Hi all,

I have been seeing alot more posts on here since the bad weather has started about peoples rear doors leaking on the Fabia - I checked mine and of course found wet footwells so I set about sealing the carriers earlier today. I know theres a couple of decent how to's on this but they dont really expain how to get the door card off so I thought I'd take a few pics along the way in the hope it may help people save a few pounds and encourage them to do it themselves.

All you need is a couple screwdrivers, some waterproof sealant that will bond to metal and a bit of brute force to pull the clips out. Overall not having done this before it probably took me about 2 hours, once youve done the first door the second is alot easier. The Haynes Manual gives this job 3 spanners but I reckon thats a bit high! Apologies for some of the soft focus photos I just took them with my little digital camera and macro function.

1. First off you need to remove the winder handle, to do this you need to rotate the plastic ring on the inside of the handle (to release the plastic mechanism on the inside) and pull the plastic ring outwards (as shown below) - you'll have to try this several times till you get the right point. I found squeezing the ring slightly helped to release it, not sure if this is actually required though. Once done remove the winder handle but remember what position the handle was in before you take it off.

2. Next step is to remove the bolts from the main handle on the door, to do this simply prise the upper panel off with a screwdriver (see below)

3. Once done you need to slide the rear cover forwards to reveal the 2 bolts (see below)

A wide shot of the main door handle revaling the 2 bolts you need to unscrew (see below)

Bolt 1 -

Bolt 2 -

4. There is one last screw to remove - this is next to the door handle behind the small tweater speaker, again prise the cover off with a screwdriver (see below)

Just leave the small tweater hanging on its cable (im sure you would normally remove this but I'll explain a little more later)

5. Unscrew the small screw you can see, mine was held in with a small torx head screw (see below)

6. You're now ready to pull the door card off! To save damaging any paintwork I used a small piece of card between the screwdriver and body work. Place your screwdriver in the rear corner and prise off the inner trim panel clip... more than likely you'll break these so could be a good idea to order some beforehand from your skoda dealer / online shop. You do need to use a bit of brute force to pull the door card and clips (think there was about 7 of them) from the door itself so dont worry about damaging anything. A few trim clips will more than likely still be in the door but you can easily remove them by prising off with a screwdriver

7. At this point you should be able to remove the door card and unclip the door handle cable, despite my hardest efforts I simply could not free the upper most part of this panel (nearerst the window), honestly if anyone can shed any lilght on this please let me know! Not to be beaten I found there was enough play in the door card to simply lift it up and prop the panel on the rear seat (see below).

8. On mine I could clearly see where the water had been leaking, I cleaned around the exisiting seal and made sure it was dry before sealing. You can buy the proper sealant from Skoda at a cost of £40 or so but I just want to Homebase and bought the below for about £6, I dont think it matters as long as its waterproof and will bond to metal:

9. You need to seal the outside of the metal edge starting at the middle trim clip / rivet all the way to the other side, parallel to where you started. Once you've got the sealant on use your finger with a little bit of washing up liquid on it and run it along the entire seal, dont worry too much about it looking really neat as no one will see it.

It looks a little messier than it really is because of the light, if you can it would probably be a good idea to get a coloured sealant so you can see what youre doing more clearly.

10. Once done allow about 30 mins for the sealant to harden slightly and put your door panel back on exactly as you took it off

11. When putting the door card back on be careful not to drop the torx screw (next to the handle) as you'll have to take the panel off again to get it back, I know from experience :(!

That's it you're done, good bye leaky doors - I've just poured a bucket of water down the door and no leaks as of yet on mine, I definately used more sealant than really required but I wanted to make sure it was sealed good and proper.

If anyone can add any other hints and tips feel free!

All the best John

Good job mate! Need to do this myself!

Taking it to the dealer tomorrow to get the door cards removed and sealed, going to cost me £40.

Taking it to the dealer tomorrow to get the door cards removed and sealed, going to cost me £40.

So the dealer is doing all this? And it's the fix that actually fixes the leaking into the footwell?

I hope so yeah, a month left on a used 12 month warranty so a goodwill gesture .

i done mine a few weeks ago with exterior sealant cost 4 pounds and clips cost around 3 pounds,skoda wanted 150 quid robbing barstewards

did this to all my doors about 8 months ago now.

rears and passenger side front are fine, no more ingress, however the front drivers side seal has failed, how annoying.

i done mine a few weeks ago with exterior sealant cost 4 pounds and clips cost around 3 pounds,skoda wanted 150 quid robbing barstewards

Did you manage to get the whole door card off? How did you do it? No matter what I tried I just couldnt lift it away from the window so just propped it up as my pictures show.

