Water in the spare wheel well.

[partyboy1101]

I opened the boot yesterday, only to find the wheel well hald full of water...that'll explain the misty rear screen, musty smell and erratic boot changer!!!

I know there are a number of previous posts about this and I've done a bit of a scan through, would be useful if someone who knows what they're doing would cast an eye over what I'm proposing to do and tell me if I've missed anything.

Sit in the boot and get my mate yo activate the rear wash to see if it drips out of the tailgate.

If it is the tailgate, strip off the tailgate liner, locate the loose pipe, refix and secure with superglue.

If it's not the tailgate, strip out the left hand boot lining around the bootchanger and look for a detached pipe somewhere under there.

What do I do if water still comes out of the washer jet....does this mean its a boot seal problem?

Cheers

[pist0nbr0ke]

Sit in the boot and get my mate yo activate the rear wash to see if it drips out of the tailgate.

Cheers

May not be necessary-on my car it was dripping from the bottom of the tailgate cover when I opened the boot, and also sitting in the rubber seal on the lip of the boot opening.

If it ain't the washer pipe, sit in the boot & get someone to play a hose over the boot, around the seals etc., to show any leak. Check that no rubber bungs are missing from the bottom of the wheel well too.

[partyboy1101]

May not be necessary-on my car it was dripping from the bottom of the tailgate cover when I opened the boot, and also sitting in the rubber seal on the lip of the boot opening.

If it ain't the washer pipe, sit in the boot & get someone to play a hose over the boot, around the seals etc., to show any leak. Check that no rubber bungs are missing from the bottom of the wheel well too.

Thanks for that, I'll take a look at lunch. Rubber bungs are all in place and nice and tight.......they were holding the weight of a full load of water!

[partyboy1101]

Had a look at lunch....tested the rear wash, plenty of water coming through and nothing dripping into the boot. All seals look to be in place. Bungs in wheel well are in place and watertight. Boot carpet all seems to be dry.

Aaaagh, where do I go from here?

[Dallan]

i thought the rear wash pipe used to pop off on the side where the cd changer is, not in the tailgate?

maybe its partly leaking in there and running down behind/under the carpet into the wheel well?

[partyboy1101]

i thought the rear wash pipe used to pop off on the side where the cd changer is, not in the tailgate?

maybe its partly leaking in there and running down behind/under the carpet into the wheel well?

How do I get to that?

[Staedtler]

I'm very interested in this problem too, I discovered my wheel well with about 3 inches of water in too, looked like it had built up over time...

[squidgy]

Presumably if it smells like screen wash fluid its coming from the washer system and the 2 usual places are behind the tailgate cover or from the side, behind the trim . If its plain water it must be leaking in from outside somewhere, if not through the boot seal maybe its possbily coming in through the light cluster?

[partyboy1101]

Presumably if it smells like screen wash fluid its coming from the washer system and the 2 usual places are behind the tailgate cover or from the side, behind the trim . If its plain water it must be leaking in from outside somewhere, if not through the boot seal maybe its possbily coming in through the light cluster?

The light clusters don't seem to be particularly securely fixed.....do I need to set about with a hose to locate the water ingress then? The liquid in the wheel well didn't particularly smell like screenwash although I didn't take a lot of notice.

[Dallan]

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/151648-rear-washer-issue-diy-fix-help/

shows the removal

[partyboy1101]

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/151648-rear-washer-issue-diy-fix-help/

shows the removal

Nice one, I'll give that a go tonight.

[900000]

OK on a different VAG car but I had the same issue on my Audi A2. Turned out it was the vents behind the bumper that had failed. These vents allow air to escape from the car when someone closes a door. The seals around them deteriorate over time and the vents themselves get brittle and then lets water in. It is a bumper off job to replace them (on an A2). BUT this was when the car was seven years old. So not sure it could be an issue on your car (though I don't know how old it is).

[partyboy1101]

OK on a different VAG car but I had the same issue on my Audi A2. Turned out it was the vents behind the bumper that have failed. These vents allow air to escape from the car when someone closes a door. The seals around them deteriorate over time and the vents themselves get brittle and then lets water in. It is a bumper off job to replace them (on an A2). BUT this was when the car was seven years old. So not sure it could be an issue on your car (though I don't know how old it is).

Mine is a 2006/2007 so 5 years or so since build

[900000]

Mine is a 2006/2007 so 5 years or so since build

Ah... well here are the pics of what the vents looked like when I took them out:

There is one on each side. Might be the cause who knows. It was on my A2. And once I replaced them with new ones the water in the boot was not a problem anymore. I was charged £50 by "a man under a bridge" to take the bumper off and on and replace the vents. Audi wanted a royal £430.

[Dallan]

Did you find the leak?

[partyboy1101]

Did you find the leak?

I'm afraid not. Took off the boot lining around the bootchanger and all was dry. Ran the rear screen wash until it was dry...no leak! Even went down the jetwash and gave it a liberal spraying around all boot seals and not a drop!!! I'm completely at a loss! I would much rather have found the source of the water ingress and fixed it.

[jacko]

Guys.

Had the same prob. Mate's son was a mechanic in a Skoda dealership in Dublin. He says the prob is the rubber seal on the hatch. Apparently Skoda put the drain holes in the seal on the TOP rather than the bottom (have a look if you don't believe me!) - Result; the seal fills with water and drains into boot. The fix advised is to cut some small Vs into the rubber seal on the BOTTOM thus letting water drain down instead of up and into the interior.

