Skoda Superb - water ingress

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Tue 10 Feb 2015 15:19
Skoda Superb - water ingress - concrete

I have a Skoda Superb 1.9Tdi 130 PD Elegance. The car is nearly 10 years old with 190K+ but goes like a dream, used daily and is still in very good condition. However recently I noticed the footwell behind and underneath the drivers seat is sodden wet. ( which accounts for the unusual condensation and icing inside the car recently) I have checked the drainage holes in door panels adjacent to the footwell and they seem to be clear. There is a floor mounted vent under the seat, presumably part of the heating/air con system, but looking under the car it all seems to be quite well sealed with no cuts or bits missing. The door seals are in good condition and no sign of water from that area. Any ideas please? Is something blocked or broken that I cannot see but can rectify?

Thank you, Concrete

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 10 Feb 2015 15:43
Skoda Superb - water ingress - Manatee

I think my instinct would be the same as yours, water in the doors. Notwithstanding that the drain holes appear clear, is it worth taking the door card(s) off and looking more closely?

If it isn't coming from the door, then is the area under the back seat dry?

Does it have a sun roof?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 10 Feb 2015 22:27
Skoda Superb - water ingress - Halmerend
Pollen filter ingress like the Passat?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 11 Feb 2015 09:00
Skoda Superb - water ingress - craig-pd130

The only things I can think are condensation in the heater tubing coming from the floor-mounted vent, or maybe some snow / ice that fell in when the rear door was opened, and melted.

I was surprised at how sodden the carpet under the mat in my footwell was recently ... a result of melted snow and water drips from my shoes.

I just blot up as much as possible with k****** roll, then put a portable fan heater in the footwell pointing at the wet area for 30 mins or so. Dries it out nicely.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 11 Feb 2015 10:16
Skoda Superb - water ingress - RobJP

I'd be inclined to agree with RobertT - a likely cause being the pollen filter housing area, drainage holes blocked.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 11 Feb 2015 11:29
Skoda Superb - water ingress - dieselnut

As the two Rob's above have said, it will be coming from the pollen filter seal or Plennum Chamber ( the area that the battery & brake servo sit ).

I'm assuming that the car is parked on an upward slope so the water is draining & accumulating in the back.

There are 2 drains, one under the battery & other under the servo. They get blocked & can stop water draining which, if it gets high enough, eventually finds its way into the passenger footwell, or drivers footwell via a cable/ bonnet release grommet hole. Check there is no water in there.

The pollen filter housing needs to be removed completely & all the crud that has accumulated behind & below it removed.

Under the housing is a slot for the seal, which if original, will have disintegrated as it was made of unsuitable foam rubber. VW will sell you a modified seal made of solid rubber that shouldn't disintegrate.

Once you've stopped the ingress of water you will need to tackle the clean-up operation.

It's best if you can remove the carpets for drying but not an easy job.

The convenience ECU lives under the passenger floor carpet & will be sitting in a pool of water. You can just about get to it all by removing the floor trims at the passenger door & left side kick pannel, then mopping up the area carefully.

But I have found after doing several that its best to remove the passenger seat, cut accross the carpet where the ventillation trunking exits so that the whole passenger carpet can be removed.

Under that is very thick foam which will be holding several pints of water.

Carefully check all the wiring to the CCU ECU, open it up & mop up any water that has got inside.

Probably best to disconnect one battery lead first & don't turn on the ignition until the seat is replaced & all airbag system connectors re-connected.

Edited by dieselnut on 11/02/2015 at 11:41

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 11 Feb 2015 16:22
Skoda Superb - water ingress - concrete

Thank you all for your sensible advice. I shall investigate further, including the door cards.

In the meantime I have blotted up loads with an old towel and left the doors open for a few hours with the recent sun shining in. The car had a major service, the VAG 40K one, last August, by a very good indie which included all the filters changed and I also asked him to check the drainage holes around the dash/bonnet area. I will check again to be certain.

Thanks again everyone. I will come back with a report next week.

Cheers Concrete

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 11 Feb 2015 17:31
Skoda Superb - water ingress - Eddy56

I had the above described issue with a PD130 passat estate. It was indeed a completely shot pollen filter housing seal and blocked drainage holes. It took me about two days to sort it out, I had to take the seats out and carpets up. The floor area under the carpets is not flat with various deep recesses which were full of water - lots and lots of water. I punched a hole in a draingage plug in the floor pan and litres of water ran down the road. I then squeezed as much water as I could from the sound proofing and then ran a heater fan for hours to get it dry enough to refit the carpet and seats. Running the aircon hot when driving for a few weeks after that did the rest. I only spotted the wet patches in the carpet after researching why the alarm kept going off and, if I recall, a window opening on its own, which was the result of an the CCM unit being submerged. I didn't bother with a new seal for the pollen filter housing, I cleaned the mating surfaces and used a big fat bead of silicon which lasted the life of the car. I believe the issue was present across VAG cars in the A4/Passat/Superb class and maybe others so it's a very likely candidate here. I'm afraid if this is your issue and you can feel wet on the carpets, then signficant amounts of water will remain under them unless you take steps to drain and dry it. Certainly in my case blotting and drying the surface would not have helped and continued immersion in water would have likely led to permanent damage to the submerged electrics.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 11 Feb 2015 19:26
Skoda Superb - water ingress - Manatee

The thing that strikes me here is that if the pollen filter is on the nearside, that's where I'd expect the water to be.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 11 Feb 2015 20:35
Skoda Superb - water ingress - Eddy56

this happened to me a long time ago, so my recollection isnt perfect. After a rummage online I found the link below which reminded me that there were three problems for this issue - pollen filter housing seal, clogged battery housing drain holes and ECU housing seal. I remember my battery holes being clogged and re-seating the pollen filter housing on silicon, I can't recall whether I did the same with the ECU housing. I think with water getting into the pollen filter it was then coming out of the aircon ducting under the seats. If I recall I had water on both sides. The thread linked below seems to suggest ideas on which issue might present on which side.I believe A4/passat/superb from that era were all built on the same platform so possible the issue was present across them all - I recall reading that to be the case.

www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?92293-P...s

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

10 warranty myths exposed

Here’s how to sort the fact from the fiction when it comes to car warranties.

Cheap Car Warranties

A guide to how much VED you will need to pay on your car.

Road Tax Bands and Rates