Hi.

My Octy is leaking. I think it's coming in at the boot hinges; through the foam stuff that's sandwiched between the steel body sections.

I cut away some of the foam, dried the area with a heat gun & spread a thin layer of silicon sealant to seal the joint. As the car was on the drive & it was pretty cold I kept playing the heat gun over the area for 1/2 hr till the sealant started to go off.

Two days later I've checked it again & the sealant has gone all wrinkly & bubbled up/peeled away. Might have been because we had freezing conditions or because there was still water in the foam. The silicon I used was supposed to be exterior & waterproof.

Anyway, my car's in bits (back seats out etc) & I want to seal it up but it won't stop bl@@dy raining!

Any ideas on a good 'rugged' sealant? Marine stuff of some kind maybe? I was even thinking of sticking some Plastic Padding there (it's out of sight) & painting it over with a touch-up when the summer comes.

Help!

I've decided on a two-part approach to this.

1) I went to Scott-Bader & bought some Sikaflex 291. This is a polyurethane based marine adhesive/sealant.

2) I've started digging my boat out from under the 4 months worth of junk so that I can move it & put my car in the garage.

Hoping that this will let the sealant cure. (Garage has heater & dehumidifier). Also hoping that I've got the right place. These leaks are a nightmare!

Darren

I have used something like that, its good stuff, it might even be that one.

The one i used cured quite quickly so if you need to apply it quickly and do what you have to do fast.

Saying that, in this weather it might take longer to cure anyway, but good idea getting it under cover so it drys!

Hope you sort it!

Hope you sort it!

Thanks.

I know from my searching the forums that you have suffered from the dreaded water leaks in the past. My car has been totally reliable for the past 4 years but this leak(s) is a nightmare!

Darren

Sikaflex will work just fine BUT make sure the area is cleaned with a solvent first as any oil or grease present will stop the sealant from sealing! Petrol or anything similar will do to clean it. The proper stuff used in the trade is called "drip check sealant" but sikaflex is what most garages use - including mine )

To be honest you really need to identify where the water is coming in from. Sealing it is probably not the right answer as you are not stopping the issue from coming back. Getting sealant to cure in this weather is also a challenge and condesation / water will effect the curing and the seal will not be water tight and permanant. Maybe you need a new boot rubber seal? Better to replace that. Are you sure it is leaking or just happening when you open the tailgate? All Octy hatchbacks do this which is very annoyiing as the channel between the window and boot holds water and when you open the tailgate it runs out if this channel and into the sides of the boot. With this weather it is a pain. I sealed up this channel level with the glass and boot and has helped as the rain runs off slightly better now.

To be honest you really need to identify where the water is coming in from. Sealing it is probably not the right answer as you are not stopping the issue from coming back. Getting sealant to cure in this weather is also a challenge and condesation / water will effect the curing and the seal will not be water tight and permanant. Maybe you need a new boot rubber seal? Better to replace that. Are you sure it is leaking or just happening when you open the tailgate? All Octy hatchbacks do this which is very annoyiing as the channel between the window and boot holds water and when you open the tailgate it runs out if this channel and into the sides of the boot. With this weather it is a pain. I sealed up this channel level with the glass and boot and has helped as the rain runs off slightly better now.

ill second that, i have an amp mounted on the right hand side of my boot (i bought the car in may and did the amp in june) and its annoying as hell. ive got to the stage where i keep silica-set in my boot where all the water drains to hopefully soak all the blooming stuff up:mad:

THINKING ABOUT IT THE AMPS ON THE LEFT

Edited 7 February, 200917 yr by mark_sargeant19
FOSTERS

Hi Darren,

yes my car has had several leaks (all sorted now.....touch wood!), it seem to be a VAG weakness!

This stuff is good, but the other guys are right, sealing something (if you havent cured the leak) will only reroute the problem elsewhere.

Can you get us some pics of exactly where you think its leaking so we can try to help more?

Infact i'm going to look at my car now to see what the hatch hinges look like, i had a problem with my 4x4 octy estate before my leaky vrs hatch:rolleyes:, that was letting water in on the rear hinges, i cleaned them out and used silicone to reseal the area which worked.

To be honest you really need to identify where the water is coming in from. Sealing it is probably not the right answer as you are not stopping the issue from coming back.

Totally agree with you. I have some pictures which I'll try to post later. They show the devastation that is the rear 1/2 of my car. I have completely removed the back seats, seatbelts, parcel shelf, speaker shelves, boot carpet, spare wheel, rear part of the headlining, aerial, roof rails & the rear bumper!

