Waterlogged passenger side - leaking bonnet release

[Blaikie]

I have the same issue You have. On inspection with a body panel friend of mine we located the leak to these two points. After using plastic resin to seal it seams to have stopped. I hope this helps. Time to sell the Škoda.

[BigJakk]

Hello Blaikie,

 

That looks very much the same as the eventual fix that was applied to mine.

 

I've gone into my experience and findings regarding the panoramic roof in some depth here.

 

 

In a nutshell the roof was removed for a possible TPI for a failed seal and at the same time my mechanic water tested it and found a leak between the roof frame and housing, which was Rebonded. Funnily enough I now have a healthy smear of black sealant in the same location. So there is obviously a common issue!

 

Touch wood since then Iv'e been leak free since, but I'm watching it like a hawk.

 

Having only just bought the car I cant get rid and other than this (and the diesel engine under the bonnet) it really is a great car, I wont ever touch anything with a sunroof ever again though!!

 

Thanks again 👍

Edited 10 September, 2020 by BigJakk

[Viking1380]

On 10/09/2020 at 11:33, Blaikie said:

I have the same issue You have. On inspection with a body panel friend of mine we located the leak to these two points. After using plastic resin to seal it seams to have stopped. I hope this helps. Time to sell the Škoda.

Sorry to resurrect an old post, but did this work and continue to work as a fix? I've got enough water in the rear nearside to sustain a decent group of Koi carp, hell my lad is taking waders and a fishing rod into the car each time.

[Rob74]

Would be interested to resurrect this thread too as my 2015 Octavia Scout is leaking like a sieve. 

[BigJakk]

Hi Rob,

 

I'm a bit tied up at the moment, but will reply back in full later.

 

For now, I would suggest having a look at my other thread here:

 

 

My advice has changed re: lubrication of the mechanism. Don't need any fancy kryrox stuff, WD40 Specialist PTFE lubricant does the job at a fraction of the cost 

 

Hope that starts you off

[Rob74]

Hi BigJakk

Many thanks for getting back to me. I’ve read through all the posts now but to be honest even the most basic maintenance is beyond my capabilities. 

I was rather hoping to just leave it with my local independent but after a call to them, they said the only solution to permanently fix it is to replace the sunroof. For £2.5-3k. So I won’t be bothering them again.

I would like to find a VAG specialist in Hampshire as some knowledge of the issue would put my mind at ease. 

Thanks
Rob

[BigJakk]

Hi Rob,

 

In my case the leak was coming from the roof itself, rather than a maintainable issue like a blocked drain.

 

I took mine to a local independent VW specialist up here in the north east who described that there was a leak where the metal frame of the roof met the plastic housing it sits in.

 

They ended up removing the roof from the car, separating them and rebonded them all together using sealant.

 

I was without the car for a couple of days and paid about £500 for it (this was about two and a half years ago) - nearly all of which was labour cost.

 

Touch wood I've had no problem since although I service the roof every year now. I clear the nozzles at the front bulkhead, flush the drain tube with soapy warm water and then cleaning out the roof the rails/mechanism with compressed air and a soft brush before, lubricating them with WD40 PTFE lubricant. I then dress the rubber seals with gummipflege (also recommend this on the door seals as they will stick in the freezing cold otherwise).

 

Hope you get sorted as it's a real faff of a thing to sort, especially this time of year. I went vacced about two litres of water out of the passenger footwell and was lucky that it was the height of summer so managed to get it aired out and dried fairly easily. This time of year I would suggest wet vac, then get it into a garage and run a dehumidifier inside the car.

 

Best of luck.

[Rob74]

After watching a dozen YouTube tutorials I decided to take the plunge and have a stab at clearing the channels myself. With the help of my FIL I was able to remove the plastic covers under the windscreen and get access to the bottom end of the tube. Got a bicycle brake cable about 95% of the way through then hit a blockage. Reversed the process and eventually got it past the accumulated crud. We were then able to blow the rest through with an air gun. Finally, pouring a jug of water down the hole it now flows nicely. Repeated the process on the other side for good measure and all now looks good. It was actually very easy.

