Rain leaking in Superb mkII

[mexicanpete]

Hi

 

I bought a Superb Elegance MK II new in June 2015.  It is the 170 bhp diesel RHD version with no sunroof or similar and has covered 40k miles mostly 50 to 150 mile journeys on the motorway.  This is my first VAG group car of the modern era.  (My 1986 bought new Audi A4 came to a final resting place in the early 1990's outside Paddinton Green police station - the Met's main high security station.  Several policemen volunteered their assistance with remarkable speed)  A very impressive car - until 2 weeks ago.  It now leaks copious amount of water into the driver's and rear driver's side foot wells.  In common with other reports of water ingress the bluetooth function and some key functions have been disturbed presumably by condensation - of which there has been a lot.

 

The rain leaks in while stationery .  Most of the evidence seems to point to the leak being above and behind the pedals but not absolutely certain.

 

Most of the suggestions for sources of the leak available on line appear to refer to the Mk i car and do not appear relevant to the MK II.

 

By covering over the gap between the the windscreen and bonnet (not perfectly but pretty good ) during nearly 24 hours of almost continuous rain the ingress has been limited substantially therefore strongly suggesting that some form of drain blockage or loosened cover plate near the bulkhead is the culprit.

 

I have looked at trying to remove the plastic tray just in front of the windscreen but this appears to be pretty firmly attached under the bottom lip of the windscreen.  It appears that the force required to remove it would quite likely damage something.   This would enable me to explore the drain holes.   The four obvious drains holes were partially blocked but these were the first things that I cleaned out and that made no difference.

 

So firstly if anybody has any suggestions for sources of leaks for the MK II I'd be very grateful to receive them.  I've tried a search of this forum but have not found anything relevant.  However that might be due to my lack of familiarity with this forum.  With 342 pages of threads searching manually is a daunting task.

 

I have looked at the ERWIN system and I'm happy to pay a reasonable amount for the information.  I can understand how you might search a manual for dpf etc but drain holes don't point to a specific item and therefore I'm at a bit if a loss.  I've spoken with Skoda UK about using the Skoda workshop manual system but whilst very pleasant and appeared to understand the issue their only suggestion has been to refer me to a main dealer who would be able to help me navigate the the ERWIN system (being a Skoda product).  Not surprisingly they are not rushing to explain.

 

So if anybody can take me any further I'd be very grateful.  I'm sure I can't be the only Superb II owner with this problem.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

[langers2k]

Do you have a sunroof?

 

It's the scuttle panel you're trying to remove. I'd expect it to be a similar process to the MK6 golf but obvious some mounting points will probably have moved, much like this:

 

[mexicanpete]

Thanks for the info.  I don't think I would ever have guessed what a scuttle panel is.

 

I've removed the wiper arms and with the bonnet up the two pieces of the scuttle panel are quite loose on the side away from the windscreen resting on a neoprene or similar seal which is in good condition.  The main issue seems to me to be that the edge along the windscreen is firmly attached under the bottom lip of the windscreen.  There is some foam rubber acting a some form of seal but is oozing water when squashed with a blunt small prodder.

 

There is no sunroof or similar - I'm pretty familiar with the sealing problems of these and would not have bought any car with one.

 

 

[silver1011]

Once the wiper arms and rubber seal along the leading edge have been lifted the scuttle tray should pull off, much like in the YouTube video above.

 

If the car still has it's original windscreen then there is every chance it has never been removed, so it has likely bonded itself to the glass through a mix of road grime, leaves and grit. As long as it isn't too cold you should be able to apply a fair degree of force without breaking it.

 

On the other hand, if it isn't the original screen then a rogue piece of windscreen sealant may have inadvertently glued to the scuttle tray to the lower edge of the screen.

 

Likewise, if the screen looks new (could it have been replaced in preparation for your purchase?), then it might not have been sealed properly. I trust windscreen repair agents less than the 'technicians' at my local Skoda dealer.

 

If the windscreen can be ruled out and the drain holes at both ends of the scuttle tray were partially blocked, then it means there is more than certainly debris that has made it past the scuttle tray grills and into the drain tubes.

 

Another possibility / alternative would be to jack the car up, remove the drivers side front wheel and inner wheelarch liner and tackle the job from underneath.

[mexicanpete]

Really helpful thanks

 

If I understand correctly the foam rubber seal should actually lift out while the scuttle place is in place.  It is simply a matter of grabbing hold of the seal and pulling the seal?  Should I replace the seal?   Can I buy one?

 

As regards the windscreen I very much doubt hat it has ever been replaced since it arrived at the dealer under a cover.

 

There are a lot of small leaves blowing around where I live.  I guess four winters of accumulation could easily block a drain hole.

 

Peter

[silver1011]

Some useful pictures here, it isn't a Superb but the setup should be all but identical...

 

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/scuttle-panel-removal-guide-with-pics.158887/

[AussieAnth]

I have a 2011 Superb wagon with water coming into the passenger side footwell only.  Looking for more info on how to resolve it.

My wife recently noticed water splashed in small amounts on her feet while I was driving.  There had been recent rain but we've also had the air-con on a lot lately.

The carpet has been noticeably wet, but not fully saturated like some of the other reports.

