problems start. You can detect those plugs because the paint is dirty under that plug. Good plugs will be clean.
But nothing wrong with taking some extra measures. Just don't call it a design flaw.
Sorry champ! IT IS A DESIGN FLAW... hard plastic no matter how tight against that painted bodywork, will allow water ingress. IT NEEDS A SEAL. There should be a little foam/neoprene/eva washer that acts as a sealing washer on each clip. Some manufacturers include them some don't. The clip shown in the video is exactly the same as the similar body trim panels that go onto a Vivaro/Traffic/Primastar. Now heres the rub! If you buy replacement trim panel it comes with the clips which include the sealing washer. If you just buy the oem replacement clips they don't come with the sealing washer. Clever that. Here is the second rub. The included little foam seal is so thin it does not seal!
Dub love sums it up quite well :)
Mercedes you should be ashamed of yourself!
Indeed they should 🤣