My Fabia recently overheated (some of you might recall a thread of mine asking for advice about that), and I had it looked over by a Skoda dealer; for those in the North East it's Silbury Skoda. They found a leaking water pump, which they replaced (and had me pay dearly for, of course).

Now there's still a leak. I brought the car back and they insist they cannot find anything. One of the managers even told me he drove the car for about 20 miles (and didn't think of refilling, by the way, but that's another story) and didn't notice any problem.

Nevertheless, the leak is still there. I'd like to figure out where it comes from, so I can maybe go to some other garage with some idea of the problem.

The leak is on the passenger's side, past the front wheel, under the lower part of the engine. I had a look at the liquid on the ground and it's not sticky or pink, so it should not be coolant (the coolant level is still the same anyway), and it doesn't smell of anything in particular. It could just be water.

The Silbury people offered me two suggestions: it could be condensating water from the air conditioner, or the liquid to clean the windshield.

The conditioner is off anyway, and I really can't understand how a non running conditioner can create so much condensation. Or can it? And if it is the windshield liquid, where can I check its level?

I also wonder if there is a chance it is just rainwater that is seeping through, but the leak is definitely under the car, not at the sides, and why should it concentrate in one spot?

Technical details: it's a Fabia from 2001, with a 1.4 MPI engine. It did about 46000 miles. It already had head gasket, coolant tank and pump replaced not long ago.

Anyway, any suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks!

Well the passenger side is where the windscreen washer reservoir is, try topping it up to a known level - ie right up to just below the filter gauze and see what happens - obviously using the washers will mess up this test! Rain water could also be collecting in the plenum area behind the firewall - I have not checked if that is possible - but leaves etc could clok up any drainage points - but there again has it been raining over this period and have you been washing the car? Finally, does your A/C not get forced on - ie out of ECON if the ambient temperature is very high - I think that my wife's Polo with climatronic does that (or she bumps the button)!

No, I didn't wash it, but it has been raining. I will try to top up the windscreen washer reservoir and see what happens and I'll also have a look for leaves clogging up. Where should I look?

Hi, I've just had a look at my wife's Polo 9N - it should be similar to your Fabia, and the windscreen washer bottle is a bit far forward to cause this liquid to appear behind the front wheel - I think - but it could still be a detached washer fluid pipe I suppose. The blockage behind the firewall = these cars do not have a secondary firewall so I'm wrong there, but there must be scope for a build-up of debris below the heater inlet grills - I could not see any obvious drain holes - but that does not mean they don't exist. Only thing I discovered was that a cable grommet had been displaced - probably when my cam belt was changed - I thought there was more engine noise now than there used to be - but just thought that I was looking for problems since I had some work done on the car. So in a stange way, thank you for causing me to discover that - thats just another small job that I need to attend to - maybe after I've done something about a paint bubble on the N/S/R wheel arch that has no broken or damaged paintwork to have caused rusting from the outside > in!!!

That's good for you, rum4mo. Happy that at least my little niggle can help someone else!

As for me, however, I am not an expert at all, and I don't know where to start. Where should I look for the windshield liquid pipe, and where is the inlet grill you mention? I really wouldn't know where to find them without an atlas :confused:

Do your washers work?

My bet is its air conditioning drain water, even with the a/c 'turned off' the compressor is still engaged and the system is still circulating so some condensation can be formed.

I had a slight leak from mine in this area, I found it to becoming from the bottom corner of the radiator where a sensor is located (fan switch??). Couple of turns with an adjustable to tighten and seems to be ok.

HTH

Edit - To check this area you have to loosen the undertray on that half and the bottom of the whee arch liner. Also pop out the cover where the foglight should be (mine is a bottom spec classic)and have a feel around prepare to loose skin on your knuckles .