Hi all,

 

I have a newish (April 2016) Yeti 1.4 L&K and it has recently developed some kind of water leak, while we were away on holiday with it. 2 weeks ago I noticed that some water had pooled on the rubber mat in the driver's footwell, and the carpet underneath was also wet. The water appeared to be running down from under the dashboard, to the right of the steering wheel. The electric cabling under the dash was all wet.

 

The next day it happened again. Then a couple of days after that, the same happened, but the water collected on the passenger side instead, coming down from under the glove box.

 

Checking again yesterday, the rubber mats are dry but the carpets underneath in both the front and back footwells are all damp, and a musty smell is starting to develop. I have now taken out all the rubber mats in an effort to dry out the carpets.

 

The weather during this time has been particularly wet at times, so of course rain ingress is a possibility. However, I also regularly jet wash the car so I wondered about this as well. Having done an internet search, it looks like the panoramic sunroof drains were a problem on the earlier cars, but seeing as mine is only a few months old I would have expected that to have been resolved. There was no chemical smell, so I don't suspect the washer system at this stage.

 

I will get it booked in at the dealers but does anyone have any ideas what it might be ? Also are Skoda likely to replace the carpets under warranty if they smell bad ?

 

Many thanks

 

 

 

Sounds like a leaking Sunroof, twisted pipe during the manufacture?

Tony

Jet washers can push aside rubber seals and even mastic if not used carefully.

I don't suppose you used it under the bonnet though did you. Could be a job

for the dealer.

The good news is it's been observed on top of the rubber mat so it's not ingress behind the sound deadening / carpet.

Most likely sunroof drains. Mine (pre FL) been done twice under warranty

Not from the air con?.

I have a 2016 L&K with a sunroof.

From comments here and elsewhere, sun roof drainage can compromised by twisted tubes or strangulation by cable tie.

 

However, these problems do not appear universal.

 

Is there a simple way of checking the stable door before the horse bolts, as it were?

(prevention being better than cure)

Thanks all.

Ryeman- I did wonder about the aircon. Not sure how to check it though. I couldn't see anything obviously out of place.

I will update when I have a fix from the dealer so that hopefully others may learn from this.

Thanks

Thanks all.

Ryeman- I did wonder about the aircon. Not sure how to check it though. I couldn't see anything obviously out of place.

I will update when I have a fix from the dealer so that hopefully others may learn from this.

Thanks

The proof will be if it's draining onto the garage floor when you park it on a steamy day particularly.

If it is, it's not that .

I just thought I would update on this thread.

Problem seems to be resolved now. Basically the tubes that allow water to drain from the sunroof were bent back on themselves on both sides of the vehicle; rain water was unable to escape so it came into the cabin instead. It looks like a serious factory quality issue.

The dealer removed the entire dashboard in order to replace the tubes. Also I had replacement carpet, underlay and curtain airbags. All in all, it was in the garage for nearly 3 weeks while they waited for parts.

I am very glad that it was done under warranty as it would have cost £££. To be fair, Skoda didn't bat an eyelid at the list of replacement parts, and the dealer did a good job of putting everything back together. The car is rattle free and back to normal.

That's a serious assembly failure in that case.

I have a 2016 L&K with a sunroof.

From comments here and elsewhere, sun roof drainage can compromised by twisted tubes or strangulation by cable tie.

 

However, these problems do not appear universal.

 

Is there a simple way of checking the stable door before the horse bolts, as it were?

(prevention being better than cure)

I too would rather like to check mine - I guess open the sun roof and pour water down the drain to see if it exits somewhere outside the car? If it doesn't, where does it enter the car?

I too would rather like to check mine - I guess open the sun roof and pour water down the drain to see if it exits somewhere outside the car? If it doesn't, where does it enter the car?

Yes, worth a go. The water comes in behind the dashboard into the foot wells, and it also came out of the plastic surround where the seat belts are attached to the B pillar.

It's not so much the 'problem' but more 'how satisfactorily it's resolved'. Applies in all walks of life, glad your dealer and Skoda UK on top form.

