Hello guys, I know this has been covered 2 billion times but just want a definitive answer, what is the best way to seal them back up to prevent the leaks? Cheers

Well after doing mine twice I'd say bite the bullet and remove the screws/rivets tidy it up properly and then reveal/refit, if the 'sealent' that's is already there is full of water already then chances are you won't have a proper seal whatever you do.

A rivet gun and rivets (although there are suppose to be proper skoda rivets?) Don't cost much and its worth not having to defrost the inside of the car come winter

Best way i think is to drill the rivets out scrape all the crap old stuff of and clean it up then use plumbers gold to reseal and put new rivets in then run another bead of plumbers gold around the edge.

Thats if you want 100% but i just scraped as much old stuff out as i could and put a hell of a lot of plumbers gold on. Need to make sure you go up high enough aswell i went about 3/4 the way up the sides. Dry day/night is needed or a garage to let it set other wise if rains gets in you will just disturb the sealent and have a nasty mess.

I'll +1 for using the Plumbers Gold. I didn't bother either with removing the entire carrier, just scraped as much of the foam out as I could and filled the gap with the Plumbers Gold, again going about 3/4 of the way up.

 

I first used Unibond roof and gutter sealant, but this failed for me as the water just bubbled underneath it when it rained. Beauty about the Plumbers Gold is that it can applied to wet surfaces and still set properly. So much so the parents went and re-sealed the bathroom they were that impressed haha!

+2 for Plumbers Gold.

 

Did mine over a year ago without removing the carriers and it's been as dry as a bone since. 

Well after doing mine twice I'd say bite the bullet and remove the screws/rivets tidy it up properly and then reveal/refit, if the 'sealent' that's is already there is full of water already then chances are you won't have a proper seal whatever you do.

A rivet gun and rivets (although there are suppose to be proper skoda rivets?) Don't cost much and its worth not having to defrost the inside of the car come winter

Have an "s". You'll have to throw the "v" away, no market for it.

Have an "s". You'll have to throw the "v" away, no market for it.

Damn phone making me sound like an idiot....yeh the phone....really...

Same as above, but I used a long knife to hoke out all of the foam liner that joins the carrier to the door, using a mastic gun to fill that space with mastic/caulk/silicone or plumbers gold!

 

Then plaster it around the rest of the carrier, press it in, let it cure and then go at it again! 

 

Thats the way i've managed to seal mine fior it to work. 

Thanks for the replies guys think I'll go for the plumbers gold. Has anyone got a picture of the carrier as I've never had the plastic off the door before don't want to be ripping bits apart then not know what I'm doing ha

i lumped this all around the edge of the carriers looked like it had been tig welded (badly and drippy and black) http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-roof-gutter-sealant-black-310ml/67521

Has anyone got a link/part number for the door card clips?  I am going to attempt to seal my rear door this weekend having noticed a soggy footwell after the recent heavy rain here in Newcastle and being an amateur I'm likely to break a few of these in the process. 

On my last Fabia I used roofing sealant around the bottom of the carrier, placed duck tape over it so i could mold it without it sticking to my hands and let it set.. Not the prettiest solution but they ain't gonna leak again anytime soon..

Thanks for the replies guys think I'll go for the plumbers gold. Has anyone got a picture of the carrier as I've never had the plastic off the door before don't want to be ripping bits apart then not know what I'm doing ha

 

Here you go!   Make sure you've got plenty of clips handy aswell as you've probably seen from other topics that you tend to break them when you pull the door card off.

Here's a link for the door card clips.. http://www.skodaparts.com/product/fabia-octavia-door-trim-clips-34038..

 

I'd suggest getting plenty of them, then you don't need to worry about breaking them..

theres a video guide  of a how to do it, shows you from start to finish, its on youtube so you can either look there on on here somewhere (pinned - extremly useful thread maybe?)

 

Interior door clips - any dealer will have them in stock just walk up and ask its what i did -alternatively try bickertons website - searching that should reveal the part no.s

Cheers, I will order a few from skoda.  This is the video I was going to follow:

 

http://www.skodaparts.com/product/fabia-door-sealant-2000-2007-22046

Thanks for the replies guys think I'll go for the plumbers gold. Has anyone got a picture of the carrier as I've never had the plastic off the door before don't want to be ripping bits apart then not know what I'm doing ha

 

 

Ah, obtain trim removal tools etc. Or wrap a pry bar in tape/cloth. The screws/bolts are usually easy to remove. The trim clips are a pig. They're set in recesses and turrets on the door face just to make access a little more difficult. If wanting to totally remove the door trim, WD40 or similar the trim/seal up at the window. Paying attention to the glazing bars particularly on the rear doors. Lever the seal/clip up from the back. Make sure to disconnect the lock cable first.