Skoda have not officially admitted to this very basic design flaw - The holes in the seal are to allow the compressed air to escape when the hatch is closed - Unfortunately, with the holes placed on TOP you get rain filling the seal and eventually leaking into the boot due to the incorrectly positioned drain holes. Cutting the Vs in the bottom of the seal allows water to drain out (water was never intended to enter the seal in the first place so the fix is just a way of getting over a design flaw)

Hope this helps - It worked for me!

[kenbo]

I just found the dreaded water in the spare wheel well after a puncture. It isn't coming from the rear washer pipe in this case, seems to be coming in from the area around the offside rear light. I tried to remove the plastic trim between the lights but couldn't manage it, worried about breaking something. More investigation needed.

[pist0nbr0ke]

I just found the dreaded water in the spare wheel well after a puncture. It isn't coming from the rear washer pipe in this case, seems to be coming in from the area around the offside rear light. I tried to remove the plastic trim between the lights but couldn't manage it, worried about breaking something. More investigation needed.

Think there are two screws to be undone IIRC, below the level of the boot floor in the wheel well area, then this trim (loading lip cover?)just pulls up to remove.

[mark antony]

Think there are two screws to be undone IIRC, below the level of the boot floor in the wheel well area, then this trim (loading lip cover?)just pulls up to remove.

having just done this I can give you some resurance in that it's quite easy. There's six plastic 'popper's which need to be levered out ( best to do it from two sides using wide flat blade screwdiver or the like) Then inscrew the bag hocks , one at the rear and the other ounder the pacel shelf. Lastly, take off the plastic cover over the boot sill, two bolt heads in tyre well. After that it comes out with a bit of unhocking from the surrounding covers.

Although I've done this bit, I've still got a leak from behind the hatch trim. Can anyone talk be through how to remove the hatch trim?

[Roker]

My Octavia 1 had a leak from the wiper motor, the screen washer fluid goes through the centre spindle and there is a micky mouse seal in the worm housing. I hope they fixed this before they designed the Octavia 2

[mr_roggger]

Ahh, very interesting to read this guys (sorry for digging this up as an old topic, it's what Google found!)

I notice after the rain yesterday that as the car (Octavia II) sat in the carpark at work, when the sun came out, there was a huge amount of condensation on the windows...thought it was weird, but was gone by the time I had to go home and thought no more of it 'till now.

Anyway, I gave the car a full valet this afternoon for the first time (had it 6 weeks, not gone into as much depth as removing the spare wheel to clean round there until now, just a wash/vacuum)...lifted up the spare wheel cover, then lifted up the mdf part! (have re-glued the carpet to this this evening!), to find condensation on the wheel. Yanked the wheel out to find the best part of an inch of water filling the well! Argh!

Mopped it all out, thought it slightly strange that it was soapy water, must have been fron washing earlier. Couldn't work out the leak for the life of me as the boot carpet was all dry and the rubber bungs were clearly holding water in, not letting it in from underneath!

Anyway, a search on here and seeing about the rear washer seems to be my answer. It never worked when I got the car, and I tried for ages to figure out what was going on, hearing the motor whirring and trying to see what was happening - any way, garage had it back and fixed the problem, but I didn't think to ask how they fixed it. I reckon it was a pipe come off as per above which was depositing all of my screen wash into the spare wheel well!

Will have to see if it fills up again now that the rear screen wash is working...

Thanks for the useful post!

[Stormchaser]

Its a very common fault on these and the boot seal too.

[hatchy]

May not be necessary-on my car it was dripping from the bottom of the tailgate cover when I opened the boot, and also sitting in the rubber seal on the lip of the boot opening.

Exactly the same place I discovered it this evening. Opened the boot to chuck my milking wear and boots in the car for the morning and there was a small pool of water sat on the boot liner. Took a look around and discovered the water exactly as you describe.

Guys.

Had the same prob. Mate's son was a mechanic in a Skoda dealership in Dublin. He says the prob is the rubber seal on the hatch. Apparently Skoda put the drain holes in the seal on the TOP rather than the bottom (have a look if you don't believe me!) - Result; the seal fills with water and drains into boot. The fix advised is to cut some small Vs into the rubber seal on the BOTTOM thus letting water drain down instead of up and into the interior.

Skoda have not officially admitted to this very basic design flaw - The holes in the seal are to allow the compressed air to escape when the hatch is closed - Unfortunately, with the holes placed on TOP you get rain filling the seal and eventually leaking into the boot due to the incorrectly positioned drain holes. Cutting the Vs in the bottom of the seal allows water to drain out (water was never intended to enter the seal in the first place so the fix is just a way of getting over a design flaw)

Hope this helps - It worked for me!

Will give this a go. I thought it strange when I looked at the seal and saw all the holes in it. As you say when you press the seal the water squirts up out of the holes. I guess when the car seal is new it isn't a problem but overtime they stay 'squashed' and then when you get a real downpour of rain it can get into the seal.

[sparky2]

My Ocy Scout has water in the wheel well and its coming from a rubber gromet on the nearside where the cable goes through to the trailer 13 pin socket so I must book it in at the dealership before its out of warrenty. cheers - Stuart