If you want to make the sealant seam look better, put masking tape on the inside, and outside of the join to be filled. Them carefully remove.You will be left with two straight edges to the sealent.

sorry I forgot in my last post,to remove the door card completely just move the card in a vertical direction. The lip on the top of the card fits down between the metal door ,and the window glass without any extra fixing .

got mine done by skoda 8 weeks ago, under warranty, and now they are leaking again and my warranty has ran out!

got mine done by skoda 8 weeks ago' date=' under warranty, and now they are leaking again and my warranty has ran out![/quote']

You here of so many doors leaking again after the job has been carried out by the Stealers (Dealers). I think this is generally down to the fact that they do not take the time to dry the carrier seals out properly & therefore the sealent does not take fully !!

At least if you do the job yourself, You know it has been done with Care & properly.

Dean

I sealed all 4 doors in Nov 08 and I have not sufferd any water ingress so far...

However, I tested the doors after I had sealed them and let them dry (but BEFORE I put the cards and everything else back on) and I found that water was coming through the rivets!!!

So I recommend you seal the rivets with LOTS of sealant as well as the usual bottom of the door.

I also recommend sealing the sides of the door as high as you can - you only want to do this job once, so do it properly.

For those non-technical folks, a rivet is the circular piece of metal you can see at the top of picture 9 (the top of the rivet is chopped off in the pic).

Doing mine tomorrow..cheers:)

Would I be stupid to punch two small holes through the lower edge of the door seal near the corners to let the water back out? Just bought an 02 Fabia estate and now find it almost as wet inside as out after the snow despite not using the rear doors or seats yet. I can see the water sitting along the seal when I open the doors and the door cards are soaking it up from the bottom edge.

I would go as far as saying ,leave the job ,keep mopping the water of the sill regularily, and wait until warmer,dryer weather comes.I realise an owner ,or Garage would sooner do the job as soon as possible if its a warrantee issue.

I can't leave well alone.

Just been outside with one of my neighbours discussing this, he's retired from the motor trade. We were wondering how so much water finds its way into the door in the first place but when you compare the design of the window scraper seal it becomes obvious. The seal on my Felicia is smooth and sheds water straight to the outer face of the door. The Fabia seal is recessed behind a trim so the water puddles at the base of the window then at the lower rear corner of the window there is a gap which allows the water to drain back into the door instead of down the outside.

I bet that was one of the Volkswagen bits.

I've tried fixing the problem from the outside, i.e put some sealent on the outer door seals to try stop the water getting in rather than stopping it leaking into the car from the inner seal.

Expecting heavy rain this week, so will update the post on whether the water stays out or whether I have a wet footwell again!

Well hopefully third time's a charm, had some heavy rain and all looks ok, still dry!! Don't look good but once the door panal is back on know one will see.

Edited 2 November, 200916 yr by john1804
Update

Mine were done by the dealer and when I purchased it they were leaking. When I removed the door cards I could see they had tried to seal it with foam piping!

I removed all this and sealed it with adhesive. Hasn't leaked since.

Warren

i can recommend rain and gutter sealant over other types

has anyone experienced difficulty with sealant, any recommended? I'm looking to get this sorted on mine

cheers:thumbup:

Matt

Just wanted to say thanks Geordie

I noticed a slight damp smell and a drop of water on a Fabia VRS that i put a deposit down, after reading this thread i spoke to the guys at the garage and told them to check the doors and found that the seals had gone and will do it all before i pick the car up. Thats great as the local Skoda garage would want 200 quid to do it if i booked the car in with them

Cheers

ian

Can someone confirm how to remove the front door cards? Is it the same as the rears or is there a difference in where the door car is fixed to the door?

thanks.

**Edit Found here

http://briskoda.net/fabia-technical-guides/diy-door-sealing-tutorial-costs-less-than-10-a/106846/

Edited 1 November, 200916 yr by Stevolution

Thank you geordie 21 i've now sealed my rear doors & they haven't leaked so far i used a small screw driver & a mini crow bar to remove my doors cards & to spread the sealent i used a plastic bag over my finger to save getting fingers cover in sealent

Edited 16 December, 200916 yr by mcarstephen

Thank you geordie 21 i've now sealed my rear doors & they haven't leaked so far i used a small screw driver & a mini crow bar to remove my doors cards & to spread the sealent i used a plastic bag over my finger to save getting fingers cover in sealent

Pleased you found my guide useful, I did mine well over a year ago and is still water tight now.