Peter Everest

Ollie, sorry but no picture as car is now fully loaded for continental trip. I noticed hole when checking pressure of spare before loading, it is only time I see that part of the car! Hole is definitely factory-made, I have had car since new. It is about 1.5cm in diameter and is on centre line of car about 20cm ahead of the spare wheel mount. Everything points to it being a drain hole with a rubber bung that has gone AWOL. But confirmation would be appreciated. PE

Phoned Skoda dealer, who I do not use, and they said there should be a bung in the hole - which is what I suspected. But based on my experience of this and another main dealer I prefer to trust the Briskoda experts. PE

Sorry - should have said 1 cm, or even 1/4 inch! PE

Just a quick question. I have just taken the spare wheel out of the wheel well on my 2001 reg Octavia Estate and notice a neat 1mm hole ahead of the spare wheel threaded hole through the floor pan to the road which I have never noticed before. There is no sign of water in the boot. Is it a drain hole that should be left open or has a sealing plug been displaced? - I did hit a large lump of wood on the autoroute in France last year which went under the car. Thanks for your help and great car incidentally, its about to make its 30th cross chaneel trip!

Many thanks Bodge and Sweedish for those suggestions which I will follow-up on. I have spoken to the independent garage who looked at the problem. They tell me: 1. The problem is definitely moisture coming from the area of the air-con condenser. 2. The drain pipe from the condensor is not blocked. 3. But there is a lot of water remaining in and around the condenser. The car is booked in next Tuesday for an MOT and to have a slightly distorted front disc and its opposite number replaced. I am asking them to check the bulkhead grommet/valve (per Sweedish) and condensation drain valve (per Bodge) as well as resealing the pollen filter (per Mannyo). The garage also said they will check with Skoda UK. I'm not holding my breath on that one as my experience of Skoda UK when complaining about poor service by one of their dealers was shockingly bad, to put it mildly. I will update the thread on progress. Googling across the net does find a remarkable number of inconclusive threads about condensation and damp in passenger footwells in similar Skodas and Golfs. I wonder if this problem, which may not be noticed if you are not meticulous about the vehicle, is widespread? Thanks for the very helpful responses. Any more will be welcome.

Many thanks for those suggestions. I will look again at the pollen filter. It had been ruled out because the damp problem is not rain related and I understood the filter problem was usually due to poor seating after replacement, and the filter has not been touched this year. The car is serviced by a small specialist local garage as I gave up on Skoda dealers who varied from expensive and ineffective to downright incompetent. The garage checked the condensor drain pipe and said it was OK. They agree with the condensation diagnosis at present, they call it the 'beer can' effect. They fitted fibre glass insulation to the pipes to no avail. I have had the car since new. It has now done 112k miles. When it was doing a high annual mileage there was no noticeable condensation problem. Now I have retired and the car's mileage has dropped the problem seems to occur in the autumn when the car has been standing for a few days. I guess the moisture settles in the lowest point in the footwell whan there is no ventilation to draw it out of the carpet. Apart from this and some other air-con problems the Octavia has been magnificent - including 13 trips to Europe! At 50k the air-com compressor fell off (!) but remained dangling from the pipes so wa undamaged. At 70k the heat exchanger had to be replaced due to a leak, which cost £700 at a Skoda dealer (who then disabled the bonnet release, which I only discovered the day before taking tha car to France). Performance and economy is better at 112k than new. I prefer to pay reasonable maintenance bills than massive depreciation on a replacement. So I want to keep the car, but would like to solve the damp problem. Many thanks for the suggestion. Any more very welcome.

Several other threads relate to condensation, but none seem to cover this specific query. I have had a minor but long-term and irritating problem with a small amount of damp under the rubber mat in the passenger footwell on an Octavia Mk 1 estste. The problem seems to be caused by condensation on the air-con piping inside the car dropping onto the floor pan and settling in the footwell. There are no apparent leaks through the bulkhead. It is not rain, I got a small damp patch in blazing heat in France in September - which pointed me in the direction of the air-con. An attempt to lag the exposed pipes to stop cpndensation has failed. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggested cures?

Matt, thanks for that speedy and informative reply. I only wish my Skoda dealer was as on the ball. Or Skoda UK coming to that. The Skoda head office customer services department makes an Indian call-centre seem like Nirvana.

Mbames, can you help me accurately identify that grommet near the pollen filter? You may just have solved a frustrating problem on my Octavia. Thanks.

Apologies for starting a new thread on water seepage; but I've checked (and tried) other discussions without solving my problem - so here it is. I have a 2001 Octavia Elegance Estate. It has never had a water seepage problem in its history, or been repaired. Two days after it was returned from a service last week I noticed a small damp patch on the underside of the rubber mat in the passenger's footwell. The car has been into another dealer (at some cost) who have soak tested it, refitted pollen filters, cleared out air con plenum chamber, refitted passenger door seal and all the other solutions. But the damp patch recurs. Water doesn't appear in the car when it is raining heavily or when driven in rain. It only appears after the car has been stationary overnight, and then not every night. The damp patch is not major, the carpet isn't soaked, it is almost like condensation. It appears in the flat area of the passenger footwell to the rear close to the box section that runs under the front seats. There is absolutely no sign of moisture near the heater box or the other suggested culprits. I'm at a loss (cerebrally and financially) to know what to do next. Any suggestions are very welcome. Just a final comment. I had cause to contact Skoda UK's customer services about another problem arising from the service. What a total waste of space the customer services department at the UK head office is. Emails are never answered, phone calls never returned as promised. And they have the cheek to send me a card saying 'Your opinion counts'.

I just want to put on record my bad experiences with Skoda UK's customer services department. I have been a delighted Octavia owner for a number of years until running into problems with a main dealer (Chequered Flag, Attleborough, Norfolk) over service work. Having failed to get satisfaction from the dealer I contacted Skoda UK by phone. I was told to email a Steve Bunn. Ten days, five emails (including one to the Managing Director) and three phone calls later I haven't even received the courtesy of a single acknowlegement, yet alone satisfaction over the problems. It seems Skoda UK just don't care about their customers. Another main dealer, who I was forced to pay to rectify the problems, says Skoda UK's customer service department used to be good. But they relocated it recently since when it has been a disaster. 'Manufacturer of happy drivers' Your opinion counts. TOSH! Great car. Shame about the after-sales service. The Octavia is due for renewal soon, and sadly I'm looking at other brands.