Hi

After recent heavy rain, I found the drivers' footwell of my 55 plate Octavia was full of water. I checked a few of the previous comments here about water leaks, and I have possibly narrowed the problem down to the sunroof. If I open the sunroof and (carefully!) pour water into the sunroof surround, I very quickly get water running down the A-pillar. A previous thread suggested blowing air through the drainage holes. Are these the two holes at the front corners of the surround? If so, I tried this, but with no luck. How is this supposed to drain, or is it assumed that the seal around the sunroof will prevent water getting in here in the first place? If there are actual pipes to carry the water away, where do they run? I wonder if one is damaged.

Thanks for any help you can give me. Ian S.

Hiya. This sounds like the sunroof drain pipes are blocked. You've identified the front drains at the top correctly, but the blockage is probably at the bottoms of those pipes. On the assumption that the Octy 2 is similar to the Octy 1, clean out the area behind the front wheel arch liners, at the bottoms of the A-posts, and stop parking under trees!

Hi, and thanks for the prompt reply.

I had already cleaned behind the front wheel arch liners. A bit of muck there, but nothing too serious. But I couldn't figure out where the drains come out. Anyway, by comparing with the passenger side, which was draining properly, I think I've sorted it out now. I will give some more information here, in case it helps someone else.

I don't know if it's the same on the earlier cars, but the sunroof drains out into the wheelarch near the door hinges, just ahead of the gaiter covering the wiring going to the door. (I took a photo, but can't figure out how to add one to this post). The drain ends in a rubber "nipple", with two flat parallel sides about 10 mm across, which I guess acts as a simple non-return valve. As soon as I touched the one on the drivers side, water started to come out. There was no sign of any dirt, so presumably this had just gummed up. I carefully slid the tip of a small screwdriver into the slot to clean it out, but again there was no sign of any dirt. But now water drains away easily from both sides of the sun roof. So I have fingers firmly crossed in the hope that I don't get any recurrence of the water ingress.

By the way, I would prefer to park away from trees, but with a huge chestnut tree outside our house, that would mean parking round the corner!

Thanks again

Hiya. This sounds like the sunroof drain pipes are blocked. You've identified the front drains at the top correctly, but the blockage is probably at the bottoms of those pipes. On the assumption that the Octy 2 is similar to the Octy 1, clean out the area behind the front wheel arch liners, at the bottoms of the A-posts, and stop parking under trees!

I'm having to resurrect this thread as I've been having a water leak investigated (a small one thankfully). However I've had water in the rear footwell behind the drivers seat. I've already had all four door cards sealed some time ago and after having the door panel removed today that looks ok. When pouring an amount of water around the sunroof area it poured through the trim by the seatbelt. I can see the front drains clearly in the sunroof area but are there any others that if blocked may result in water entering the car where I describe? Thanks in advance for any advice.

If you haven't yet fixed this it sounds like the pipe has either split or detached so needs to be replaced or pushed back on.

On my Octavia I had a similar problem with water coming down the 'B ' pillar this was confirmed as blocked drainage holes, on my 2008 car I found the front two exited inside the door jam between the hinges. After trying to push a wire down the drain hole to no avail i managed insert a small flat screwdriver up the ends this was while water was in the pipe this resulted in the blockage clearing as yet I've not found the exit for the rear drains