Hello,

New around these parts, and have a query. Back in October I got a Fabia Monte Carlo, and soon noticed the door seals were leaking. Water was getting between the door and door surrounds and saturating the felt inner seal, and then slowly dripping in.

I took the car back, and was told it was a design fault with the car, and there are many that do the same (i.e. no fix). However, when I got to my car last night after work, the temperature had plummeted, and all the seals had frozen the doors shut, bar the drivers door.

I was wondering if anyone else suffers this, and if so what action I should take. I intend on popping back in to the dealership in the next few weeks when I have a drop of spare time, but the thought of being unable to open my doors should I stop in the middle of nowhere when it's cold isn't really acceptable, so any advice would be much appreciated.

I think I've got this thread posted in the correct place, please let me know if there is somewhere more appropriate however!

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum.

Sadly they lied to you,

Many of them do not do that,

because if they do they are in trouble.

They need to sell cars of merchantable quality, and they appear prepared not to.

Call Skoda UK Customer care and tell them what you were told. Arrange with them to get the Warranty repairs correctly done.

If they agree that there are many that do the same, and no fix, well that is that.

Doubt that will be the response.

Recently Skoda confirmed that MK 1 leaks were a problem of their making.

Was it Skoda Specialist Cars Dundee part of the John Clark Group, or someplace else?

who ever it was needs to be named and shamed.

All the best,

george

Welcome to the forum.

Sadly they lied to you,

Many of them do not do that,

because if they do they are in trouble.

They need to sell cars of merchantable quality, and they appear prepared not to.

Call Skoda UK Customer care and tell them what you were told. Arrange with them to get the Warranty repairs correctly done.

If they agree that there are many that do the same, and no fix, well that is that.

Doubt that will be the response.

Recently Skoda confirmed that MK 1 leaks were a problem of their making.

Was it Skoda Specialist Cars Dundee part of the John Clark Group, or someplace else?

who ever it was needs to be named and shamed.

All the best,

george

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Yeah, it is indeed Specialist Cars Dundee, and will definitely get on the blower to the Customer Care line, and once I have a reply, I will post it up here for future reference for anyone who suffers anything similar.

For the first time the other day - got my daughters into the back of the car and they said they were getting wet.

I looked around and the whole length of the rear door was dripping from the top.

I didn't know if it had been from opening the door in the rain and taking an age to load her in, or a weird door close, trapping the seal.

I couldn't recreate it and even wondered if the monkeys had opened the window a dab and let the water in!

I have noticed that if you open the rear doors after heavy rain, parked up, that the water drains out of the drain hole, which worried me in as much as is that water just sitting inside the door, or around the door, instead of draining out of a drain hole? Why does it pool until I open the door?

Right, car has been in and they've done an air and water test on it, and can't replicate the fault. Currently waiting on a callback from Customer Services as I know the fault to be there, and Witt the chance of being locked out the car on a freezing cold day, it's just not acceptable.

Dealership continue banging on about the design flaw, where the water pools and when the doors opened it drips in, but I have seen drops on the seats where the door hasn't been opened.

Depending on the outcome of the call to Customer Services, I may have to take advice from Trading Standards. I mean, a few drips coming through are at a push acceptable (though not exactly desirable!) but the chance of being locked out just isn't.

High CB1. Sorry to hear you are having a problem with the door seals. Most of us don't ever get a problem with the seals freezing or water coming in. But there are some things you should know. Firstly, I suspect your door seal/s may have just been very wet for some reason and this has allowed the water to syhon in through the seals into the car from the outside. This should not happen but it can if the door has been left open in very wet weather for a short period or after washing the vehicles when the seals may be wet. It's also possible the door itself is not adjusted to close properly. In wet weather this also may depend on where the vehicle is parked, what direction the wind blows from (yes, really!), and if the car is tilting one way or the other. I've seen this problem on all sorts of makes and models of car. But this doesn't mean the seals are necessarily faulty as such. But this design, now used universally on most cars now, is not the best in my opinion. Your garage should be able to determine for sure what the problem is.

Just for your information in case you have not seen it in your Manual for your car yet. It does tell you to spray the door seals in winter with some silicon lubricant to make sure the doors do not freeze in subzero temperatures. It also protects the seals from damage. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply Estate Man, have to say I was ignorant of the manual advice.

Having spoken to Customer Service Manager, I have been told, as there is no fault obvious and repeatable in testing, there's not a lot that can be done, bar travel and get a second opinion so, short of travelling the 50 odd miles to Perth and back, I am going to be speaking to the body who governs new car sales, who have the info I require about my rights regarding faults that are present but not repeatable in tests.

I am aware I am covered under the act that states I am entitled to the car being replaced like-for-like or reimbursement for any financial outlay to get the car fixed, but so far this has cost me nothing, and I don't know if it is worth the time to get the car replaced, or even if, without conclusive proof it is even a possibility.

I am well aware that this isn't a huge fault but as stated before is one that shouldn't be present on a brand new, 1700 mile car!

In other news, the car is in for yet another fault; a rattle coming from the engine under medium-to-heavy acceleration, only when in gear and warmed up. They've at least replicated this fault so, with any luck the car will be fault free in the next little while!

Hi CB1, progress of sorts being made then. One thing I forgot to mention. If you ensure the door seals and bodywork door frames are nice and dry and remove any obvious debris such as grit (that will allow water through), you can then give them a good spray of silicon as I mention above to prevent freezing etc. And...this also generally seems to prevent water ingress too. Several customers who had this problem reported that after I cleaned and sprayed the seals they had no more problems. This is probably due to the silicon being water repellant. Worth a try! The stuff to get is the 'inert' silicon spray. It won't react with other materials or do any harm whatsoever, it's also non toxic.