Warning: Fabia Door Leaks

[DRJ]

It's repeated endlessly - try here or here or here

Edited 4 June, 2012 by DRJ

[rich19853]

Bought My Fabia at Xmas, Wondered why it was always steaming up then I felt the carpets and they were like sponges.

Only one thing for it and that was to pull the lot out and dry it all.

I hung the floor insulation in the house and let it dry for a day,

Also sealed all the doors up with good quality sealant.

[VRSD30]

Mine is damp in the rear passenger footwell! :(

[VRSD30]

Will the doors not fill with water once the carriers have been sealed or are the drain holes adequate? Not sure I'm confident in dismantling my rear door, how much would this likely cost at a garage? Only my passenger side door leaks....

[djdazzy]

Will the doors not fill with water once the carriers have been sealed or are the drain holes adequate? Not sure I'm confident in dismantling my rear door, how much would this likely cost at a garage? Only my passenger side door leaks....

Garage quoted me £180 2 years ago to seal the doors. Quite an easy job to do if you follow the guide, I have heard some garages have not done a particularly good job.

Check the drain holes are not blocked and reseal the carriers..... the doors always fill with water and drain away thru the drain holes but not into the car once the carriers are resealed.

[DRJ]

Will the doors not fill with water once the carriers have been sealed or are the drain holes adequate?

In a word no. All you're doing is sealing the inner face of the door to its frame. There is a design defect which means water collects at that point and gets into the car through a defective seal. Water isn't meant to go through there - it's meant to go out of the drain holes which are perfectly adequate. If you've watched the video and still don't feel you can tackle it, then take it to the garage - but it's pretty straightforward apart from the amount of force you have to use to remove the clips - which prefer to break than come out.

EDIT - quote added to make it clear to which post I was responding

Edited 13 June, 2012 by DRJ

[Ashby14]

I followed what drj advised me to do get a tube of plumbers gold done the door in around 10min sealed 1st time

[DRJ]

Wonderful! So it's now MY fault if it goes wrong! :think:

All I can say is that both times I've done it, it's been 100% successful...

[VRSD30]

Just been out and had a go at sealing the rear passenger door seen as though it's going to rain later and I didnt want another deluge in the footwell. I used granville silicone sealant which is touch dry in 15 mins, I've used this in the past to seal some rear light clusters which leaked into the boot. Didn't remove the whole door card and managed to only break one of the clips..... I'll do a proper job soon if this doesn't work to well!

[Ashby14]

Worked great i recommend plumbers gold to anyone doing this job

[VRSD30]

Well no water has been leaking into the rear footwell today even after all the torrential rain thats been falling. The water is running onto the outside metal sill as it should with no puddles forming on the internal plastic trim which then runs inside the car, my quick job has worked..... For now at least

[ericdvr]

Congratulations VRSD3 you have done well but have you experienced the electric windows fault yet which is not so easy to fix although the water inter the boot is not too bad :-o]

[gac]

Right, I had a good read through this thread last night and have my shopping list for tomorrow (probably Plumbers' Gold, or failing that some generic gutter sealant, and a whole set of new clips) and my doorcards pre-removed to make the job a bit quicker (and will refit whenever I get time and whenever I'm sure it's not still leaking!). However, I noticed this morning that I also seem to have a "tidemark" below the speaker housing on the passenger door, not sure what it is but it's white, so I'm thinking maybe a salt mark from rain water?

Now, I don't know what to do about this, I could also run round the speaker housings with some sealant but is this just going to trap any water in there and possibly lead to electrical problems? Am I better off just leaving that alone so that any water in the vicinity of the electrics can drain away and just put up with a little bit of water in the car as it's better than having it in the wiring?

[gac]

OK, so I did the repair tonight (a bit quickly so my sealant is a mess and wants cleaning up a bit!) and turned the hose on it to test. Two of the doors still let water in, although only onto the flat sill outside the rubber (i.e. onto the vRS plate on the front passenger door and the equivalent area on the rear, pics https://dl.dropbox.com/u/87982/Fabia%20door%20seal/IMG_20120629_202018.jpg and https://dl.dropbox.com/u/87982/Fabia%20door%20seal/IMG_20120629_202210.jpg).

