This topic is aimed at anyone complaining of misty windows inside the car, and who has ever had water leaking into the footwells via the pathetically designed door carrier seals, even if they think they've cured that and the car's dried out.

I'm now FIRMLY convinced that the continuing problems people are reporting despite having sealed the windows are down to entrapped moisture within the front foot-wells. I'd found standing water in the rear O/S foot-well in October and traced that to a leaking rear door carrier, already the subject of a botched repair job by persons unknown, which I'd fixed, but the amount of water in the rear footwell had been significant - visible standing water - and it had penetrated through to the front foot-well. I'd been able to raise the rear section of carpet as far as the seat and thoroughly dried the back section out - but couldn't at the time do the same for the driver's foot-well.

I think everything then froze solid for a month or two and the problem temporarily went away, but latterly I've felt water in the driver's foot-well again - though the rear's remained clear. The driver's side front foot-well was feeling slightly damp today again after I'd vacuumed out a small quantity of water yesterday and dried it off with a hair-dryer. So I decided to bite the bullet and take the carpet up - which meant taking the seat out.

After driving all around Gloucester trying to find the relevant tool - a XZB10mm spline driver - I found one at Bell Tools - a tool fetishist's dream world!

After removing the seat I proceeded to pull out the carpet from under the relevant trims - I didn't have to remove any though I think I might have to in order to reinstate it. There's a few odd fastenings that have to come out from around the pedal area but they'll all pretty straightforward so I won't list them out in detail. I did interestingly find out that the heads of the seat screws were showing signs of damage - it appears that when the seats were retrimmed (it's an SE remember) they didn't replace the screws as I believe Skoda recommends...

Having got the carpet raised as much as I could (it appears to go completely under the central console in parts) I discovered that the underlay to the front foot-well is completely different to that in the rear foot-well. Whereas the rear is just felt - and I'd dried that out fine previously by use of the hair-dryer, the front has a dense plastic/rubber facing on its top surface and that is obviously almost completely trapping moisture under it. There's no way the underfelt under the carpet and the rubber topping is going to dry out naturally.

As far as I can tell the underlay is also draped over the centre console so using a sharp knife I cut through the underlay as high up against the console as I could and took it out. It was extremely heavy, clearly with a large quantity of water in it and once I'd draped it over a garden chair the water started pouring out. I've been pressing it repeatedly to get as much water out as possible and I'm going to try draping it over the central heating boiler later and overnight to try and get it dried out by tomorrow so I can put everything back together for the commute on Monday (I don't fancy using my other car in this weather...).

I've hung a hair-dryer in the car after vacuuming out the standing water on the floor to get the residual moisture in the carpet out. There's not too much and the felt for the rear foot-well is almost completely dry. The windows have naturally steamed up accordingly!

Fortunately I believe the other side of the car is still completely dry - I've never felt any moisture on that side or seen any water on the door seals - however once the driver's side is dried out and all back together, and now I've got the tool to take the seats out, I might investigate the passenger side just to make absolutely sure.

Good informative post!

Luckily my car doesn't suffer from the problem.

Hope this sorts yours out

just a thought but when we needed to dry out our caravan after a sky light had broken and it rained in alot soaking the wood in the walls and all the carpets we ran a dehumidifier for a week and it pulled out about 15 litres of water.

I have toyed with the idea of putting it in my car over night to see how much it will draw out of the carpets as i dont have alot of spare time to strip it out again like i did when i cleaned my seats.

thanks for the info

Edited 23 January, 201115 yr by Si Vxr

As si vxr has said about the dehumidifier which seems a much better option rather than ripping the interior to bits !

My rear side windows get steamed up due to the doors leaking so I think I'll put a dehumidifier in the car for a couple of days

I honestly don't think a dehumidifier will sort out the problem. The catch is that a dehumidifier needs a circulation of air to work. The under-felt is underneath a thick layer of rubber and the moisture's going to remain trapped under it unless you remove it from the car. Try it by all means but I'm not convinced it will work.

Mine's now been 24 hours out of the car, initially draining the excess water out of it, then all evening and all morning in the boiler room draped over the boiler, latterly with a fan in there too blowing air over it. Early afternoon I checked and it's still damp and if pressed liquid water still comes out of it. Hence I've given up thinking I might complete the work today and have put the carpet back down and the seat in temporarily so I can use the car through the week and put the eventually completely dried out underlay back in next weekend.

has this cured the problem?

and anyone had any success with the dehumidifier option?

jordan

my rear side windows also steam up, i think this is a task for when i have a few days off. What is the cure for the dodgy seal?

has this cured the problem?

Yes - almost totally - the car is transformed! It now smells "dry" inside if you see what I mean. Only once have I had significant moisture on the inside after a particularly humid day. Otherwise it's been fine. I'm intending to write up a photographic record presently showing why taking the underfelt out to dry it is the only proper way to rectify the problem. You'd need a really good dehumidifcation effort to repeat the drying out without taking the underfelt out owing to the plastic capping...

My floor is soaking. Literally a puddle...

I've heard the fix is to take the door card off and silicon between the metal sheet and the actual door itself to create a seal? Is that right?

Does the rubber seal around the door have to be changed?

The OP sounds to have a more serious problem which this wouldn't cure, but if the inside of your car is a little bit damp and the windows keep steaming up, there is an easy solution...

Go to Pets at Home and get some Silica based cat litter. Fill an old sock with as much as possible. Tie a knot in it. Put it under a front seat. Once it stops working, take it out and leave it on a radiator for a day and it will dry out and be ready to use again. I have tried this in my girlfriend's old '95 Clio Mk1 which has so many leaks it ought to be a sieve and it works really, REALLY well.

My floor is soaking. Literally a puddle...

I've heard the fix is to take the door card off and silicon between the metal sheet and the actual door itself to create a seal? Is that right?

Does the rubber seal around the door have to be changed?

You need to read up the sticky topic - http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/2158-warning-fabia-door-leaks/ - once you've got to page 17 you'll be an expert too. Seek out the video - very useful at explaining what teh problem is. The rubber seals should be fine - they're not part of the problem...

Yes - almost totally - the car is transformed! It now smells "dry" inside if you see what I mean. Only once have I had significant moisture on the inside after a particularly humid day. Otherwise it's been fine. I'm intending to write up a photographic record presently showing why taking the underfelt out to dry it is the only proper way to rectify the problem. You'd need a really good dehumidifcation effort to repeat the drying out without taking the underfelt out owing to the plastic capping...

i sealed my rear doors on saturday for the second time after using silicone the first time, this time, dare i say it, it appears to have stopped the leaking fingers crossed lol although i had the car parked on the kerb at my girlfriends last night and when i went out to the car this morning i checked all the door sills, both rears were dry as wel as the passanger front but the driver front seal was covered in water? i have never experienced any issues with it before? as soon as i opened the door water stared pouring out of the drainage holes so i looks like parked at a slant on the kerb has stopped the water from running out properly?

any links to the tool that i need for removing the seats incase i need to do it at some stage

jordan

I've started a new topic having discovered another source of water ingress leading to damp carpets - one which is not connected with the faulty door carrier construction afflicting Mark 1 Fabias - please check it out here: Damp carpets - a new source of the problem - Leakage around door seal