Water Ingress - Passenger footwell

[Rockinghorse]

16 hours ago, motr1912 said:

Was a member on here for quite a number of years (originally 2004) and still have a 2006 Octavia (from new) that is starting to show its age, even though mechanically, I've had only a few issues over the years. 

 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, was going to get a Sportline Karoq but reading all this has put me right off. 

 

This forum had been brilliant for so many years and despite the brilliant reviews, I'm just so glad I can still read real issues from owners that drive their cars regularly and have to deal with every day car issues. 

 

Many thanks. 

Hi Guys

 

I have just got my car back which has been with my dealership since 30th November 2020. They advised me just before Christmas that they had found the leak which was the seal on the windscreen and they had replaced it but there were some parts required which were out of stock and would probably not arrive from Germany until the new year, as apart from low stocks there was the issue at the docks and things just weren't getting through. Both Brexit and Covid had now taken over and  the timescale which was originally quoted was now not possible. The parts required were a full set of carpets  with underlay, a headlining and various pieces of trim. I received a call mid January to say that the car would be ready by Thursday but as the weather was so appalling I advised I would collect on Friday morning. Next day I received a call to advise that the storm we had over night had brought down branches and damaged three cars in their carpark, one being mine and the new windscreen had a crack in it and would need to be replaced.

The following week I got the call to say that it was ready to collect, but on arrival I found that they had damaged the car during the work and had scratched the drivers door sill and gouged the centre console obviously when they put the seat back in. I also found that the windscreen fitter had not put the clips back holding the scuttle trim which was flapping and there were grubby hand prints on various parts of the trim. 

I was not best pleased but I give the customer service manager his due, he did not hesitate to promise that it would all be fixed and booked the car in the following week. I have to say that I collected it on Monday and it was like a new car as they had even polished it. Now not wishing to be pessimistic but we have not had heavy rain this week so I have no idea if this work has cured the leak. Other people have had the same work done and days later were just as wet inside as before. Fingers crossed!!!!!!!

 

Now I would like to offer my two penith to anyone who is about to buy a new Karoq as this experience has not been much fun but I have learned a lot along the way. We had and 2014 Octavia 1.2 before which we loved but due to having two knee replacements I was finding it difficult to get in and out of which is why we looked at the Karoq. Both my wife and I found it to be instantly comfortable and in fact better than the VW Tiguan and decided to purchase. I feel that I made a bit of a mistake when speccing the car as I turned down the 1.0 TSI model being sure that it was not powerful enough for such a heavy car and as they had a 1.5 SEL DSG in stock with 'Virtual dashboard', electric tailgate and various other extras which someone else had ordered but then cancelled it meant that I would not have to wait for my car to be built.

Now I have not been a fan of the 1. 5 TSI engine in my car as I find it a little noisy and harsh particularly when pulling away from cold, tends to use more oil than I would like and is not partcularly economical even though I am a gentle driver, but I have learnt that this engine varies a lot and when you get a good one they are very good. As I have been without my car since 30th of November I have had several courtesy cars during that time. The 1st was  a new 1.5 TSI Golf with only a couple of hundred miles on the clock and the engine in that car was night and day different to mine. I did not like that car though as I struggled to get in and out  so they replaced it with a Karoq 1.0 TSI manual just before Christmas - What a revelation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not believe how smooth this little engine was and to be honest I struggled to tell the difference when driving, as it had plenty of acceleration, but the huge difference was the economy -58 mpg  WOW!!! I took it on a 250 mile round trip to deliver Christmas presents ( socially distanced ) and was amazed how good it was on the motorway it had plenty of power and would overtake just as easily as my 1.5. The only time I noticed a small difference was on a very long hill in Devon where I did need to change down to 5th keep the speed up to 60 mph.

 I would definitely recommend this 1.0 TSI engine if you don't do thousands of miles and drive mainly in town - it's a cracker!!!

