Leaking Tailgate

[Tranq]

Can anyone help me?

I finally thought the cost of all the driving lessons and the outrageous insurance for my teenage daughter would pay off when she gave me and my wife a lift to a party and stayed up to collect us later. However, after sitting in the back of my wife's '08 Fabia 2, I arrived at the party with a wet backside.

Once the hangover had cleared a bit the next day, I took a look. The spare wheel well was full of water, the cover was saturated, and the damp had spread along the carpet and soaked the NSR seat.

A bit of playing with the garden hose revealed that water would flow out from under the left hand side wall of the boot from behind the interior trim if I ran water across the roof into the upper join with the closed tailgate. Putting the hose in the side wells of the tailgate opening, so the water ran off behind the light clusters, had no effect.

I an guessing that there must be a gap between the rubber seal round the tail gate opening and the end of the roof panel, but I can't see anything.

Has anyone else had this problem and what did they do to solve it? I have found a lot about leaking rear doors using search, but nothing about tailgates.

Many thanks.

[kelling]

i have the same problem car going to dealers on friday will let you know how i get on.

[seboni121]

The rear cluster may be the issue, however should be easy to find out, dry around the inside frame and then get the hose again you will be able to see we're it's coming from, make sure you've cleaned the guttering around the hatch

[Miffy84]

My friend had the same issue with his Audi A1, funnily enough

After all the stick i've given him, I hope my Monte never suffers the same fate :-/

[polo2002]

We had ours do the same earlier this year, the fault was rain water coming in the left rear boot vent. I don't know if they changed it or resealed it but no water since.

[seboni121]

We're is the vents ?

[Tranq]

We're is the vents ?

Thanks for the replies.

I went looking for vents and found one by removing the rear left light cluster - and lo and behold, the seal was perished through. I have slapped some bathroom sealant across the top where the seal has gone as a stop-gap measure. Now I need to find out what the thing is called to order the right part, and how to access it. It looks like the bumper will have to come off.

When I was running water into the light cluster, some cavity must have been filling up but not quite overflowing. When I ran the hose over the top of the tailgate, it must have flowed down behind the light cluster and finished filling the cavity, overflowing, and tricking me into looking in the wrong place. So now how do I access that cavity and get the water out?

This seems to be a very cheap and flimsy seal in a hard to reach area that has a big impact when it lets go. Not very clever.

[seboni121]

Can you get a pipe in there ? Something like a aquarium air hose pipe and suck until it start flowing, I remember when the seal of my old fiats sunroof went I stuck a dehumidifier in the car and left it there all night and it was all dried

[2tite]

for the second time I have found small amounts of water in the spare wheel well on my two week old Fabia Estate, also noticing condensation on the rear estate door glass.

I hate water leaks

:(

[barrheadred]

i too have found a water leak in my spare wheel well just this weekend,its also coming from the little vent seals behind the rear light clusters.but ive found both n/s and o/s seals to be perished.ive just removed the seals completly and filled with silicone sealer.see pics

the offending article

now filled with sealer

[2tite]

Thanks Finding my Feet for your photos

mine will be going back in to Skoda to be checked as its only a couple of weeks old

[2tite]

Thanks Finding my Feet for your photos

mine will be going back in to Skoda to be checked as its only a couple of weeks old

UPDATE

car back from dealers I get the impression that they didn't find the source of the leak but as a precaution applied sealant onto the existing external sealant behind rear bumper

the water was somehow getting into a box section at rear of car (estate boot sill) and then dribbling into spare wheel well

as usual post a dealer visit:- trim not re-applied correctly - two fixing clips missing & a screw in the wheel arch cover missed the locating hole completely so so I had to correct this ( & Will ask for the two missing fixings )

so I have had a look myself & now I strongly suspect that the water is getting in past the rear light cluster securing screw - the hole can be seen in Barrheadreds photo, there is only a very delicate foam seal that surrounds the thread that goes into this hole I suspect its not big enough to cover the hole correctly

In Barrheadreds photo you can see that the mark left by the seal does not cover the top of the screw slot sufficiently when the light cluster is lined up correctly I have adjusted mine so the cluster is slightly higher and the fixing screw is in the centre of the slot so the foam seal is centralised as well

edit :- this is my first experience with Skoda's after sales service & I am not impressed

just noticed rear parking sensors no longer working when they refitted the rear bumper they didn't bother reconnecting the sensors!

if you want a job done properly - don't bother with a Skoda main agent - DIY!

Edited 11 December, 2011 by 2tite