Defender 110 Front windscreen XS Heated leaking.
Found something quite interesting since parking the 110 the other way around on my drive, so its now tilting towards the passenger side. (Noticed that since purchase there was corrosion on the passenger side bulkhead joint with the windscreen close to the three bolts, and have tried various things to stop water ingress including a genuine JLR door seal with extra sealant) But still found water on the floor mat. Decided to remove the passenger hand grip on the side of the dashboard and leave it off overnight to see where the water was coming in. Following overnight rain found the water was leaking not from the door seal or the three bolts but directly below the windscreen then i noticed a slight water pool of water between the windscreen rubber and the windscreen on the inside (obviously) but why wasn't it leaking on the other side when parked in the other direction? This is my theory, with the XS there are two metal foil tape leads that supply the 12v to the heated screen, if these are flush/touching the rubber windscreen seal they act as a capillary attractor and the water cascades down this electric feeds to below the dashboard and makes its way towards the door area via a small metal sill that can be seen below and to the lower corner of the front air vent (those of you that have dropped a 20p piece between the windscreen and the dashboard and have heard it roll from side to side, then this is the water collection point I am talking about.
Im not sure if I could stop the windscreen leak but if you make sure the heated windscreen electric lead is lifted above the rubber of the windscreen (so its doesn't act as a capillary attractor then that seems to reduce the water ingress. My next stage is to see whether the windscreen can be removed and a genuine JLR rubber fitted. I had a new windscreen and National Windscreens supplied rubber seal fitted on 3 months ago. Im pretty sure the JLR seal will be better quality (less hard) and possibly stop the water coming in. As a mere mortal it seems amazing that any water can sit on the INSIDE of the windscreen rubber anyway! The picture shows what Im talking about but I have pulled the electric connector up.
