Hi all, long term reader here... haven't been a massive poster! Great forum.

I've been having long term leak problems with an 02 octavia ambiente hatch... rain water gathering in the wiring loom & coming in at the pedals (front and back carpets on drivers side becomes sub-aqua on a web day)

I left in for a service & a fix a while back (at the skoda dealership I bought it from...) seems to have been a bit of a bodge as it's leaking again. I left it back to them a week ago as there seems to be water in the heating box... when I drove around a roundaboout there was a loud sizzling sound and steam (not condensation) came out of the windscreen vents, completely obscuring vision... no amount of wiping cleared it...making it a bit hard to drive

The dealership went out of business with the occy mid-fix , so I'm stuck with an undrivable car... any thoughts on getting it back on the road? Are there any tricks to clear the water, I've been advised to leave the engine running for a few hours by a mechanic.

Two very likely possibilities. If there is a fishy type of smell in the car and the floor is wet then you probably have a leaking heater matrix. If not the scuttle might be full of water because the drains are blocked with fallen leaves/dirt etc. In this case the pollen filter will also be very likely to be wet.

The latter is the one you should suspect first, and the solution is simply to remove the scuttle trim and clear the drains......

thanks railroad,

Going to have this looked at in the next few days... I tried what the mech suggested - left the car idling for a few hours, it dried out the heating box alright & it's been dry here for the last few days so I've got it back on the road.

I'd love to have a crack at fixing this myself but I don't want to cause more damage than already exists... is it hard to take the scuttle trim off? Pity there aren't youtube video guides for stuff like this.

I had same problem awhile back, heater matrix had sprung a leak. A nightmare to replace it.

ah... the heater matrix... *looks at shoes*