TDI_luver
13-02-2007, 15:56
Suspected a rainwater leak in my '99 1.0L Arouser for some time due to damp feeling in the seats and lots of condensation in the mornings. Last saturday, I decided to have a good look....I have much leak tracing experience due to my ownership of 1 Ibiza, 1 Cordoba, 1 Toledo MK II and a previous Fiat Uno over the past few years.
There is no such thing as a dry SEAT for very long in my experience. They are like boats....it is normal for them to have half an inch of water sloshing about in the bilge.....if they are dry, you need to ask yourself "Why ???" :blink:
Anyway, I found a sodding wet rear passenger carpet when pushed down in the corners with the knuckles. So....Took out back seat, removed trim from around door sill and seat runners, lifted carpet and removed the soundproofing pad...dripping wet like a drowned rat. (squeeze it gently and put it on your hot water cylinder in your hot press for a few days to dry it out flat).
Figured out that like so many cars I have owned in the past, water in the rear footwell is usually water which has flowed back from front footwell. So checked front footwell and there was enough water there to support a freshwater fish farm. Not joking, there was half an inch of clean rainwater there , including a sogging wet soundproofing pad.
The clever thing is that unlike the rear footwell, there is a layer of rubbery underlay under the carpet / over the padding in the front, so you will never feel the water on the front carpets, as the footwell is waterproofed by the underlay.
Long story short >>> Arosa doors or door seals dont leak water the way Leon / Toledo doors do, so found that the water was getting in through that old reliable of SEAT leaks, the heater intake gasket located under the black plastic tray in the plenum chamber.
The smoking gun was even present....a wet dribble of water right down into the heater intake duct from the intake grill. So water just runs down off the windscreen into the plenum chamber and runs in under the perished foam rubber seal into the heater intake.
So, to cure the problem remove the plastic intake grill that is held down by the 2 black plastic nuts, clean and dry all round and squeeze a generous application of rainwater sealant (the acrylic mastic type, its better than silicone, used for repairing leaky gutters, can be used wet) allround and screwit back on.
To dry the inside is a different matter. The padding cant be taken out in the front footwell, neither does the rubber underlay sheet, which will prevent drying of the padding and the steel floor anyway.
The only solution I have found in the past is to consider it a project which takes a few weeks and copious amounts of newpapers to gradually soak up all the moisture...this will necessitate leaving the door sill trim off for a while and changing newspapers daily...and I mean whole newspapers, not just sheets. Eventually everything will be more or less bone dry, probably not until summer, but eventually.
Hope this helps anyone else with similar problems. Most SEATs develop this problem over time with the leaky heater intake / pollen filter housing, and the approach is identical in every case. The alternative is a damp musty car with constantly steamed windows.
There is no such thing as a dry SEAT for very long in my experience. They are like boats....it is normal for them to have half an inch of water sloshing about in the bilge.....if they are dry, you need to ask yourself "Why ???" :blink:
Anyway, I found a sodding wet rear passenger carpet when pushed down in the corners with the knuckles. So....Took out back seat, removed trim from around door sill and seat runners, lifted carpet and removed the soundproofing pad...dripping wet like a drowned rat. (squeeze it gently and put it on your hot water cylinder in your hot press for a few days to dry it out flat).
Figured out that like so many cars I have owned in the past, water in the rear footwell is usually water which has flowed back from front footwell. So checked front footwell and there was enough water there to support a freshwater fish farm. Not joking, there was half an inch of clean rainwater there , including a sogging wet soundproofing pad.
The clever thing is that unlike the rear footwell, there is a layer of rubbery underlay under the carpet / over the padding in the front, so you will never feel the water on the front carpets, as the footwell is waterproofed by the underlay.
Long story short >>> Arosa doors or door seals dont leak water the way Leon / Toledo doors do, so found that the water was getting in through that old reliable of SEAT leaks, the heater intake gasket located under the black plastic tray in the plenum chamber.
The smoking gun was even present....a wet dribble of water right down into the heater intake duct from the intake grill. So water just runs down off the windscreen into the plenum chamber and runs in under the perished foam rubber seal into the heater intake.
So, to cure the problem remove the plastic intake grill that is held down by the 2 black plastic nuts, clean and dry all round and squeeze a generous application of rainwater sealant (the acrylic mastic type, its better than silicone, used for repairing leaky gutters, can be used wet) allround and screwit back on.
To dry the inside is a different matter. The padding cant be taken out in the front footwell, neither does the rubber underlay sheet, which will prevent drying of the padding and the steel floor anyway.
The only solution I have found in the past is to consider it a project which takes a few weeks and copious amounts of newpapers to gradually soak up all the moisture...this will necessitate leaving the door sill trim off for a while and changing newspapers daily...and I mean whole newspapers, not just sheets. Eventually everything will be more or less bone dry, probably not until summer, but eventually.
Hope this helps anyone else with similar problems. Most SEATs develop this problem over time with the leaky heater intake / pollen filter housing, and the approach is identical in every case. The alternative is a damp musty car with constantly steamed windows.