My aim is to seal from the outside inwards if you see what I mean. I've traced the water from the puddles on the floor, back through to the outside of the car. I think I have two main entry points. Through the foam on the left side of the n/s boot hinge, where the factory sealant does not reach up high enough & in through the rear face of the boot behind the bumper where the crash bar used to be.

I had a towbar fitted last year. One of the original captive fitting bolts sheared of when the factory crash bar was removed. I think the water runs down the boot channel, behind the bumper, in through the damaged part, behind the welded plate on the inner side of the boot & then out into the boot where a small stretch of sealant is missing from the plate!

I don't really see any way of sorting this other than sealing up the gaps. the car is currently in my (heated ) garage; so there shouldn't be any probs with the sealant going off.

You seem to have spend some time trying to locate it so hopefully you are in the right area. It could sound like some external work done like a tow bar that may well of caused your issue. The Skoda is pretty good from leaks generally. I have seen a number of bad tow bar fittings where the drill holes in the boot area are not sealed. If you can get under the car you may see something. Have you tried pouring water through the points you think are bad, maybe getting someone to do this for you whilst you are in the boot area. Other area to look out for is the roof ariel. Bad seal around this could cause leaking down the side of the rear pillars into the rear seat area and rear footwells.

Well just had a look at my hatch, and although i think the estate hinges are different, they are roughly the ssame design.......which is not great to be honest!

You are right to think thats one spot its coming in, it did on mine too, to fix that leak i used silicone sealer rather than the filler/sealer we have talked about, i basically run a bead in where i could, and smeared it around the whole joint (top, sides and bottom), making sure it was fully coated. I felt silicone was a better idea as you can run it in easily by hand (its less sticky than the filler) and more importantly would not need repainting as it would allow the colour to show through. This fixed 1 of 6 leaks i have had in the 2 octavias i have owned!

As for the bumper leak, that sounds more of a pain, what taking off the towbar then filling the area around the hole as required then a big big bead of silicone in and around the hole just before refitting the towbar sandwiching a layer of silicone between the outer plate and the bodywork, then another layer of silicone around the inner plate. Silicone is good because it allows for a little movement without cracking.

Def worth doing the channel on the rear hatch between the glass and the hatch too whilst the car is inside (if you havent already), i did 1 run then when it dried did another full run, to build it up as the first wasnt quite enough. I also did it in black which looks better than in clear and matches the dark glass.

I feel for you with the leak thing, i really really got p*ssed off with mine when i bought it last yr, i had the whole of my interior out bar the main part of the dash, the thing that got me was i had done it all once before on my first octavia!

Pic to hopefully make you feel better showing you its not just you with bad car luck!

did you get this all sorted?

did you get this all sorted?

Yes!

I think so. The car is bone dry inside after a month so I'm hopeful. I cut away some of the sponge around the boot hinges & filled with Sikaflex (difficult because as you said it's really sticky), squirted Sikaflex into the small hole where the rear crash bar fixing used to be & ran a bead around the crash bar fixing plate inside the boot. The Sikaflex is brilliant stuff.

I put the interior back in & then noticed how much slower my car was with seats & stuff!

Thanks for your post with the pic of the interior missing; that really helped cheer me up.

I spent a lot of time searching on here for leak cures. I saved all the links & I might stick a post together summarising all the different problems people have had when I get a minute.

Cheers

Darren

Capt. Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure may sound like an old-fashioned remedy but it's actually an up-to-date solution to an age old problem: and it really works.

Capt. Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure may sound like an old-fashioned remedy but it's actually an up-to-date solution to an age old problem: and it really works.

It sounds ideal but I'm afraid to Google for it!

Ha Ha Googled it with trepadation and lo and behold when you read about it and watch the vid it looks like good stuff and it dries clear so no need for paint ......Hmmmn I may give this a go .

Have you used it Hussarman ?????

Dave

Ha Ha Googled it with trepadation and lo and behold when you read about it and watch the vid it looks like good stuff and it dries clear so no need for paint ......Hmmmn I may give this a go .

Have you used it Hussarman ?????

Yes I have been using this stuff since 1982 and it really does work.

Cheers mate mine arrived yesterday so im just waiting for a couple of dry days to sort it out !!!!! thanks for the lead

Dave

hi mate,

great news its fixed!

glad my pics gave you motivation......just have to get on and apply that motivation to refitting the dash in my mk2:<

I even sealed a mobile home roof with this stuff. OK for smalls cracks but not much good for a 1inch gapeing hole.