Fast forward to when I discovered that my car had been damaged and they then gave me a 1.5TSI Octavia as they didn't have a Karoq. This was a beautiful top of the range car and again the engine was like the Golf in that it was smooth, quiet and very punchy. I can only think that they have updated this unit and sorted some of the issues with the earlier ones, The only thing was once again I found it difficult to get in and out so although I have been disappointed with my Karoq, it was nice to get it back and realise that it is comfortable, Other things I have discovered though is that I prefer the suspension on the Octavia as it hardly notices the rough roads around my village whereas the Karoq is very hard ( probably to stop it rolling on the corners ) which makes it very noisy over the bumps in comparison and can be skittish on rough surfaces.

When I learned how much I had lost over the not quite two years I have had the Karoq it has made me rethink getting rid of it. At the moment we are not going anywhere and it's just not worth throwing more money at cars to just sit there losing value. I still prefer the interior of the Karoq to any other SUV on the market so for now it will probably stay.

Sorry to drone on but I hope my experiences over the last ten weeks may help someone to make up their minds what they really want or need. It shows you really need to have a test drive for longer than just round the block and be very sure what you are buying, I will come back again if I still have a leak!!!!!!!!!!! Regards  David

[motr1912]

8 hours ago, CJJE said:

People who have problems rightly tell us about them. But people without problems don't! 

 

I've always had sunroofs on my Golf 4, Octavia, Golf Plus, Golf SV, and now my Karoq. I've never had the water leaks described above, and wouldn't be without a sunroof! 

 

Chris

For sure Chris, 

 

Sadly, since reading all this yesterday, found the water in footwell issue mentioned elsewhere too. 

 

Still very interested in the Karoq but probably not the sport line. The sunroof isn't a must have for me. 

[whitevx]

Id be curious has to how many members have had water leaks. Yes its difficult to get a real picture as not everyone who has purchased a Koroq is in this forum.

[smipx]

You could add a "Poll" and ask if people have had a leak or are leak free and if so which part of the interior was affected and if it was resolved

You can then ask the admins to make it a sticky so all visitors see it and can vote

 

That might get you the stats you want :-)

 

cheers,

Paul

 

[whitevx]

9 hours ago, smipx said:

You could add a "Poll" and ask if people have had a leak or are leak free and if so which part of the interior was affected and if it was resolved

You can then ask the admins to make it a sticky so all visitors see it and can vote

 

That might get you the stats you want :-)

 

cheers,

Paul

 

Excuse my ignorance but how the hell do I do that ?

[smipx]

I think there is a "poll" tab under the options when you create a new topic. I don't know other than that :-)

 

[Vlady]

Hello all, I am the latest one with this issue  - I own a Karoq 1.5TSI DSG with sunroof and I do have a leak somewhere as my passenger footwell is wet. Will pop in tomorrow to dealer who sold me the cat with 2 years extended warranty and see what they have to say. Very upset that I have never seen this thread before I bought the car!

[Rockinghorse]

Make sure you tell them that it is a known fault and has been documented on the Internet and Briskoda, It could be that it is your sunroof drain which is blocked on the passenger side but there have been more examples of the fault being a bad windscreen seal.

Mine had to be replaced twice before it was cured but I still lack confidence as it seems main dealers are ill equiped to deal with these issues. Make sure that they get the equipment that can measure leaks electronically. My dealer had to borrow it from an Audi dealership in their group. I have learned since that this is a problem associated with numerous cars in the VAG group. (hence the equipment being available). Be prepared to lose your car for a few weeks if they cannot find the fault immediately. Also, on its return make sure to give your car a thorough inspection as there will likely be some damage. I had paint scraped off the drivers door shut , scratches on the centre console and 'B' pillar trim, dirty marks on the windscreen pillar trim and broken seat belt height adjusters. All these caused by inept dealership "technicians". They had to replace my headligning completely as it was damaged taking it out and the rest was so obviously caused by the tech removing and/or replacing the seats. I also had an impression in the leather of the steering wheel but I was able to coax it out by gentle rubbing with a leather conditioner. Be really thorough as I had a couple of scratches on trim which I did not notice until I was cleaning the interior a week later, but I was so mad that I insisted they replace the parts. They had little choice because they really did make a 'pigs ear' of the job. I didn't feel the same way about my car for a good year after this but you do eventually realise there are more important things in life. Good luck!!