That’s about where the good news ends as when I went to close the sunroof, it would no longer shut. Went through another dozen YouTube vids, searched on here, but couldn’t get it to override. It has definitely been lacking in care and made some rather discontented noises and think I managed to break the controls in the process too, so the car is booked in at my local garage for a check up. But not till the 9th Jan! Fortunately I have a dry place to store it till then. 
 

So that’s it for the time being. Will keep you all posted with my dull ramblings when I have more.

 

Happy New Year to you all.

[BigJakk]

Good that you've got somewhere under cover to keep it - I didn't have that luxury when I was having all my fun and games and it made things a right chew on!

 

I would be cautious about feeding anything down the drain pipes, as you'll have seen all the drain tubes are connected to a knuckle which is a friction fit onto the roof tray.

 

I've seen a couple of horror stories where people have fed Bowden cables down and pulled the drain tube off the knuckle. Similarly using compressed air, read a guy who blew the tube off the knuckle and had to go to the faff of putting everything back together with sealant!

 

I've used plastic hedge strimmer line, doubled up into a loop with decent effect. It's got enough strength to break up the gunk but it's malleable enough it will just stop if it hits the drainage tubing. I prefer not to put anything down the drainage tubes though, I now tend to just pour some warm water mixed with mild detergent down there every few months.

 

it may be different in the superb, but on the Octavia the main thing is the rubber nipples on the bulkhead. They simply need squeezing and manipulating (ooo err) a few times and the crud that comes out of them is quite surprising.

 

By the sounds of it, It may well be that the roof mechanism itself is gummed up on yours.

 

When I first got mine it made quite a racket opening/closing the roof and it sounded like it was struggling - it simply hadn't been maintained at all and the car was about 6 years old when I bought it.

 

I blew the the rails and mechanism out  using compressed air, then clean them with a soft paint brush before running a shop vac around to try and pick up anything loose and a final wipe down with a microfibre cloth. I then give everything a coating of WD40 Specialist PTFE lubricant. After that the mechanism was running nice and smoothly and much quieter.

 

I do all the above annually now and touch wood everything runs nice and smooth. I could probably get away with doing it every couple of years to be honest but for the sake of an hour or so's work, it's worthwhile.

 

It may be worth you trying similar, see if yhr roof mechanism frees up at all with a bit of maintainace.

 

There's another test you can do at home, even with the roof not closing properly which will help to see if there is an with the actual integrity of the roof itself. Simply pour some water into the plastic overflow tray which surrounds the roof.

 

With your newly clear drainage tubes, this should drain away without issue. If however you get any water ingress Into the car then you might have a similar issue to me where the water is leaking from the plastic tray (in my case it was running across the roof liner and then down the outside of the drainage tubes).

 

As much as they're a nice thing on a summers day, I would never have another car with a sunroof of any sort ever again, it just isn't worth the faff and potential bother and expense.

[Rob74]

Well guess what? I have the exact same issue as you. Found a ‘local’ sunroof specialist in Surrey who was able to free up and close the sunroof pretty quickly. Thankfully no damage to the mechanism but I have managed to break the roof controls with my heavy handedness. He checked the channels and all were fine but also pointed out  exactly where it was leaking from. So it needs the re-bonding treatment that you describe. It’s so common he has a fixed price for it! It’s a little more than you paid two years ago (as expected) but I am happy to pay to get it done properly. 
 

I don’t know if I’m allowed to recommend him on here but if you are in the Southeast and have a similar issue, take a look at Surrey Sunroofs. Andy is incredibly knowledgeable and helpful which was the reassurance I needed when it came to booking in my car.

 
The only downside to this level of knowledge is that he is very busy so can’t get booked in till the end of Feb! I’m off to buy waterproof tape. If anyone has any suggestions for a product that is waterproof and won’t destroy lacquer/paint I would love to hear from you.

