I've a Fabia 3 and a Citigo, both cars have a long piece of foam in front of the door which sits between the A post and wing. Its constantly soaking wet with all this rain, if I prod it water oozes out like a sponge. I dont remember my last Fabia having this or indeed my 2012 Citigo. Surely this is a huge cause of rust in future. Any ideas, from people in the know? Can I remove it, they'll be a big gap if I do. Just seems like a cheapo bodge from VAG.

I thought that all VW Group cars used closed cell stiff foam in there so it should not be soaking up water, I'm talking from experience of Audi,VW and SEATs only.

It looks like fine open cell foam, which is probably better as even the closed cell stuff will eventually absorb water, and open cell should dry faster. (That said the blocks stuffed up over the wheel arches do look like closed cell.)

 

My 63 Citigo had foam inserts, can't say they were a problem in the few years I had it and have not seen any issues in that area on GoUpMiis of comparable age.

 

My 66 Fabia had plastic mouldings. The one on the nearside warped a bit and its retainer clips popped off the panel tabs. A bit of a fiddle to reset.

 

My current 19 Fabia has foam inserts on both sides. Interestingly another one I test-drove had a moulding on the nearside, and foam on the offside. No idea why that would be.

Edited 16 October, 20196 yr by ettlz

Fair enough, but whatever it is...its soaking up water like a sponge and its next to metal. Bearing in mind the rust on mk5 Golfs etc in front wings, caused by the samd stuff I think it's a big concern. My 16 plate Fabia had plastic, my 18 plate Ibiza had polystyrene and now its foam! Interestingly, while the Fabia foam is soft all the way down, the Citigos is hard just at the very bottom.

I guess we'll have to wait and see if there's ever a service campaign to replace the foam with the plastic mouldings.

 

(I mean -- I assume the foam is the intended final state of the car, not a construction spacer or something to be replaced at the PDI. I do wonder why that demo car had foam on one side and plastic on the other.)

Edited 16 October, 20196 yr by ettlz

Maybe a bit worrying for the future for those of us that hold onto our cars for a while, I seem to remember that VW Group removed the rusting encouraging foam inserts from much earlier cars - but these earlier cars only had that open cell foam as an extra bit, in most of the newest VW Group cars, that foam is there to close off or blank out, an opening, so no option for removing it and retaining a "good look" while the car doors are open, very annoying!

I just think it's going to create a lot of body issues in a short period of time. I intend to keep the Citigo, hope it doesn't rust away. Guess foams cheaper than a proper moulding.

Reading around on the wheel arch/front wing inserts in the Mk5 Golf (and apparently in one Ibiza iteration) a number of warranty claims were coming back that this was a 'mechanical' issue (yeah, right!) so not covered under the 12-year warranty -- I think these cars were around 7 years old or so. I did see some tales go along the lines of 'they offered 75% goodwill until I made a fuss and then they paid up'.

 

Quite how this would be a mechanical issue is beyond me; the internal coating looks like a sort of enamel-ish stuff on top of what I presume is rust inhibitor and galvanising. Not sure if foam could abrade through that, unless sand and dirt intrusions helped it somehow.

Intriguing.  Just looked at mine (Fabia Combi 1.2 Petrol DSG May 2017) and both sides have the gap filled with thin black plastic strip.  A bit like the stuff inside Chocolate boxes.  Nicely made  properly cut out to fit and has a neat little clip built in at the bottom to keep it in place.  But what for? It is obviously not waterproof. Is it just to hide something?  What ? nasty welding or dangling cables?

I hope there is no water logged foam behind it.   Why is it needed?

5 hours ago, HopeImRight said:

But what for? It is obviously not waterproof. Is it just to hide something?  What ? nasty welding or dangling cables?

 

Behind it is a bodywork void covered on the other side by the wheel arch liner. Water from the windscreen scuttle drains down through this void and out a hole tucked just behind the sill.

 

Saw similar foam inserts today (with damp bits) on a VW Golf R that was only a few years old at most.