Water in spare tyre well

My other car car is a Nissan Quashqi. I today noticed for the first time in 50 years of driving, I had a rear flat tyre. Upon getting the brand spanking new spare from the boot I found about half an inch of water. I have checked it all to try to find where the water is getting in. Nothing in the boot area or sides of the boot was wet or damp. If any one else has one of these cars it may be worth while checking your boot below the spare tyre as I only noticed it when I took the tyre out of the boot. It may happen to other cars but I don’t know. My car is 2002 version and the spare tyre has never been out of the boot, it was so pristine clean.

Usually there is a rubber grommet with a hole in it at the lowest part of the well. This can become blocked with crud and condensation or a slight window seal leak.

Take out the spare wheel and as much carpet and trim as you can. Dust the area with talcum powder. Leave this until it rains and it will show the track of the water

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After nearly 20 years it could be accumulated condensation. It doesn’t sound like a serious leak, especially if you can’t find any water elsewhere.

Your accumulated condensation idea may be spot on as I do get condensation in the back door window, as my car stands on the drive way overnight and if I have been caught in some rain before driving home my wet clothing may be the cause.
I quite like the talcum powdered idea too, if nothing else the car will smell quite nice I guess. :smiley:

Bear in mind even though the tyre has never been used, it’s 18 years old so will be degraded.
I would not advise driving at high speed on it, fine for a get you home at slow speed trip.
Tyres start degrading after about 5 years, so after that it’s best replacing them, as they begin cracking up.

Not really as it’s UV that degrades it and it has been in the dark

Whilst the tyre may not show sidewall cracking due to uv exposure an 18 year old tyre will have suffered from age hardening of the rubber. Having had an unused 10 year old spare tyre blow out I would not like to trust my life and others on an 18 year old tyre and would replace it asap.

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Hope you find the cause of your puddle. Please let us know when you do.
Re: old tyres. I assume this also applies to the space saver tyres too?

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Very true, I am motoring two miles to Northallerton to get it fixed on Monday.

I will ask the tyre people about it tomorrow, they are very trustworthy people.

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I got my punctured tyre repaired today as they were closed yesterday. I (my wife did) dried out the whole area of the tyre area on Sunday but when I took the tyre to be repaired today I found about 4 mm of water in the bottom again so if the weather is ok tomorrow I will dry it out again and then use a hosepipe to shower it with “rain” while I or my wife squeezes into the back of the car with the rear seats folded down to see if she can detect how the water is getting in there. The strange thing is, how it is getting in to the well of the car? I would have thought it would be a lot more over the years , unless there is also a leak in the well bottom that is allowing some of it to drain away at a very small amount at a time.

Google can be your friend,
Is the 2002 model reference in your original post a typo as they didn’t debut the qashqai until 2006.
http://forum.qashqaiclub.co.uk/water-collecting-in-the-spare-wheel-well_topic10144.html

Yes you are correct it is 2008.