Water leak into footwell - dodgy seal info and DIY repair guide (Image links dead)

[lil3520]

great guide.

cheers

ANDY

 

[Rhyme]

Hey guys,

Quick update - car has been back into the dealership and had the seals replaced, however I was washing the car this morning and when I opened the door I noticed that there was water at the bottom of the door frames. I had a quick look at the bottom of the door card and there appeared to be no water coming from this section where previously small droplets of water were coming from.

Could somebody - hopefully - clear up if it is "normal" for water to be down the bottom of the door frame (where the doors sills are).

Thanks again for the help..

Mark

 

[Hooper]

Yes quite normal. Another fault is that the drain holes in the bottom of the door drain through a V-section door seal. This works when the door is open. but when closed the seal compresses and seals the two or three drain holes in the bottom of the door. If you are hosing or it is raining the water runs down the glass and into the door where it is supposed to run out of the bottom. I have been doing more homework on this as I am trying to sell my 02 Leon Cupra and whilst mine has never been bad there is seepage and as I have not been using it, it has developed a slightly damp niff. This problem is not isolated to Seat it is a VW Group wide problem and a design fault. The Golf suffers from it as does the Audi A3 and A4. I know as I have just bought an A4 Avant and the water collects between the seals here as well.

I have been Googling and phoning around and here a few extra tips. Spoke to a Car Trimming Company yesterday and they say to help aleviate the problem on Golfs, they install an aftermarket bodge of a polythene membrane between the door frame and the ancillaries panel. It is well known that the rain when entering the top of the door runs down the inside of the door skin and the back of the ancillaries panel, from new, rather than having a damp proof membrane there are seperate seals and plastic deflectors to keep water out of the speakers, window motors and other electrics. Old Fords always used to have a sheet of polythene. The second thing to do is to renew the foam seal around the rear of the ancillaries panel. Most of you seam to refer to this as sealing chord with a part number. My local Seat Stealer use something called stickaflex which their Body shop buy in. Most Body shops seem to use a squirty panel sealer that is referred to in the superb guide, but use the low odour one. I have just discovered a company "Sealsdirect.co.uk" that supply various different sealing extrusions, costed by the metre, which would be cheaper than the dealer.

So in summary, take the inside of the door off
Tape a poly membrane tot he rear of the panel, make sure it does not foul the window and locking mechanism
reseal the ancillaries carrrier panel to the door
modify the V-section seal to the bottom of all the doors this involves a stanley knife or nail scissors! cut a section out of the lower seal to allow water to drain through
Clean and dry out carpets and soundproofing
Get anice air freshener
Put car in a garage or under a car port!!!
Nominate the guy/girl who designed the door seals for VW for a Darwin Award for stupidity!

 

[andyj]

refitted the sound proofing to the R last night, only took 2 hours to remove the entire interior and carpet, refit the sound proofing and then refit the interior

 

[xG-MONEYx]

what if this happens with the rear passenger footwell a it is happening with mine!! and the car stinks of damp!!

 

[paul27uk]

A little update on my issue, I found that water was getting in through the fuse box cover under the scuttle. Seemed that the people who did my cruise control didn't tighten it enough and water was coming through there. How it missed any electrics I have no idea but I was lucky. It's been about a month now since and no sign of any further water.

 

[assad]

Thank you for the guide, just replaced all four seal with the new seal from the dealership, however as the sound proof layer was very wet, i decided to use a vax to suck most of the water out and then left it to dry. I spotted a cable that has socket connector at the end of it under the carper but wasn't plugged into anything, and i couldn't find any other cable to connect it too, I'm not sure if i accident pulled/sucked it with the vax, but now the sat nav gps is not receiving satellites at all. can anyone please please help, the cable located under the drivers seat area. Thanks in advance

 

[Loose Torque]

Good guide

I too have the dreaded soggy carpet syndrome - passenger footwell! I have just sealed up the pollen filter housing and will now wait in anticipation as to whether I need to start on the doors too!

Excellent guide though and appreciate the time taken to inform the rest of us soggy SEAT owners!

 

[MissNatasha]

crappy AC

Arnold Clark are rubbish.