[Vlady]

Many thanks @Rockinghorse for the advice above, I do not know what to expect, will be seeing dealer later today, in a meantime I emailed the seller person to tell him about the issue, I understand that he doesn't give a s..t about me anymore (the car is sold to me) but wanted to document it and I told him that last night and this morning I was reading about this well known issue.

I am like you - love the car but loosing the confidence in it slowly, jerky DSG, noisy ish engine, not as great fuel consumption as I expected but the leak is the worst one, I spend at least 5-7 minutes every morning to de-fog the car as it is pretty misty inside and when cold weather comes it will be ice - I had that before on my Passat, ice inside on the windscreen, never in my life I have seen this!

Oh well, I hope they know the issue and I hope it will be covered by Extended warranty as my 3 years warranty finished in September!

[Rockinghorse]

There are a number of questions as to what is actually covered by the extended warranty. I take it, like me, you took out the 'All In' deal. I had a very long conversation with the Skoda Chat Line about it before I signed up and they didn't really know what was covered. Infact the 1st guy I spoke to said he would have to speak to his supervisor and get back to me. He never did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went on again and spoke to another guy who seemed to be more clued up but did say that it would be down to the dealership to make that decision. Best advice I can give is to be very polite but very firm. As a retired Electro/mechanical engineer I wasn't about to take any BS and I made that clear, which seemed to work. I told the service manager that I was expecting the water ingress to be covered by the 'All In' policy to wwhich he replied that he wasn't sure if it was covered. I advised that as this issue occurred during the standard warranty period it was a known issue and I would be insisting if it happened again. 

Your leak obviously occurred during your standard warranty period but it took a few weeks for you to realise the problem. Be strong and do not accept any costs. You could always offer to advise those other customers, who are sitting with salesmen and about to sign on the dotted line, about the poor quality of manufacture and service. I did that once with a faulty week old washing machine - my problem was dealt with straight away.

[Vlady]

@Rockinghorse thanks again for the advice, I do not have a decent relationship with the dealer yet as it is my first Skoda and first issue, for example, I had my Lexus for 4.5 years and Lexus Glasgow knew me and it always felt like they were on my side, in this case I am totally new guy walking in from the street. I hope I will be able to keep my temper in check.

I need to be polity but firm as I want them to provide me with curtesy car and fix it under warranty and do it good from first attempt.

[Rockinghorse]

Don't expect Lexus level of service from Skoda. They are chaik and cheese!!!  The Karoq was my second Skoda and bought from my local dealership which do not impress me at all. However my 1st was an Octavia which I purchased from Murray Skoda in Plymouth. Both that car and the dealership were brilliant in every way, so I guess its all about luck. The other problem I meant to mention was that I did have a few noises and rattles after they took my car apart, but it did bed in after a few months and seems okay now.

Would I buy another Karoq - No!!! - deeply disappointed.

[Vlady]

I just bought it in June. I have 2 friends who have Skoda and no issues at all, this made me choose the manufacturer.

I thought Skoda was in top 5 for customer service at some point but I wouldn't expect it to be at Lexus level., saying that  their Sale dep was pretty good which is the case in most dealerships!

This issue ****es me off big time, I even went to Autotrader to see what else is out there but then - every manufacture is guilty and have lots of problems which you do not know about until you start owning the car. 

Back to Lexus or a Toyota.

[sidpr1]

Hello everyone

 

This is my first post on the forum. I bought a used 2018 Karoq SEL 2.0 diesel 4x4 in September 2022 from a local large Mazda dealership, with one year warranty. I had noticed internal condensation in the past couple of months and last week I lifted the rubber car mats on the passenger front foot-well to find a soaking wet carpet. I also found the rear foot-well on the same side to be soaked as well. The car doesn't have a sunroof and I have checked the pollen filter which is dry. The door drains seem to be clear as does the under bonnet drain holes. The door seals look in good condition too. I have it booked into the dealership later this week but any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

' 

[Ootohere]

Welcome.