 

If you break any small plastic parts they're usually pennies from the dealers. Bits with leccy controls on them (mirrors/windows etc) cost a lot more.

When I did mine about 5 years ago,I was lucky the carrier plate was fixed with 6mm bolts.I believe it is better to completely remove it,so you can fully see what you are trying to remove,and dry it out, properly.before applying sealant.I put masking tape on the inside of the door to stop the sealer going where I did not want it.Also I did mine in Summer which I believe helped to my success.

Edited 16 October, 201312 yr by AndyPandy

re: DIY door seal repair

 

Hi all

Bought a Fabia 1.4 a couple of weeks a go and found both the rear doors to be leaking.

After looking through Briskoda, and also the great videos on YouTube, I decided to give it a go rather than take it into the Skoda dealer. My car is 12 years old, so no chance of a warranty repair!

Followed the youtube video and Briskoda instructions.

Got the door window winder off, and also the other plastic bits so that I could access the 3 screws OK.

No problem, just used a screwdriver with a rag to protect the plastic bits and some patience.

 

Prised the door card off the using a plastic kitchen spatula to ease it off. Broke about 3 of the door clips on each door. There are 7 in total on each door.

Because I figured that some would get broken I had already been to the dealer to buy some replacements in advance at 79p each- but despite giving them all the necessary details, and receiving their reassurance that they would fit, they gave me the wrong ones!

So, I bought some off the internet with next day delivery instead.

Are Skoda Parts Departments really this useless?

 

I undid the bolts that hold the centre internal door panel in place and eased it open slightly so I could let the water drain out and also so I could squeeze in some Plumbers Gold where the useless, and waterlogged, neoprene seal sits. Then tightened the bolts up again to squeeze it shut.

Then I used the Plumbers Gold to seal all around the outside of the centre panel, along the line of the visible neoprene seal. I went halfway up the door on each side of the seal, and put plenty around the area where the water had been trickling out.

I used the Wonder Wipes to clean up, as the Plumbers Gold is super sticky.

 

As luck would have it, it started heavy raining just after I finished putting the door parts all back together.

Plumbers Gold is supposed to set even when underwater, so we shall see.

 

Went for a fairly long drive in the rain. Rear footwells are absolutely dry, with no signs of new water ingress at all.

Still a small amount of condensation coming up about 1 inch on the inside of the rear door window seals, but that may be the water vapour evaporating from inside the door as it dries out.

 

What it cost me to do:

£3.45 for 10 door card clips from eBay ([email protected])

£8.68 for Everbuild Wonder wipes from Amazon (Tools 24/7)= only used 3 wipes, but these are really excellent for getting stuff off your hands.

£7.22 for Everbuild 'Plumbers Gold' from Amazon

 

I am not very mechanically minded, and so I did this very slowly. Took me about 1 hour to do each door. Allowing time for a mug of tea halfway.

 

If I can do it, then absolutely anyone can.

Loving driving my Fabia!!

Has anyone ever thought "Why do the doors get so full of water???" "Why does it stay in the door and not drain out the drain holes???"

 

Simple Question - Is there a simple answer??

It does go out of the drain holes but when the seal goes it comes out of the gaps of the carrier first because all the water trickles down it and its the waters first stop before the bottom of the door. Thats why it needs to be 100% sealed so it can just carry on past the joint down to the drain holes.

I get a fair bit of water on the front and rear footplate sills is that normal but no water inside on the carpets at all

The rear footplate has bits of the lacquer peeling slightly is there anyway to stop water sitting on the footplates?

Or is it a case of redoing the door carrier seals?

If the carrier seals are leaking you can probably see watermarking on the paintwork of the door just below the bottom edge of the doorcard. Even easier to spot is little puddles sitting on the horizontal top surface of the rubber seal that the bottom of the door closes against.  If you have neither of those things happening, then the water you're seeing has probably dropped out of the drain holes in the bottom edge of the door, which would have to be normal.

Mine has been done twice, found a invoice for a skoda dealer doing them under warranty, then previous owner told me has done them himself a couple of years ago.

They are not leaking atm, so hopefully be ok till next summer when I'm plannng to remove them completely and all the sealer etc thats been added, fit riv nuts to the rivet holes then reseal correctly and use stainless bolts to refix them to door which will compress the sealer properly to get a good seal