The drain path for the sunroof drain tubes is from the front corners of the sunroof area, across to the top of the A pillar, down the A pillar, and connected onto a rubber grommet which is fixed in the door pillar between the top & bottom hinges. Open the doors and poor a bottle of water into the open sunroof area at the front, and observe the door hinge areas for water exiting. You'll see the black rubber grommet and there should be a stream of water coming from it if all is well. If it doesn't discharge there, then it will be filling the tube and ponding in the sunroof. If it does that then it overflows and finds any old way into the car.

I had the very same issue with my 2012 Yeti which has a pano sunroof.  I found the front passenger footwell completely soaked one morning.  I tested the sunroof drains and they both flowed the water nicely to the outlets in the doorframes.  After pulling out the seat and lifting the carpet and sound deadening material, lining the whole area with tissue paper, I found that the ingress was coming from behind the dash (where your toes would be when sitting in the car).  Took several days to dry everything out to prevent staleness and damp smells. 

 

But no end of hosing down the car would get the leak to reoccur.  I was reluctant to put everything back in place as I hadn't found the cause and location of the leak so I dropped the car into the local dealer to see if they could locate it.  At first they had no luck getting the leak to reoccur until I gave them the tip of raising the rear of the car and then getting out the hose.  Once they did this the leak reappeared.  The front of the sunroof frame (black plastic section where the bug catcher/wind diffuser sits) had hairline cracks in it and when the water built up in the front of the frame it leaked through the frame onto the car interior.  The roof liner is fully waterproof due to fire retardant materials etc. so the leaked water flowed down the A-pillars and came out at the upper part of the footwells.

 

The reason for my tip to the dealer was that my driveway in front of the house is quite steep and I usually reverse in so the car is parked nose down.  With enough rainfall the drains couldn't cope and the water made its way into the interior of the car through the hairline cracks.  The local dealer sent a goodwill request to Skoda in the Czech Republic to have the frame replaced (apparently it's a major job, even harder post assembly) but they replied back with a solid 'no'.

 

I realise the car is out of warranty, but I think basic waterproofness in a four year old car is not an unreasonable expectation.  Hats off to my local dealer for all the work they did for me, but I'm not at all impressed with how Skoda have responded.  Before this I would have considered myself a definite repeat customer (I love the Yeti in all other respects) but when the next car purchase is being considered this issue will most likely steer me away to another brand.  

Looking at all the posts above it seems we have the same problem with our 2012 Yeti. Never had an issue with it before but just this week have noticed the driver's carpet area is soaking wet! Not looking forward to finding out the cause and cost to repair....

There is a thread about a DIY fix for a leaking pano roof in the technical section of this forum:

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/294146-leaking-panoramic-sunroof-have-a-look-here/

I too had a problem - lot of moisture in driver's side foot wells, front and back - and had the panoramic roof.   Lots of condensation, and even ice one day, on inside of windscreen.    Our local dealer had it in for two days, found a twisted drainage tube (production fault?).   They ordered a replacement part and had it in again for 4 days to replace the part and dry the carpets out.    Seems the problem has been resolved I'm glad to say.   Meant to add we got our Yeti in October 2016.

Edited 5 February, 20179 yr by skodamikey

I bought my 2013 Yeti in 2015. The owners manual had evidence of water damages but the dealer didn't know anything about that. A couple of months later my drivers side floor was soaking. I tried to get it repaired under the warranty but no luck there. They swapped the drain tubes at a cost of 500 euro and all was fine until the end of 2017.  Now the problem is worse than before and I have both the drivers and passengers sides soaking.  

I think this is subject to a class action lawsuit. Its proven that they know about the issue and still it's around after all these years. 

be fair skoda have been consistant with this problem from beginning to end of production over 9 years,i must have been lucky as i never had the problem.....but was it because the car was always garaged and i never went out in the rain?

The Yeti is the wife's car and she hates  lending it to me as she reckons that  I drive her baby like I drive my Octavia  VRS. Anyway I managed to prise the keys  out of her clenched fist and off I went. After a few miles I was puzzled that despite the demisters going full bore the screen was not properly clearing. Investigation over I found enough water in the front and rear offside footwells to float a boat. Wife totally oblivious to all of this despite it being her daily drive. Looked on site to see reports of hose leaks from sun roof. Get in touch with dealer who tell me that the warranty runs out in 2 days and they can't book the car in for 2 weeks. Starting to panic now. 2 visits later and the acoustic floor lining changed following a call to Skoda customer care and the water is still getting in. 3rd visit, the dealer has found that the roof frame has cracked and this is where the water was coming in. They replaced the frame (apparently £1200 if not done under warranty). Problem solved. The dealer (Station Garage Broadbridge Heath) have been great throughout and say that they have never seen this before and cannot explain what may have caused it.

