I recently had cause to remove the spare wheel & to my horror found about 25mm of water. After removing everything, could not find any sign of a drain plug. I managed to bale out the water. So how did the water get in, checked all the seals etc around the boot lid, found nothing. Also I noticed thin wires in a fabric sheath, white one running from n/s to centre & a green one running from o/s to centre. Due to being soaked in water for some time a lot of the sheath had rotted away.

Any suggestions how the water could have got in? Also what these wires are for? I did think of cutting them & replacing the sheathing with.

Any photos of the wiring?

I know the early citigos has issues with the seal around the rear light clusters letting water through to the boot which pooled in the wheel well. Worth checking that.

Does the car have a sunroof?

Check the rear washer works, if not perhaps the rear washer feed pipe has fallen off. If not, do you use it regularly for decent length trips? My wife's Sirion suffers from water gathering in the spare tyre well every winter, due to condensation, caused I think by a lack of regular use & very short trips of 1 mile each way to the shops. In the summer it's bone dry.

In addition to the washer pipe and sunroof drains you might what to check these two things. I found water in the spare wheel well of my Touran and in the storaae compartments in the rear wing behind the rear lights.

Many VAG vehicles have vents behind the rear bumper quarters, (Golf, Touran, Karoq etc) these can let water into the boot area and it can collect in the spare wheel well. This photo is from my Touran . The VW forum suggested this could be the cause if the vent seals had gone - as it turned out this was not the cause.

After a lot of investigation by a bodyshop, which entailed removing all the interior trim in the boot area they found that the rear hatch rubber seal had been fitted wrongly. The join in the rubber seal was half way up on the left hand side of the opening, it should have been in the middle at the bottom. Difficult to indiciadentify but a simple fix, fitted correctly no further problems.

Additional information. / photos

The photos show the wiring where the sheath has rotted away. It appears to be a single bear conductor with anotherbear conductor cured round it.

Is it some form of sensor or aerial?

A second reply will show rain water running down sides of boot.

Photos show rain water running down sides of boot