Is this a problem, or is it just because the car is parked slighty offside-down and water is running in from the gaps in the B and C pillars and pooling there slightly? The drivers side doors were dry.

[DRJ]

s long as no water's getting past the rubber seal you should be OK - sounds like the water in your case just went round the outside?

[gac]

Yeah, that's what I think, with the car being parked on a slant it seems to me that it's just run down the gaps between the front and rear doors, and around the edge of the rear doors and pooled there as it can't roll off. I just don't want to put everything back together until I'm 100% sure I've fixed it! I have 25 (I think) brand new clips to go on, I don't want to break them all a week after by having to take everything apart again

[DRJ]

You could always lubricate the clips before installing...

[stu69]

Just checked my 04 vrs back footwells are soaking, wife has an estate fabia and thats even worse its had very bad condensation in the car since we bought it especially in the winter well now we know why!! Dam skoda cant believe they have pleeded ignorance on this as we have asked them many times whats the cause. Well since they ignore us I suggest we bombard them with demanding emails and forget your local garage lets go straight to the top and get the CEO from what i can see the last CEO was robert hazelwood ([email protected]) who I think has moved to VW and has been replaced by Alasdair Stewart ([email protected] ) ok it might be a pointless rant but it will make me feel better, I did the same with Argos when they screwed me on a faulty mobile and result was a ' Oh sorry sir, replace your phone now sir, also have a £50 voucher sir. Big companys Suck!!!!

http://www.motortrader.com/latest-news/brand-director-skoda-uk/

[rallynige]

ive had this problem last month on my 07 Fabia VRS water coming in from rear door little window but fixed now by resealing membrain behind metal plate and resealing plastic runner on bottom of window with sealant to make sure

[Baz07VRS]

Guys...I've done the repair of taking off the door cards and putting in all the sealant...so it was all good for about 2 weeks, I've pin pointed the leaking...its coming down the glass and you know where there's a gap between the rubbers? well its flowing down there and still coming out into the footwells...is this the same as everyone else's problem?

This repair: http://www.fabia-vrs.com/technical-info/door-carrier-repair/

Edited 27 August, 2012 by Baz07VRS

[Baz07VRS]

Have you watched the video? It depends what you find. In my case there was some old sealant on the offside door so I peeled off as much as I could. On the other side it was "factory fresh" so I pulled out as much of the sealant strip as I could.

Before:

During - the sealant has been applied to the edge but not yet the self-tapping screws (which you'll probably not find) or the rivets:

I've done this to my doors 3x times, and i used MORE than enough sealant on it...but i still have the leak. I ended up sealing off the bottom of the window from the outside with a sealant used for fitting windscreens. Has anyone else done the repair and found it to be unsuccessful?

[gac]

I had a recurring leak on one of my rear doors but it seemed that I'd left a pinhole gap due to my inexperienced application of sealant and it was just enough to let a drip through, and for the immediate area either side to not dry properly. So I just whacked another layer over the top of that and all seems fine now.

[softscoop]

I've done this to my doors 3x times, and i used MORE than enough sealant on it...but i still have the leak. I ended up sealing off the bottom of the window from the outside with a sealant used for fitting windscreens. Has anyone else done the repair and found it to be unsuccessful?

Easy way to tell where it's leaking....

Open the door, take the doorcard off, get a watering can and pour water onto the window, see where it leaks from

[DRJ]

You definitely need to find out where it's leaking assuming it's still coming in via the rear door - as has been noted: test it. I did before I put the door card back on and found I'd missed to seal one of the screw heads. Even the tiniest hole will drip.

[Baz07VRS]

ok, cheers guys. I will take off the seal I've put on the window and take off the door cards and test it with the watering can...job for the weekend me thinks!