Gizmo68 - Viewing Profile - The Skoda Forum and Community

Do you own a MKI Superb (or Passat B5 /B5.5) and have lost some of your interior lights (or puddle lights in the mirrors)?
If so then this is probably down to the 'water ingress' problems that most if not all VAG's seem to suffer with.

EVEN IF YOURS IS NOT LEAKING YET - IT WILL! SO PREVENTING IT WILL BE A LOT EASIER THAN CURING IT!!!

Most of VAG's dealers have denied any knowledge of there being a problem, this letter proves otherwise!

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee77/dmcessential/DSC00542.jpghttp://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee77/dmcessential/DSC00544.jpg




However if your car is out of warranty (as most will be) you may have problems with them repairing it unless you pay them, so below is a guide on how i prevented this on my car (RHD UK spec car):


Here is a walk through for Fixing Passat Leak, this will explain how to remove or clean the plenum chamber grommets, once they have been removed the next step is to reseal the pollen filter housing.

First check that the drip channel (the plastic trunking that bridges over the pollen filter) has not broken or has been dislodged, as if it has then water will just pour straight through the pollen filter itself.
If at any time the trunking is removed then you need to make sure that is 100% refitted properly (this is probably the hardest, yet most important bit to do correctly IMO as it's a very tight fit) personally before removing the channel i would warm it up gently with a heat gun / hair dryer as i imaging it will be quite brittle this time of year.

This is how the drain sits onto the filter housing, the guttering needs to be removed from the housing before either piece can be lifted out of the car (note the 3 fixing points - one small hole in the middle of the housing and the 2 slots on the R/H side on the outside)
http://i47.tinypic.com/11reyas.jpg

This is the left side gutter fixing:
http://i45.tinypic.com/28jb8sm.jpg

Once the housing is removed it gives you room to remove all the gunk that will have accumulated near the inner wing (i applied a bit of polish to that area to help the water flow down)

Remove the OUTER foam seal (will probably be wet and in poor condition, then replace with the improved seal that VW have introduced , or as i did with a good thick bead of sealant(this cant be seen when fitted)
http://i46.tinypic.com/30w8oxe.jpg

Then it's 'just' as case of refitting it back together, one bit of advice is to put the rearmost nut on the R/H side back on a turn before slotting the housing into place as it is difficult to get on later.

Next step is the CCM, to get access to this you need to remove the passenger seat
(Slide the seat forward and remove the two small round caps in the seat runner trims behind the seat, under these caps are a couple of small torx screws, remove them and lift the trims out, then slide the seat back again and remove the two 13mm nuts in the middle of the seat at the front, push the seat back out of the bracket and hinge the front up gently and undo all the plugs going to the seat, then lift the seat out.
(unless you have access to VCDS don't connect the battery up before you have done this otherwise you will get an airbag light on, this creates a problem though as it's difficult to know when you have repaired the correct wires with no battery connected!).
Then lift the carpet and remove all the water and dry it out, the CCM is located under the seat, disconnect and dry out the CCM thoroughly, then check that none of the wires are starting to corrode, if they are then the bad bits need cutting out and new pieces soldering into place.

If that still has not cured the lights then the fault wiil be in the multi-plugs located behind the passenger side kick panel (in the footwell to the left of the glovebox), again it's a case of locating the bad wires and replacing them.

HTH
Good luck :thumbup: