Gravel in passenger doors

[cuprafi]

Hi all and greetings from Finland!

Just recently changed my Seat Leon ST 280 into Cupra Ateca and been enjoying this hot mess for a couple of days.

What I've noticed that the back passengers doors both accumulate quite alot of gravel into the different crevices in the door, although driving on concrete. Is there any quality improvement campaign from Cupra for this or any other fixes available? The gravel, mud and snow must make heavy damage on the chassis and rust will appear there 100% if not fixed.

 

[Tell]

Hi all and greetings from Finland!

Just recently changed my Seat Leon ST 280 into Cupra Ateca and been enjoying this hot mess for a couple of days.

What I've noticed that the back passengers doors both accumulate quite alot of gravel into the different crevices in the door, although driving on concrete. Is there any quality improvement campaign from Cupra for this or any other fixes available? The gravel, mud and snow must make heavy damage on the chassis and rust will appear there 100% if not fixed.

It was a complaint by some with their first standard Atecas back in 2016. It's how the door is part of the wheel arch. Some cars have that design. Allows more space in the rear by pushing back the rear cabin into the rear wheel arch. It's not the first VAG car with this design.

If you are getting dirt past the seal you might need some remedial work. I'm not totally convinced Seat didnt roll out a fix for the seal issue way back in 2016/17. Now it should be sorted in general. That leaves stones etc to get into the integral fabrication on the edge of the door. Cleaning, it's regarded as good practice to wipe over that edge (you see a drainage assembly gap, like a vein) and dislodge any stones that get into that edge assembley. I haven't come across any posts that have found rust created by the rear door design.

In the end you get use to living with the design. Elements of the standard Ateca board were up in arms about it at the time. The Spanish Ateca board, some members were filling the gap themselves, not recommended. This is where I have a feeling that Seat might have released an early fix some seven years ago. If you are getting more dirt in one side than the other beyond the seal I'd raise it with your dealer as an issue.

I've only really had a noticeable issue once where red sandstone mud got past the seals. Open farm gate leaving red mud on the road as farm equipment left from ploughing a red sandstone field, red mud on the road. That got past the seals and appears as red dust when dry. Obviously I went looking for it.

 

[KarlW300]

Hi all and greetings from Finland!

Just recently changed my Seat Leon ST 280 into Cupra Ateca and been enjoying this hot mess for a couple of days.

What I've noticed that the back passengers doors both accumulate quite alot of gravel into the different crevices in the door, although driving on concrete. Is there any quality improvement campaign from Cupra for this or any other fixes available? The gravel, mud and snow must make heavy damage on the chassis and rust will appear there 100% if not fixed.

Hi Cuprafi

I have also noticed a lot of small stones and dirt getting trapped in the lower body skirts on the rear doors.
This was worse in winter when the roads are gritted.
When I wash my car I open my doors and rinse them out with my hose pipe.
I then leave the doors open to drain and dry out.
It does appear to be a bad design and very annoying.

 

[KarlW300]

See attached for a photo of my rear door and you can see where the small stones and gravel get trapped!

 

[Tell]

Different to where I was expecting. The vein where everything comes together. It's the downside of pushing the cabin back for rear space and doing away with the rear seperate wheel arch. I did make a list of Seat and VAG cars the same once. The Ateca is a pumped up Leon 3 you need to go into the next SUV platform up at the time, Tarraco to get the door out of the wheel arch. Still interesting design stuff but surprised a few Ateca owners when they got the car.

 

[Tosun]

 

[Tosun]

Recommend to buy mudguards for backdoors from Aliexpress etc.
They protect backdoors from gravel and dirt very nicely.

 

[KarlW300]

Hi Tosun

Do they use the original mounting holes and screws from the original inner arch liner?
Did you have to remove the rear wheels to fit them?

 

[Tosun]

Yes I used original screws,didnt use the screws that came with the guards.
You dont have to remove the wheels to fit them.Only need a small tool to fit the screws or a screwdriver with bits head and in angel.Dont know how to describe properly.You will understand when you try to fit the guards.

 

[cuprafi]

Hi,

sorry to raise the thread from the dead, I originally forgot that I presented this question. From KarlW300's image I see that we have the same issue, except that I get much more gravel in there, even though I drive 99% on paved roads. As my car is still under factory warranty, they replaced the doors seals but that did not help, as like Tell said it seems to be a design issue. I've sent a new warranty claim and am still looking for an reply for that one. The doors do seem very "open" looking from the wheel arch so mudflaps might be the solution. But as said earlier, the car is still under warranty so I'm still looking for OEM solution.

 

[cuprafi]

This is what I'm working with.. it was taken on a rainy day so the gravel and moisture gets around better than on a dry day.

 

[Tell]

It's propelled in. It isn't suppose to get beyond the seals. When you see it past the seals it's not so good. Saying that the issue is whether it's good the right side of the seals. Evident designers think it's fine. The Alhambra was another Seat with the shared wheel arch. There are other examples in the Vag range. If you were driving through a cattle road crossing every day (like the milking parlour) I can see you could get excited about it. The grot could get on the rear passenger clothes.