I recently had a towbar fitted to my 2010 i.8 TSI octavia when the carpets and soundproofing were lifted on the passenger side front, to fit the cable for the electrics there was a large amount of water lying there. The carpets and soundproofing were dry the water was under the rubber underlay with the bottom layer being soaking wet like a sponge. I took back to the dealers and after investigation they have asked me to book it in for a week so that they can remove all the seats / carpets etc to find out where the water is coming in. If it were not for the fact that the carpets were lifted to fit the cable I would not have known about the problem as the carpet is completly dry on the top. Booked in for 8th November

Sound like the dreaded Passat B5.5 problem. Leaking seal around pollen filter caused expensive damage to a convenience control module buried under the carpet.

I hope the same debacle is not repeating itself?

Tell me more or point me to some more info please gregoir

Let me know how you get on. I've just discovered the same thing, after having months of passengers saying my car smelt a bit funny. :(

I've taken the mats out, and it's drying a bit - but need to get the cause identified. Not sure whther to do it now or wait 2 months until my service is due.

I remember looking back through my service history on my Audi S4 (B5) and finding a very large bill for the previous owner to fix a waterleak through the pollen filter. I don't know anymore than that, but it sounds like a common problem. Would be worth a search on Google.

Was a few years back and outside of warranty. Full price was ~£800 fitted . I blamed the dealer for incorrect servicing in the nicest possible way .

IIRC the bill ended up at ~£400. Saga about me and others was on the old HJ site so maybe not easy to find, but it was a Convenience Control Module. Or similar. Found a couple of typical links to the story as below.

Carpets were not obviously wet from the cabin side either.

http://www.volkszone...ad.php?t=606991

http://www.honestjoh...dex.htm?t=60468

Edited 3 November, 201015 yr by gregoir

The car is back from the garage. The fault according to the garage. “In the bulkhead there are 2 holes one on the left and one on the right hand side. One of these holes is used for the steering etc, which one depending on whether the car is left or right hand drive. The other hole is sealed with a blanking plate. After extensive testing with a hose pipe they found there was a small hole in the blanking plate / seal for the blanking plate.”

Thanks for the update - bet you'll be waiting for a rainy day to make sure it's fixed!

The problem is removing the trim in order to lift the carpets as there was no sign of water until the carpets were lifted I will give it a month or so before i recheck.

Mine's the same, however if I put mats in, they get condensation on the underneath as i think they have a waterproof layer

The car is back from the garage. The fault according to the garage. “In the bulkhead there are 2 holes one on the left and one on the right hand side. One of these holes is used for the steering etc, which one depending on whether the car is left or right hand drive. The other hole is sealed with a blanking plate. After extensive testing with a hose pipe they found there was a small hole in the blanking plate / seal for the blanking plate.â€

I had a similar problem some years ago with a Seat Toledo - same diagnosis that the blanking plate for LHD had cracked and this was what was causing the leak. As it happened the car had recently been involved in a front end shunt (not our fault) and I successfully managed to argue with the insurance company that the fault was as a result of the shunt and hence they should pick up the tab (which fortunately they did).

My MG ZT developed a leak in the front passenger footwell too, I diagnosed this to be as a result of the drainage pipe that runs from the sunroof down the pillar to the bulkhead had clogged full of gunk - not sure what the design is on a Skoda but if you have a sunroof it might be worth checking? The drainage pipes tend to run down the A-pillar then through the bulkhead and behind the plastic wheelarch liner (at least they do on MG's I'd imagine other manufacturers follow a similar route as the water has to drain somewhere?).