 

Thanks

Rob

[TOMWB]

Thanks for your input Rob. Will have a look at that Company if the main dealer fails at the 3rd attempt.

Best of luck with yours  

[Tauferin]

Hello everyone,

 

In these days I found out the same issue described from @BigJakkon my Octavia.

Initially I noticed water coming out at the bottom from the driver's side, near the bonnet opening lever. The next day a lot of water came out from the passenger side, still in the lower part under the bonnet. I disassembled the A pillars and checked the drainage pipes, cleaned them and the connections are ok. Seeing water still coming out of the top where BigJakk was showing I went to inspect the upper basins more closely and found that the outer basin where there are the two drainage holes is working properly and the water is not stagnating, while in the housing where the concertina fabric noise canceller is fitted it remains completely full of water.
The questions are twofold:
1. how does water get into that space?
2. there are no holes for it to drain and I think it seeps into the plastic slots and gets into the interior of the passenger compartment.

I will now try to see if I see any cracks in the plastic parts.
If anyone can help me I thank them.

[Rob74]

I’ve given up hope on my car ever being fully dry. The driver side footwell has sprung a leak now too. Feel free to take a look at the photos I’ve attached. Drainage channel on the drivers side of the pano roof seems fine so it may be a seal on the drivers door that’s iffy. I hope the VW group never build submarines. 

[Rob74]

A quick update. Andy from Surrey Sunroofs came out again to take a look. The pano roof is all fine and draining as it should. The issue is these green tubes. Over time they become brittle and shrink. The end of the tube is cut on an angle, seemingly to fit more easily into the joint at the dashboard end. This shrinkage has caused the top of the angled cut to become exposed and no longer be covered by the joint, and therefore was leaking. A quick demonstration proved this. Only the drivers side was leaking but both sides were repaired (pipes cut, new pipe attached), so hopefully all is now fixed. 
 

Incidentally, even though these pipes were still draining freely, and having run a brake cable through them (please don’t judge!) and compressed air, I’ve just cleaned this section to take the picture and it was still absolutely full of debris. 

 

I hope this may be of help to anyone who is despairing of their soggy Skoda.

 

[BigJakk]

Mine started showing signs of water ingress again (damp drivers footwell carpet) and chased it back up to the headliner again.

 

Interestingly the Mk3 VRS Buyers Guide on PistonHeads refers to the fact that not all panoramic roofs fitted to these cars turned out to actually be water proof -- they aren't wrong 😞

 

I'm afraid I don't have the energy to keep fighting with this issue every few years, so I resolved the issue permanently... by buying a different car with a tin top (the fairly lacklustre performance of the TDi VRS was also a contributing factor)

 

I appreciate that probably isn't helpful to anyone suffering with this but hope the earlier comments in this thread and my other one have helped others.

 

Sun roof - never again!

[EnterName]

11 hours ago, BigJakk said:

Mine started showing signs of water ingress again (damp drivers footwell carpet) and chased it back up to the headliner again.

 

Interestingly the Mk3 VRS Buyers Guide on PistonHeads refers to the fact that not all panoramic roofs fitted to these cars turned out to actually be water proof -- they aren't wrong 😞

 

I'm afraid I don't have the energy to keep fighting with this issue every few years, so I resolved the issue permanently... by buying a different car with a tin top (the fairly lacklustre performance of the TDi VRS was also a contributing factor)

 

I appreciate that probably isn't helpful to anyone suffering with this but hope the earlier comments in this thread and my other one have helped others.

 

Sun roof - never again!

Having read on Brisky the issues people were having with sunroof drain holes blocking, it put me right off them.

[TOMWB]

It was my original post.

Last January after several years of going back to the dealer and paying to have the 4 drain channels in the pillars cleared, - it still leaked !

I was told by Skoda that a replacement Frame would sort it at a cost of approx £1500 !

It hasn't - still leaks  !

Last time I will opt for a pan roof too !!