I have a flood in my rear passenger footwell. I think it may be due to the door seals but i'm clueless as how to figure it out. would be appreciated if someone could help me fix this problem as AC are doing nothing to help having sold the car to me like this!!! xxx Very frustrated tasha x

 

[Loose Torque]

Soggy Carpets

Tasha,

The guide at the beginning of this thread tells you all you need to know. Basically you need to un-ship the inner door ancillaries carrier and seal around the lower joint. This is a very common problem on SEAT, VW, Skoda and Audi models.

 

[GezThulbourn]

Thanks

Just wanted to say huge thanks for posting the 'stop my car filling with water' guide on this forum. Love my Toledo to bits (T reg, V5, 118k), and was delighted to be walked through how to stop him filling with water!

Hopefully won't have to apply same trick to new A3 2.0 Tdi 'replacement' we bought for the Toledo; mainly because I hope not to be driving that pile of junk long enough to have to worry about it

G

 

[Cameron]

Check this...

My 51 Leon has been experiencing the damp footwells/steamed interior/dank smell/water overflowing sills etc problem for a few weeks now - just found this thread and thanks all the info. Will try and fix myself on the weekend.

Having read all the threads on this, no one seems to have experienced another issue I have which I think might be related

- when the vehicle is static, locked up, and with no sign of a key in the ignition, the warning lights on the dash / warning sound will randomly start flashing/beeping

Has anyone else experienced this? Could this be a sign the water is leaking from an area around the fuse box too? The pollen filter cap is another area I believe can cause an issue, but that looks fine.

Thanks for any info that could be provided...

 

[shorn]

Well I haven had any problems with mine, until recently when my passenger electric window broke. I took the door panel off, but after realising that I would need to drill out rivets, I decieded to take it to my local VW specialist. Cost £170 but window all working again, very nice. (This was back in September) Shortly after I noticed the water sitting on the sill and gushing out when driving. It was only recently when it poured down that I noticed the puddle in the rear footwell.

After reading this thread it seems obviuos that its a case of when they replaced the inner door panel it wasnt sealed properly, causing the leak. We have phoned them and asked them to fix it as it only happened since they worked on the window, however i get the feeling that they are going to try blaming it on the "known problem" of leaking seals. I think if they are going to try chargeing again then I will just do it myself, doesnt seem to hard after reading this!

 

[Trueman]

wet carpet

Just been quoted £215 to re-seal font passenger door by Seat Dealer! I've got symilar prob on drivers side though the water just sits on the bottom of the door frame (can't think of correct term) and is not getting in on my side as yet.

Will have to try your guide, currently got one of the wife's tea-towels jammed in the door soaking the water up before it gets in!

 

[danksy]

Great guide, thanks Andy.

Would anyone (who has already carried out successful repairs to their car) be prepared to reseal my four doors on my Leon Cupra for me? - for a fee of course.

I'd prefer to do this to get the job done properly, to avoid the stealers and help someone out with some cash! They will be responsible for declaring the income of course...

I'd love to fix mine myself, but have no tools and my car is parked on the road. Plus I'm useless with DIY so don't want to go there with my car!

Live in London, am willing to travel, but preferably not too far... many thanks!

Danksy

 

[bigfella_V5]

Can't remember the guys name now! Think I am going mad, or extremely tired. I had mine (all 4 doors) done by a guy on here for a small fee. Had to go to Milton Keynes though.

 

[danksy]

....if you happen to recall who it was at any point I'd be grateful if you could let me know....cheers!

Danksy

 

[Malice19]

Firstly What a Great Guide!!!! Think its brilliant that i can rely on this forum when it come to great people taking the time and going into so much detail making these guides (Hats Off to you all!)

Was looking at your guide where is says to check the Pollen filter cover. I took off the cover and found this loose inside on top of the fillter?

Can any one tell me where this should be, because i can find where???

Cheers

 

[george_seamons]

It clips to the front of the pollen filter housing.

If you look at the pollen filter from the front of the car, there are two release clips. The bit of plastic you have goes over these (if you look at the back, there are two slots, these go over the release clips)

Hope thats of some help!

 

[Malice19]

It clips to the front of the pollen filter housing.

If you look at the pollen filter from the front of the car, there are two release clips. The bit of plastic you have goes over these (if you look at the back, there are two slots, these go over the release clips)

Hope thats of some help!

Cheers Mate that was a Big help!
Think this is right now.....