The issue is one that Skoda CZ & Dealerships will have to get to grip with.

Model after model from Skoda over the decades have the same design / manufacturing faults.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/509734-damp-in-front-passenger-footwell

 

[sidpr1]

Thank you Toot I'll have a look through the thread and I'll post when I find the answer to my problem.

[AndalucianYeti]

Came across this whilst searching online for a possible solution for a sudden appearance of the exact same leak in my 2012 Yeti. After a years trouble free motoring, just before Christmas I returned from a trip to find a few inches of water in the drivers side footwell, I used the wet and dry vac to remove the water and thought nothing else of it, presuming it was a one off due to heavy rainfall (when it rains in my part of Spain, it bloody rains!). This week, I have had the exact same thing again, but only after 2 days of rain. 

 

I can find no area where the water is coming in from but this morning a drip began from INSIDE the rear view mirror, nothing around it is damp and its not enough to explain the 2 inches of water that was sloshing around yesterday morning.

 

Elsewhere on this forum I have found someone recommending removing the door trim from the A pillar and checking the pipe under there, which I will try tomorrow.

 

Thanks for all the ideas of what to check, I will pop back and let you know of progress.

[Vlady]

5 minutes ago, AndalucianYeti said:

Came across this whilst searching online for a possible solution for a sudden appearance of the exact same leak in my 2012 Yeti. After a years trouble free motoring, just before Christmas I returned from a trip to find a few inches of water in the drivers side footwell, I used the wet and dry vac to remove the water and thought nothing else of it, presuming it was a one off due to heavy rainfall (when it rains in my part of Spain, it bloody rains!). This week, I have had the exact same thing again, but only after 2 days of rain. 

 

I can find no area where the water is coming in from but this morning a drip began from INSIDE the rear view mirror, nothing around it is damp and its not enough to explain the 2 inches of water that was sloshing around yesterday morning.

 

Elsewhere on this forum I have found someone recommending removing the door trim from the A pillar and checking the pipe under there, which I will try tomorrow.

 

Thanks for all the ideas of what to check, I will pop back and let you know of progress.

Hi, welcome to forum! 

I am glad that thread was useful, this is all about - helping, guiding. 

Do you have a sunroof? May be it is drains? Check the tree leaves are not stacked under the bonnet where other set of drains are.

Please do report back, as for you, it might be useful for someone else in a future.

I am dreading for warmer and wetter season in Scotland thinking my issue might get back, it is dry for now but I am not using aircon, well, it was on but it was cold enough outside and not wet in order for aircon to work, so I just turned it off as my car was getting frost on inside of the windscreen! Possibly aircon evaporator! I had similar issue with VW Passat when I had to scrape window on inside! Shocking!

[AndalucianYeti]

Uodate, so after checking around the sunroof and pouring some water around it I discovered water running out from the bonnet release, as per others on here I decided to try to take off the trim from the a frame but it wasnt playing ball and I didnt want to break it, so ive threaded wire down the hole to try and clear it, after further inspection I found a clutch of leaves and mulch stuck between the front left mudflasp and the underside, which Ive cleared. Fingers crossed thats cleared it as I dont really fancy attacking the A frame trim myself.

[Vlady]

On 11/02/2023 at 15:05, AndalucianYeti said:

Uodate, so after checking around the sunroof and pouring some water around it I discovered water running out from the bonnet release, as per others on here I decided to try to take off the trim from the a frame but it wasnt playing ball and I didnt want to break it, so ive threaded wire down the hole to try and clear it, after further inspection I found a clutch of leaves and mulch stuck between the front left mudflasp and the underside, which Ive cleared. Fingers crossed thats cleared it as I dont really fancy attacking the A frame trim myself.

Fingers crossed that solved it! Only if it was that easy but lets hope! 

 

Let me know if it was successful. Thanks.

