Good morning all,

 

Hope everyone had a great Christmas 😊

 

For the last 2 months due to working from home and a new born baby (so mostly using the Yeti) I haven’t been using my Fabia VRS which has basically been stood still for quite a while!

 

Yesterday I went to start the car and noticed a lot of condensation on the front and rear windows and also mould everywhere! There is also wet carpet on the driver footwell and also rear passenger (oddly front passenger and rear driver side are fine).

 

I have read about the rear doors needing sealing however this was sorted by the previous owner maybe 3 years ago (do they need sealing more regular than this?) - also the bottom of the door cards were bone dry along with the rest of the door. The pollen filter does need changing but was also bone dry. I had also left the blower on max however last night I changed this to off and pointing at the foot wells but this morning is still condensation.

 

There is slight water on the sill of the driver door (pictured below) and a bit of water on the inside of the rubber strip which maybe the issue? However I had this last winter with no condensation/mould issues as doesn’t seem to drip over in to the actual car. Does anyone have any other ideas on what this could be or could this be from not driving it properly for 2 months?
 

I noticed on the two strips on the external roof there are gaps where it looks like a roof rack once was. Should there be some caps on this or are all Fabias like this? (Pictures below). I thought maybe this was leaking through here and down the pillar where the front seat belts are situated.

 

Thanks in advance for the suggestions

 

 

Also this is the rear passenger footwell  😳😳😳

Water sitting on the seals at the bottom of the door is a sign that the metal internal door cards need sealing, possibly once more if not done properly last time. It would be worth getting the interior decorative door cards off for a poke around at the bottom of the door card seal. on my car, the rear door seals had gone mushy and were soaking. My car has the annoying rivets holding the metal door cards to the door frames so I could not get them off, however 15 mins of poking around pulled out the mushy seal. I let it dry out then resealed with a product from Screwfix called the Dogs Bo*****s. It is quite expensive but is sealed it perfectly and so no more standing water on the rear seals which then overflow onto the carpets. I have noticed that if I park the car at an angle leaning over slightly, I get water sitting on the front door seal of the higher side, so in due course, I will tackle the front doors. My son uses a moisture absorption product as shown below. I am going to get one as well to prevent our TT misting up in the winter. It will hold 800ml of water before needing to be dried out and then reused.

Careful using a mould killer with bleach in as it may discolour the carpets etc. Those roof slots probably just had clip on covers and so would not be watertight. I may be wrong but I would not think water is getting in here. My car is an estate with roof rails so nothing to compare. Normally these plastic strips just cover up the channel where the side of the car is welded to the roof.

 

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-accessories/interior-car-accessories/air-dry-classic---car-dehumidifier-170096.html

The cover caps for the roof trim are part number 6Y6 853 140 D (hatchback). However, it can't leak into the car through there.

Edited 29 December, 20205 yr by TMB

3 hours ago, prt57 said:

Water sitting on the seals at the bottom of the door is a sign that the metal internal door cards need sealing, possibly once more if not done properly last time. It would be worth getting the interior decorative door cards off for a poke around at the bottom of the door card seal. on my car, the rear door seals had gone mushy and were soaking. My car has the annoying rivets holding the metal door cards to the door frames so I could not get them off, however 15 mins of poking around pulled out the mushy seal. I let it dry out then resealed with a product from Screwfix called the Dogs Bo*****s. It is quite expensive but is sealed it perfectly and so no more standing water on the rear seals which then overflow onto the carpets. I have noticed that if I park the car at an angle leaning over slightly, I get water sitting on the front door seal of the higher side, so in due course, I will tackle the front doors. My son uses a moisture absorption product as shown below. I am going to get one as well to prevent our TT misting up in the winter. It will hold 800ml of water before needing to be dried out and then reused.

Careful using a mould killer with bleach in as it may discolour the carpets etc. Those roof slots probably just had clip on covers and so would not be watertight. I may be wrong but I would not think water is getting in here. My car is an estate with roof rails so nothing to compare. Normally these plastic strips just cover up the channel where the side of the car is welded to the roof.

 

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-accessories/interior-car-accessories/air-dry-classic---car-dehumidifier-170096.html

Thanks for the info! I will have a look at doing the fronts 😊

1 minute ago, TMB said:

The cover caps for the roof trim are part number 6Y6 853 140 D (hatchback). However, it can't leak into the car through there.

Ahhh I was really hoping this would be the issue and an easy fix!

 

Does this mould look too excessive for just being ‘stood still’ for 2 months? I have googled mould from car stood up and there did seem a few results of bad mould but think that’s very positive thinking! 

1 minute ago, Jamesmaher63 said:

Does this mould look too excessive for just being ‘stood still’ for 2 months?

 

Yeah, it's very wet in there.

It's worth checking if the bulkhead drains are blocked as it's quite a common thing. If you remove the front plastic arch liners you can access the drain holes under the wheel arch.....

 

Edited 29 December, 20205 yr by TMB

17 hours ago, Jamesmaher63 said:

Also this is the rear passenger footwell  😳😳😳

Weirdly, when my fabia was sat outside for a year, the seats,belts,headliner and steering wheel were coated in mould but the carpet atleast looked to be bone dry. My car leaks from everywhere though even on the top part of the windshield. You may want to take the interior apart to fully get rid of the mould. It'll soak into the padding under the carpet and will lie in the ducts of the climate control system. On the other pic, there should be a drain on the bottom of the door, most likely just draining onto the sill from there. Car plan upholstery shampoo and Car plan Powerful odour eliminator are both decent products for the price and I've used them with good success, you can get them in Asda for cheap.

On 29/12/2020 at 15:36, TMB said:

The cover caps for the roof trim are part number 6Y6 853 140 D (hatchback). However, it can't leak into the car through there.

Is that part number correct TMB as im after a set of these as someone nicked mine lol but its not finding that part number.

6 hours ago, Stewartasb said:

Is that part number correct TMB as im after a set of these as someone nicked mine lol but its not finding that part number.

 

https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/6y6853140gru-roof-trim-cover-oe-5689.html

 

Item 2...

 

https://skoda.7zap.com/en/cz/fabia/fab/2001-225/8/853-853000/

Edited 7 January, 20215 yr by TMB

Ahhhh cheers mate thats great to know i can get these thanks 👍

Hi, I know TMB has given you info on the roof rack trim caps but I carefully removed the whole roof trims from a scrap car as it had the four bungs in good condition, two on my Fabia are pushed in and bust.

The trim was quite a tight fit as you would expect, held on by rubbers on the trim its self , it bends very easily though as well ,if that's any use.

Martin

 

 

On 29/12/2020 at 12:25, prt57 said:

My son uses a moisture absorption product as shown below. I am going to get one as well to prevent our TT misting up in the winter. It will hold 800ml of water before needing to be dried out and then reused.

 

 

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-accessories/interior-car-accessories/air-dry-classic---car-dehumidifier-170096.html

 

Mine is always getting misted up despite no evident leaks, so thanks for the heads-up about the moisture absorber, I nipped down to Halfords and bought two so I can have one in the car and one to use when the other is being dried out. It made an immediate difference to codensation on the windscreen. I leave it on the dashboard above the instrument panel until I need to drive. Quite surprised at how well it works. I have some electronic kitchen scales I can weigh them on to see when they need drying out.