Water leak into footwell - dodgy seal info and DIY repair guide (Image links dead)

sahunt

Guest
Great stuff, thanks Andy. I'll call the parts desk first thing tomorrow.

-- Steve
 

danieltm

Bit of Jabba magic!
Aug 26, 2006
796
0
Norwich
Wow!! Thank you VERY much. That is a top post. Im a bit worried about doing work on my car myself but this dont look too bad, I will get on the job this weekend. Thanks again. Hope i get on ok??
 

Spud_1001

Guest
Things to think about

As everyone else in this forum has said this guide is amazing. I followed it to the letter and (findgers crossed) the leaks in ALL 4 DOORS will now never happen again (yey!) :funk:.

Things to think about:
What I did find when taking off the rear door trims was that the clips that keep the trim attached to the door break VERY easily. I managed to break a total of 8 out of the 16 that keep the rear door trims on (the front seemed fine)!
In trying to buy some replacements I spoke to nearly everyone at the stealership so I thought it wise to post the part number and cost for anyone else looking to buy some too.

3B0868243 - Door trim clips pack of 10 - £7.90

What also hasn't been mentioned is how you can tell for early signs of the leaks! I found in my Leon that water was gathering in the rear foot wells. This doesn't mean necessarily that the rear doors are causing the leak, LOTS of water was flowing from the front of the car to the back.
A good way to determine if there is water under the carpet (or soaking into the under lay) without seeing or feeling it is to repeatedly press the carpet down a centimeter or two in the rear footwells and listen for "squelching". It was only obvious on the passenger side of my car that there was a leak however it turned out that the drivers side was equally bad. A mouldy wet smell in the car and the water misting up the inside of the windscreen is a good indicater too.

I did the job myself over the last 3 weeks and I don't recommend it for those who can't let the car really dry out. It's taken so long because of random weather like snow! - but hopefully it'll be back to together this weekend and I won't have to rely on the girlfriends '97 Astra anyone!:clap:

My car is still in bits, if anyone would like me to post some pictures of anything that might be causing trouble before I put the car back together again (this weekend) then let me know.

Hope this helps someone.

Dave
 

mik100

Guest
thanks spud

going to have a good look at water leak this weekend what a pain
 

alex_morley

Guest
I bought my 99 Toledo a couple of weeks back and it was continuously misting up on the inside... yesterday I had a read of this guide so went and investigated. Sure enough; the rear footwell behind the driver's seat is soaking!

From what people are saying on here it could be either the driver's door or the rear door that the problem is with so would people recommend I get them all sealed up just to be safe? I'm trying to get the garage I bought the car from to do this but we'll see how much luck I have there! :rolleyes:

I've also found that when it's been really heavily raining and I open the driver's door some water is stored up on the sill and pours out onto the road. Am I to assume this means the door seal's gone as well? If so, anyone got an idea of how much they are etc?

Cheers,

Al
 

Spud_1001

Guest
Good luck!

In my experience this is one & the same thing ie dodgy door seals behind the door membrane :cry: I wouldn't assume the whole (external) door seal has failed necessarily. I had the same symptons with my car and having fixed it I still have a small amount of water build up on the sills but nothing major and certainly nothing that would lead me to believe that the external door seal is failing.

I would recommend checking and sealing all 4 doors since the problem will probably arise in the other doors given time :doh: You might want to check the passenger side for water too since I was unable to see anything on the drivers side of my car but there was still a lot of water there.

Since mine took 3 weeks I'd be interested in your progress. It's been 2 weeks since I sorted mine & everything is still bone dry but the pessimistic person in me is waiting for the flood gates to open again!

Best of luck
Dave
 

alex_morley

Guest
Well this morning I found that the driver's footwell is wet as well... :rolleyes:
Both of the footwells on the passenger side appear to be ok but the car is going in for some work at the garage i bought it from on Tuesday (central locking issues, another common thing with the Toledo I'm told!) so I've asked them ot look at it. Whether it will get done or not is yet to be seen but fingers crossed.
 

alex_morley

Guest
OK, a little update:

My car went into the garage I bought it from on Tuesday to have the following niggles sorted:

1. Leaking doors leading to wet footwells and poor windscreen clearing etc.
2. Remote central locking key not working.
3. Normal central locking only working from boot, not from doors.
4. Reverse light not working.

I just heard form them (they couldn't get round to it yesterday, too busy or some such rubbish) and this is the feedback so far:

1. They've fitted a drier into the car and will leave it running overnight tonight in order to get rid of all of the moisture before looking at the seals inside the doors and where the leaks are coming from.
They also said that when running a diagnostics check they found my pollen filter was blocked so are trying to source a new one... this would have hindered the windscreen clearing as well.
2. They can't seem to get the remote locking to work as the key isn't responding. Their auto-electrician is looking into this.
3. They did a complete system reset and now all the doors lock and unlock correctly - bizarre!
4. They've fixed this already so that's good.

Now I'm looking forward to them getting all of the sealing done tomorrow and hopefully i can have my car back!
 

Hooper

Guest
Someone has broken into my Leon and put a fish tank in the rear door!

Out driving on business on Thursday, for once with the tunes off and noticed a sloshing sound as I pulled up and pulled away. Have now traced this to a collection of water in the rear nearside door. Up until recently all the inner door seals allowed water to collect so that you get wet feet when you open the doors. Now have a distict mouldy smell and have to face up to taking door trims off and having a go at fixing yet another leaky Leon.