 

I'm 80% confident its rain getting in from a drainage issue starting from below the windscreen, NOT the well documented sunroof leak issue.   I've poured about 1 litre total around the front of the sunroof trim, and watched it drain freely to the exit drain in the door jams.

 

I've also ran air-con on full for half an hour while stationary, and found no condensation build up anywhere, although this is not completely ruled out.
 

After removing the foam cover & 2 hand screens below the glovebox, water seems to come in around the middle of the footwell, not from the side closest to the door or transmission tunnel.

I've found the lower 3rd of the cabin filter quite wet, but I've also seen water drip down behind the filter box as well.

 

I do not have water in the drivers side, any of the rear footwells, or the boot/spare wheel area.

After testing by pouring several litres of water down the entire width of the windscreen, water seems to freely drain down the 4 holes in the plastic scuttle plate below the windscreen, and pours freely onto the road with little delay, but this doesn't mean some of its collecting down further and seeping into the cabin.

 

The main questions are:

 

1)  where is it likely collecting & penetrating the cabin?

2) how to I resolve it?

 

I'm keen to remove the plate below the windscreen, and see how to do it, but not until I have some good instructions on what to do from there.

I've read about 5 other threads about various water ingress, but most of them revolve around the sunroof, or don't provide much info on how to resolve the issue.

[Roots Supercharger]

A job worth doing.

 

Whilst I had the front wheels off my 2009 Superb 11, I loosened the bottom rear edge of the wheelarch liners (where a mud flap fits) to expose the metal surrounded small cavity behind. There was 2 inches of compacted, frozen, leaf detritus blocking the scuttle drain exit where it drains onto the ground. Luckily, there was no sign of rust.

[silver1011]

The water ingress is likely to be following the same path that the air from under the bonnet takes to reach the pollen filter...

 

 

[AussieAnth]

On 24/02/2020 at 05:18, silver1011 said:

The water ingress is likely to be following the same path that the air from under the bonnet takes to reach the pollen filter...

 

 

Thanks mate.  I've found a few posts relating to similar issues, but nobody has documented the fix.

 

If I get the scuttle plate off below the windscreen, does it become a lot more obvious?  Happy to tackle it that way. I also have to swap out rotors & pads, so maybe I'll start removing the passenger wheel trim first.

 

I did see one post (see below) where someone who also parks on an incline) found an empty threaded hole under the plate, and was even able to fill it with silicone without removing the plate completely.  This fixed his issue. 

 

[woodysc1]

I had fun removing the scuttle on mine today. The lip of the scuttle which fits in the groove below the windscreen is barbed. 

One half came away ok, the other started to break leaving the lip in the groove but I got that out with a butter knife which started the rest. 

To note (somewhere), below the scuttle just drains through a gap into the wheel arch so nothing there that particularly needs cleaning out. 

 

I had several inches of leaves and dirt stacked up behind the wheel arch liner. So well worth getting in there to stop rust. 

 

I believe my leak was from the sunroof. I palled the passenger side roof lining down, very wet within, and the rodded from there. The pipe comes out by the hinges as shown. I used a syringe to push water through and lots of dirt came out and now everything runs free. 

Edited 26 November, 2022 by woodysc1

[Derbyshirebod]

I had been getting water coming into the passenger footwell after heavy rain and especially if I parked with both nearside wheels on the pavement in front of my house.

 

Under the bonnet below the windscreen on the passenger side of the car there is a scuttle drain with an opening close to the bottom of the channel underneath a cover for the heater blower motor.  There isn't much depth from the opening to the bottom of the scuttle and I make the assumption because you can't see with the windscreen wiper mechanism covers in place that during heavy rain the channel wasn't emptying fast enough and the excess water was running into the blower motor opening and then into the passenger foot well.

 

The scuttle drain on my 2012 Superb was fairly clean but I found when I took the front wheel arch liners off the car between the wheel arch liners and the bulkhead they were absolutely rammed full with leaves and what looked like black compost so there must have been several years worth. This was stopping the rain water from flowing away fast enough from the scuttle drain. I've hosed away all the debris off the bulkhead  and I've not had anymore ingress of water into the car.

[Smart Pro]

On 30/11/2022 at 22:33, Derbyshirebod said:

 

 

The scuttle drain on my 2012 Superb was fairly clean but I found when I took the front wheel arch liners off the car between the wheel arch liners and the bulkhead they were absolutely rammed full with leaves and what looked like black compost so there must have been several years worth. This was stopping the rain water from flowing away fast enough from the scuttle drain. I've hosed away all the debris off the bulkhead  and I've not had anymore ingress of water into the car.

 

This will be the cause of most water leaks into the cabin and it really is a case of seeing is believing!

 

By that, it can be a bit of a shock when you see the mountain of debris, which has accumulated and is causing drainage water to divert into the cabin!

 

It is reasonably straightforward to jack up the car, remove the wheels, insert the axle stands and then remove the wheel arch liners and is a job worth doing every year.

 

Edited 4 December, 2022 by Smart Pro

[makman]

I cleared mine out in August. Just poured hot water down the scuttle drainage areas and it runs straight out at the bottom of the wheel arches.  Well worth doing to keep the car dry and functioning.