[RagingRebecca]

Hi, I am totally new to this forum but I am at my wit’s end and would appreciate any advice. My Dad, who lives in Essex, has a 4 year old Karoq sportline which he has kept in immaculate condition and has always been serviced and MOT’d by his local service dealership.  A few months ago, he discovered that his boot was full of water and ever since, water is streaming in down all the windows and the roof, making the seats constantly wet and now, mouldy. It used to take him around 30 minutes just to clear all water so that he could see to drive. He is 83, has lung cancer and struggles to breathe at the best of times and this process exhausted him. I hit the internet and found loads of issues with water ingress in Karoq’s, therefore we contacted the dealership and they were not interested at all as it was out of warranty, there ‘was nothing in the literature about this problem’ and accused us of trying to emotionally manipulate them as Dad was poorly and because he needed the car for hospital appointments. We gave up with them and took it to a great local garage who said ‘we’ve seen this problem loads of times, you definitely need to take it to Skoda and hold them accountable’. We still had no luck with the dealership but they said we could book it in with them in 6 weeks time and it would be £100 an hour just to look at it! We wrote and rang Head Office who looked into it but came back and said there was nothing they could do. We then went back to the local garage and just said to fix it. They came three times to try and collect it, but couldn’t budge it because it wouldn’t start. They changed the battery which didn’t work, then plugged a diagnostic tool in which said there was extensive electrical damage throughout the whole car and told Dad it was an official write off and to contact his insurance company. Dad contacted them today, only to be told that ‘it sounds like it’s fixable’ so they wouldn’t accept the claim. We are now left with a heap of metal on the drive which he spent £30,000 on 4 years ago. The car is completely immaculate on the outside, but completely defunct on the inside. What on earth can we do next as we feel like there are no more options left? Sorry to prattle on but I’m so upset at Skoda not admitting to anything. Thank you very much.

[Ootohere]

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear this sad tale.

?

Was this taken any higher than the Contractor for Skoda UK's Customer Services and onto any Senior Executive Team? 

 

 

Edited 9 March, 2023 by toot

[Aspman]

you still have the Consumer Rights Act 2015. It is not limited by warranty and you have up to 6 years to act.

https://www.themotorombudsman.org/knowledge-base/what-is-the-consumer-rights-act

[Rockinghorse]

Hi RagingRebecca

 

Ist of all may I say how sorry I am to hear about your dads poor health. If that is not bad enough the last thing you need is this issue with Skoda.

As you will have already seen, there are many posts on Briskoda about this issue as well as on the wider Internet, but Skoda will not accept that they have a manufacturing problem. My car was leaking badly which was found to be the windscreen which was replaced along with anything else which was water damaged, but luckily this was found during the initial 3 year warranty, but I still had quite a battle with the dealership in order to get the work done at  no cost to me. It was because of this problem that I took out the 'All In' extended two year service/warranty plan after my 3 years expired. There is still some question as to wether Skoda would honour a repair if the water damage was to reoccur but they would certainly have a battle on their hands. Do I take it that your Dad didn't take out this plan? How long into the forth year did he notice the leak?

Does his car have a sunroof? because this is a favorite failure point as the drain pipes can become blocked and /or become detatched and allow water to get into the boot.

There are othe failure points such as the rear hatch leaking, either at the window seal or where the rear number plate light moulding is attached.

You may well find that the water has now run into the whole car floor and has saturated some of the key electrical conrol boxes under the seats and carpet which is why the garage found the diagnostic problem.

I had the same experience with Skoda head office - they are not interested and told me that the system was to deal with the local dealership. I was very forceful and after several weeks they finally agreed to look into the problem.

I fear Skoda will never own up to this water ingress issue even though it is widespread. I think you need to contact either your local television station and/or Watchdog as you need some real exposure of the problem and it is amazing how that can push companies to do something.

 

I hope you have some success with these problems as I know I no  longer feel the same about my car since the water ingress.

 

Best wishes

 

Rockinghorse

[RagingRebecca]

28 minutes ago, toot said:

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear this sad tale.

?

Was this taken any higher than the Contractor for Skoda UK's Customer Services and onto any Senior Executive Team? 

 

 

No, we didn’t escalate this to any senior executive team as we didn’t know that was an option? Time is against us unfortunately as Dad only has a few months left and we needed a solution asap, hence we went to the local garage.