Seat leon water leaks

[Cat123]

Hi
My son has a 2002 leon and water appears to be leaking into the car, I think it is coming in from underneath the door panel, water runs down the window seal and then into the door. I have checked the underside of the door and there does not appear to be any holes from the water to drain out of, therefore I think the door is filling up and the water leaking out under the door membrane/panel. I this correct? I would have expected there to be some drain holes in the bottom of the door. I sthis a common problem?

[cuprabob]

Water ingress is very common on the MK1 Leon. The main causes are;

1. Pollen Filter housing in scuttle plate lstting water in.
2. Door seals
3. Sunroof drain holes blocked

[shtu]

Very common problem. Take the door card off, remove the inner panel, replace seal tape, refit.

Alternatively, loosen inner panel, run a bead of this, http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-roof-gutter-... , around the inner panel where the tape is, and refit.

(Don't use silicone, you'll never get the inner panel off again.)

The door will have drain holes, make sure they are clear.

[Cat123]

Hi Thanks for the quick response, definately coming in through the doors, however I cannot locate the drain holes in the bottom of the doors. Thanks I will get to work on the doors now

[Who me ?]

Don't know about Seat, but door cards favourite on Skoda. If rivited they use silicone sealer .

[Noodleberry]

I had the same problem with my 2003 Leon last year - I tried some silicone sealant as suggested somewhere on the web, but that only resulted in even more water getting in. I then tried this Extra Thick Weatherstrip from Screwfix and it hasn't leaked since. I would definitely recommend it if you have a Screwfix locally. I only did the bottom half of the door too, so the pack should contain enough to sort all four doors.

[bigburd]

Door cards!

[Cat123]

Thanks for all of your responses, has anyone had the issue where there are no drian holes in the doors? Unless of course I am missing then and cannot see where they are ???

[curlyks2]

Cat123 said:

Thanks for all of your responses, has anyone had the issue where there are no drian holes in the doors? Unless of course I am missing then and cannot see where they are ???

The drain holes are in the very bottom of the doors, and can be obscured by the rubber flaps/seals which run around the bottom of the door. You may have to hunt away underneath the seals. Some people have apparently cut little holes in the those rubber seals so that water can drain down and out.

The door card seals is very common. Had it on mine (2002 Leon). The doors takes about an hour each once you get the hang of it even if you take the entire door cards off rather than sealing round as others have suggested (and it's a very good opportunity to replace any window wind mechanism bits if anything is awry in those). I used Terostat VII to reseal round the door cards and haven't had a leak since (I had some left over from doing the rear light seals on a different car). If you break a couple of the clips that hold the inner door panel on then don't worry, they were about 60p each even from a main dealer.

There's a cracking guide with pictures to it all over at http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?1015107/... (ok, it's really about replacing parts of the window wind mechanism, but...), and the seal you are going to be interested in is the one pointed out in Part IV, points 6 and 7. Yes the guide was written for a Jetta, but for this there's no real difference between that and a Leon.

[thanetspeedshop]

Sorry to dredge this topic up again, but I've just acquired a Leon Cupra and it's like a swimming pool in there. After taking up the carpet in the rear footwells, wringing out the sound deadening and literally mopping the floorpan dry, I want to stop it filling up again next time it rains.
I've read all the above and also the pages and pages written on el internet about leaky Leons and I'm still not sure that I really understand. Is rain water somehow channeled into the auxiliary panel seal? I can't believe that the accepted solution is to repair the seal thus trapping 1/2 gallon of water in the door bottoms - that can't be right can it? Or am I being obtuse?
As far as I am aware, Seat did not invent opening windows on the Leon. No other car leaks rainwater past the window seals so much that the doors fill up... (although I did have an old Talbot Samba which did just that and you could hardly open and close the doors they were so heavy).
I guess what I'm asking is whether the aux panel seal is really nthe answer to the water ingress problem or should I be looking at the window sealsm instead?

[shtu]

thanetspeedshop said:

I guess what I'm asking is whether the aux panel seal is really nthe answer to the water ingress problem or should I be looking at the window sealsm instead?

It is the answer.

All car doors leak to some extent, just that the normal solution is for the water to be routed out through the drain holes. Sealing the door panels makes the water go the way it should.

I'll bet that the panels have been off previously, the seal damaged and not replaced.

(It's not the only common leak point, so check the sunroof drains and the pollen filter too.)