Hi guys,

 

Whenever it hammers down, I get a water leak on both sides of the rear footwell, slightly worse on the driver's side, and can't quite work out how to stop it. I've pulled the trim off and just drive around with the carpets slightly up and paper down there to avoid leaving with soaked underlay, and allegedly it's been discussed on here loads that the door cards leak, but I'll be buggered if I can find it, can anyone help?!

 

Whenever it's rained hard, the top edge of the bottom of the inner door seal is wet on top and there's water in the lip that folds over and I guess is meant to prevent ingress. Obviously, once that's breached, the water can go into the footwell and the carpets just underneath/behind it. Also, the bottom of the door card has a few drops on it generally when this happens, but wondering if that's a leak there or if capillary action caused by the door being shut is a possible cause? The holes in the bottom of the door don't appear to be blocked.

 

So, can door cards leak that easily and if so does this sound about right as to what happens? Without stripping it down and guessing, is there something that can perish in the door that's causing the leak and if so how hard is it to fix (I'm aware the inners are rivetted, annoyingly)? Had experience with VAG cars of them designing awful water protection for the doors so wouldn't surprise me. Hope you guys can help?

I believe the Octavia door seals are notoriously bad. Have you checked to see whether the drain holes are blocked? I cut extra holes in mine when I bought it after seeing numerous threads on here about it, I've never had the ingress problem and I hope with the extra holes I never will

Ooh, brave, hope you don't get any rust issues. 

Why would I get rust issues..?

29 minutes ago, slow_nick said:

Why would I get rust issues..?

 

Bare metal and water........... not good, but I cannot see it being a big enough issue to worry about in the bottom of the door.

@blackspaven I've put plastic plugs in to keep a hole between the bottom seal and the door metal.  Two pieces on each door.

 

This allows any water that would have got trapped (I had same issue as you) to run through these gaps in the seal rather than building up and running over into the car foot well.

I trapped the pieces of plastic between the door metal and the door card. Quite simple, just need to get them correct length so when the door is closed it pushes these pieces of plastic onto the inner seal creating the gap around it.

Same as nick............ no issues with water since I have done this.

Edited 25 October, 20205 yr by Tilt

I am confused 

@slow_nick If by my post, yes, it is a little difficult to explain. If the op doesn't get it I will try and post picture.

 

Or......... if you are on about the rust issue then I will assume you cut holes in your rubbers, and not the door bottom, as both me and the op presumed you meant.???? this would have the similar effect as what I have done. 

Yes I cut holes in the rubber seals not the door 😂

Its the seals behind the steel insert which is behind the plastic door card - I renewed all mine and had no further issues whilst I had the vehicle. Have a read at the attached thread.

 

Cheerrs

Paul

 

 

Lol, I understand what everyone's saying... now.

 

So in summation, SlowNick cut extra holes in the rubber door seals, NOT the doors themselves, which is what I thought it read hence the rust comment (thankfully, not the only one so I'm not that big an idiot!), and Tilt has effectively put wedges in between the bottom of the door card and where they meet on the rubber seals so that the water flows down those newly created areas instead of sitting up on the top of the inner seal and overflowing.

 

Correct so far??

 

Couple of questions then:

1. Where did you cut the holes SlowNick?

2. Do your plugs push the door away slightly and that's what leaves the gap for the water to run down and out, and if so does it create any noise from outside as that's partially what the seals are for?

3. It's only 3 or so screws, 5 minute job to get the door cards off... what's people's thoughts about just running a bead of sealant around the metal frame that's rivetted in underneath the card and hold all the working gubbins? If it was screwed instead of rivetted, I'd be tempted to undo and silicone it up so it squashes togther but wondering if I can do that and just put screws in where the rivets are at the moment?

 

Thoughts?

Edit: should have read that link FlyFisherman put on, but nice to think I'm along the right lines if that's what I wanted to do!!

Will probably do a sealant fix in time but in the meantime I'll try using some small oval two core jammed under the card, same type used with the old radio plug cord, quite small, cheers tilt. 

 

Can also see how punching a few holes right through the rubber would work too so it just drains straight out. Would the holes in the rubber not close/crimp when the door compresses it? 

19 hours ago, blackspaven said:

Will probably do a sealant fix in time but in the meantime I'll try using some small oval two core jammed under the card, same type used with the old radio plug cord, quite small, cheers tilt.  

 

Can also see how punching a few holes right through the rubber would work too so it just drains straight out. Would the holes in the rubber not close/crimp when the door compresses it?  I thought about doing this too but was worried about the *possibility of the seal ripping* so I went for my option using same as what you have used, oval twin core. *as my seals do sometimes freeze no matter what I have tried to prevent this*.

 

So long as you get the bits the correct length, just long enough to the bottom of the seal, they will only push against the seal, so no, will not affect the door at all.

Edited 26 October, 20205 yr by Tilt

Will see over the course of the week as the weather looks pants! Should be a good test.

On 26/10/2020 at 11:37, Tilt said:

 

So long as you get the bits the correct length, just long enough to the bottom of the seal, they will only push against the seal, so no, will not affect the door at all.

 

You lovely little sausage!

 

Not completely gonna say it's solved it as we've only had a couple of rainfalls, but one was pretty big and so far absolutely nothing has come into the cabin in the rea, so hopefully it'll stay that way and I don't have to fanny about changing the skins every time. Yes, not the most attractive IF you get down and look at the cable sticking out the bottom of the card, but on a 12 year old car I'm not going for any concourse events soon.

 

Fingers crossed but cheers fella.

Anyone actually got pics of these mods?

Wrong model!

Edited 11 August, 20241 yr by tdog