Interesting to see that this is not a one off problem. The dealer tells me that the car has additional stiffening built in to take account of the sun roof. However whilst I have not been off roading in  the car I cannot help wondering if the stiffening is adequate.

On 17/08/2016 at 13:57, Hatcho said:

I had the very same issue with my 2012 Yeti which has a pano sunroof.  I found the front passenger footwell completely soaked one morning.  I tested the sunroof drains and they both flowed the water nicely to the outlets in the doorframes.  After pulling out the seat and lifting the carpet and sound deadening material, lining the whole area with tissue paper, I found that the ingress was coming from behind the dash (where your toes would be when sitting in the car).  Took several days to dry everything out to prevent staleness and damp smells. 

 

But no end of hosing down the car would get the leak to reoccur.  I was reluctant to put everything back in place as I hadn't found the cause and location of the leak so I dropped the car into the local dealer to see if they could locate it.  At first they had no luck getting the leak to reoccur until I gave them the tip of raising the rear of the car and then getting out the hose.  Once they did this the leak reappeared.  The front of the sunroof frame (black plastic section where the bug catcher/wind diffuser sits) had hairline cracks in it and when the water built up in the front of the frame it leaked through the frame onto the car interior.  The roof liner is fully waterproof due to fire retardant materials etc. so the leaked water flowed down the A-pillars and came out at the upper part of the footwells.

 

The reason for my tip to the dealer was that my driveway in front of the house is quite steep and I usually reverse in so the car is parked nose down.  With enough rainfall the drains couldn't cope and the water made its way into the interior of the car through the hairline cracks.  The local dealer sent a goodwill request to Skoda in the Czech Republic to have the frame replaced (apparently it's a major job, even harder post assembly) but they replied back with a solid 'no'.

 

I realise the car is out of warranty, but I think basic waterproofness in a four year old car is not an unreasonable expectation.  Hats off to my local dealer for all the work they did for me, but I'm not at all impressed with how Skoda have responded.  Before this I would have considered myself a definite repeat customer (I love the Yeti in all other respects) but when the next car purchase is being considered this issue will most likely steer me away to another brand.  

 

I had exactly the same happen to mine.  Steep drive, parked pointing down and water on top of drivers mat.  Water exiting correctly via rubber grommets.  Skoda replaced the entire sunroof cassette due to a crack. I was told that some have this weekness. Luckily mine was a few weeks inside warranty.

Edited 31 May, 20188 yr by PaveyArk

On ‎29‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 13:40, reekygiant said:

I bought my 2013 Yeti in 2015. The owners manual had evidence of water damages but the dealer didn't know anything about that. A couple of months later my drivers side floor was soaking. I tried to get it repaired under the warranty but no luck there. They swapped the drain tubes at a cost of 500 euro and all was fine until the end of 2017.  Now the problem is worse than before and I have both the drivers and passengers sides soaking.  

I think this is subject to a class action lawsuit. Its proven that they know about the issue and still it's around after all these years. 

Do you have the car parked at a steep angle?  If I park on the flat (or even pointed up into the driveway) I don't suffer from the ingress issue.  I'm miffed that Skoda refused to do the repair to the sunroof frame - now I have to check the weather forecasts to see which way I should park my car .  Another thing I did was lay down a layer of plastic under the soundproofing material - that way if the issue did re-occur, the damp would be confined to under the plastic and it would save me the considerable hassle of drying out the carpet and soundproofing layer.

Thanks for the tip Hatcho. Yes, I am parked facing down a slope. However, I have tried once to park the other way to no avail. Will do another test though.

I have yet to tear out the lining and have a closer look at the drains, but I have done a water bottle drain test. The water flushed through seemingly unhindered to the evacuation point. I'm worried that I might break fasteners while removing the inner roof. Any tips?

Before I go ahead and rip anything out, I will probably do two tests: 1- duct tape the sunroof as a temporary measure to see if its there the water enter 2- duct tape the bottom part of the windshield