Hey! I wonder if Leon is Latin for the Leaky one?!!!

Have a new set of Brembo Discs and Pagid Fast Road pads so I feel a Mechanic day coming on, if only I could pay myself £45 +VAT per hour and rip myself off for the parts as well!
 

ironside

Active Member
Dec 8, 2006
62
0
water Water everywhere.....

Knew it would happen eventually,came back from hols and car has sprung a leak(or two!)
Great write ups on the door seals but -, and this may sound stupid,how do i get the front seats out to remove the carpets,bit concerned with elec seats and esp airbag wiring,are there any procedures to follow as i dont fancy a big hole in the side of my seats to add to the lovely musty smell!!;)

02 Toledo v5

Ta in advance

Dave
 

penchant76

Guest
Hi folks,

Apologies for appearing thick, or asking questions that have been answered before, but I'm also getting the soggy footwell symptoms on my Toledo V5 and just wanted to check a few things before I start pulling doors apart or lifting up carpets!

The front doors have always dribbled water over your feet when you open them ever since I got the car just over a year ago. At the time I just assumed it was normal and didnt think anything of it. More recently, it started misting up really badly inside, and today I came back to the car to find a small pond in the rear passenger footwell, and very wet carpet in the passenger front footwell.

I've take a look at what I'd call the 'lower outer' door seals, the long black rubber strips that run along the bottom edge of the two front doors, and on peeling back the one on the drivers side it released about a bucket full of water. The passenger side was apparently empty though, which puzzles me as thats the side where the carpets are wet. Since these seals clearly arent doing their job properly I've pulled them off to a) give them a good clean and b) let the remaining water trapped in the doors drain out.

Do I need to refit them? There is an inner seal thats built in to the car bodywork and runs the entire perimiter of the doors, so I assume that performs the moisture sealing function - why do we need the little strip at the bottom? All it appears to do is block the drainage holes in the bottom of the doors - the design seems to be such that unless the door is open the double fold in the seal actually closes up on itself and blocks the drainage holes anyway, that and any mud thats in there only seems to serve to block up the holes entirely even when you open the door.

Am I missing something fairly fundemental here? How are those bottom strips *supposed* to work? Are they just for noise reduction or something?

To carry out some other work, I have also had the passenger side door panel off and the membrane underneath *appeared* to be perfectly intact and well sealed to the door frame, so I dont think thats where water is getting through. I've also checked the pollen filter bay in the engine compartment, and thats as dry as a bone under there (I seem to recall reading that someone had found a leak through there too?).

Any thoughts / advice / comments on stuff I might be missing or misunderstanding at all? All feedback gratefully received!

Cheers!

Rich
 

ironside

Active Member
Dec 8, 2006
62
0
Hi Rich,

know what you mean with the seals blocking the drain holes,mine did the same,seems like they are meant to block the drain holes until you open the door?? then it lets the water out,this is why it quite often seems worse if the car has been stood as water builds up inside,i wouldnt remove them as the inner ones attached to the main bodys will not keep out water spray etc ,i know you have looked at the ancillaries carrier or inner door membrane but dont dismiss this as it is most likely to be the prob to check remove all the bolts exc those along the top-just loosen these ones and ease the panal away at the bottom,you will probably be suprised how much moisture there is as the seal is ABSORBENT-nice design feature!! Check Andy Techs article (one of the best) at the start of this thread

Regards

Dave
 

penchant76

Guest
Hi Dave,

Many thanks for that, I've had a more detailed read through Andy's impressive guide and I'll have a go at stripping the doors down this weekend, all being well! I need to get to the passenger window anyway as I think the clips may have broken on it. :p

Presumably the outer lip on the bottom door seal (the lower left 'leg' in Andys diagram) acts to stop dirt and water blowing back up the drain holes and into the door does it? Would it be a bad idea to punch some holes into that lip to line up with the drain holes in the door too? The lower right 'leg' as per Andys diagram would remain intact, and that seems to be the bit that seals the passenger compartment from spray.

Cheers,

Rich :)
 

Hooper

Guest
It seems there are two problems with Seat/VW door design here. Some of you complain about water collection behind the door skin and I agree the V-section outer door seal folds on itself and blocks the drain holes when the door is shut. This is poor design as the door should never be allowed to collect water - electrical problems and that old friend Iron oxide! However, my problem was not here, my water was between the door trim panel and the ancillary door skin. As I had to gently lever the door trim panel away from the door frame to allow water to gush out. It seems that when it rains the water runs down the glass on the outside and into the door, where it should pass straight through and out of the drain holes at the bottom. But somehow the water is running down the window runners or something and travelling across into the trim panel side. Again this should not happen, the seal on this is not really a seal but a damper to stop the trim rattling against the door. Some one suggested that the water was filling up the void behind the door skin and then overflowing into the auxillary skin and door trim, but I am not convinced as I never get that much water gush out of the bottom of the door when I open them.

Then perhaps the reason we are so fond of these Leaky Cupras is that they are just like old Fords!!!

I think the answer might be to weld all the doors shut and run a line of silicon round the door gap and all round the windows, then get in and out through the tail gate.