According to the dealer I have a water ingress problem via the pollen filter. It has only caused a minor electrical problem so far, however, is this the start of bad times? My main question though is this, if the car has been fully serviced by Skoda main dealers (which it has), would the correct servicing have eradicated this problem? ie, do I have a leg to stand on with regard to whether this would have been avoided if the servicing had been done correctly, and does this leak mean that the dealer has dropped the ball with regards to servicing (shortcuts). Is this linked to the plenum drain as I have a piece of paper to say that mine were cleaned out by the dealer a couple of months ago and this has been a problem since that time (ish).

All help greatly appreciated.. and the sooner the better if poss.

Thanks all

Sam.

there's a thread on here somewhere explaining how to do the repair ones self....worth looking and keep well away from the dealers

The B5.5 has a major design flaw in this area and most of them will leak sooner or later.

VAG have somewhat belatedly included "check plenum drains" on the Superb schedule, but the problem is multi-faceted and needs careful attention in a number of areas to prevent this from happening (see links).

The average VAG dealer has neither the knowledge nor the incentive to do this - do it yourself or find a knowledgeable independent.

rotodiesel.

So, just to confirm that I understand you, the plenum drains are only one of the ways that this problem can occur? The dealer is currently checking to see if Skoda UK will foot the bill as it is only just out of warranty and the new fault is linked to an old fault that was done under warranty. Am I not in a position to say that it was their error in servicing that allowed this to happen or are there too many alternative causes for that to work?

Cheers

Sam

Read the links.

If the plenum drains are blocked you will definitely have problems. If the drains are free but the pollen filter seals rotted you may have a problem. You also may have a problem with other leakage points in the plenum area - ecu box seal and bonnet release cable seal for example. This last one usually fails when some "expert" tries to pull the front of the car to change the cambelt without splitting the cable at the join provided for that purpose.

Other problems are a damaged or badly fitted plastic shield below the windscreen, damaged, badly fitted or missing drain "gulley" above the pollen filter or general crud around the filter housing stopping the thing from draining properly. The channels are shallow and the gradients insufficient.

I am not convinced that this design ever drains properly if the vehicle is parked facing uphill - I never do this when its raining. Don't park under trees either if they drop bits which can get into this area.

A **** up - thanks, VAG.

rotodiesel.

What links ?

:: .:: WeirdLittleBiscuit dot Com ::. .:: Fixing Passat Leak ::. ::

Read this, then use the Forum search.

rotodiesel.

:: .:: WeirdLittleBiscuit dot Com ::. .:: Fixing Passat Leak ::. ::

Read this, then use the Forum search.

rotodiesel.

no doubt on behalf of many others, thanks for that link Roto.

Now, the Haynes manual isn't THAT clear, so if only there was a similar walk-thru guide in noddy language for those pins in the front suspension...

Hey Roto, how are you with a digi camera...?

From my experience, if you have water in the passenger side foot wells, this will have like come from water flowing into the heater inlet. Mine was caused by a build up of debris around the plastic moulding of the fastening bolt nearest the front of the car, effectively creating a dam for water to flow over and into the air intake under the pollen filter.

However I also had significant quantities of water (more so) in the driver side foot wells. In this case I removed the sludge from the plenum chamber drains. After drying out the interior, it has been 100% dry ever since. My car was bought second hand and clearly had not been looked at with regards to keeping the above areas free from crud!

Sam - how did you get on with your problem and Skoda footing the bill?