Best way to fix leaky doors

[darren1987]

If the carrier seals are leaking you can probably see watermarking on the paintwork of the door just below the bottom edge of the doorcard. Even easier to spot is little puddles sitting on the horizontal top surface of the rubber seal that the bottom of the door closes against. If you have neither of those things happening, then the water you're seeing has probably dropped out of the drain holes in the bottom edge of the door, which would have to be normal.

Il have a look and get a photo of what mine is doing.

There is water on that rubber seal at the bottom of the door but it isnt leaking onto the rear carpets as its bone dry there.

[Breezy_Pete]

Il have a look and get a photo of what mine is doing.

There is water on that rubber seal at the bottom of the door but it isnt leaking onto the rear carpets as its bone dry there.

 

Unfortunately, what it does is leak under the carpet and sound insulation beneath it. If you gently poke about a bit in that seal you'll see how this can happen.  You won't feel the carpet wet until the sound insulation is so wet that it wicks the water upwards off the floor panel into the underside of the carpet.

 

If you lift out the rear bench (the horizontal part of the rear seat) you can sneak a hand under the carpet from there, and feel how damp it is/isn't beneath.

[darren1987]

Just had a look the sound insulation is ever so slightly damp so considering the rain yesterday and over the weekend I dont think it's leaking alot?

Ive had the car since August so surely it would be sodden on the sound insulation by now if they hadn't been repaired at all?

[KevT1986]

Hi guys, im new to the fabia seen, and just seen this so nee dto check out the fabia I have just bought!

 

has anyone got any pics of where the water gets in so I can keep an eye out for it

[Gobsheene]

Same as above, but I used a long knife to hoke out all of the foam liner that joins the carrier to the door, using a mastic gun to fill that space with mastic/caulk/silicone or plumbers gold!

 

Then plaster it around the rest of the carrier, press it in, let it cure and then go at it again! 

 

Thats the way i've managed to seal mine fior it to work. 

 

Mine's started ****ing leaking again... 

 

Can you weld the ******s shut?! lol!!!

[bris24]

My son has just got an 07 fabia estate and the rear doors leak.  Not much but enough to need fixing.

The latest cars have the carrier riveted on, or so I believe from various posts I have read.

I think the best way to fix is to remove the carrier, clean off the previous sealing tape and apply new sealant (plumbers gold seems to be well recommended.)  Then secure with new rivets.

 

My question is what size are the rivets so I can get replacement rivets.

Alternatively can the carrier be held in place by self tapping screws, if so what size?

If all the rivets are removed is the carrier easy to remove or is it still attached to window parts etc.?

 

All help gratefully received.

[@Lee]

 

My question is what size are the rivets so I can get replacement rivets. A. IIRC they are an odd size but readily available from Skoda or TPS

Alternatively can the carrier be held in place by self tapping screws, if so what size? A. Possibly but for the cost of the rivets probably not worth it.

If all the rivets are removed is the carrier easy to remove or is it still attached to window parts etc.? A. Carrier will still be attached, tape the window in place to hold it closed with gaffer tape and use an M8 (I think) bolt to withdraw the roll pin

[bris24]

Thanks for reply Leepatrick01.

It looks like the skoda rivets are fairly big so need a big riveter to fit.  Any recommendations for a reasonably priced riveter that will do the job?

 

Alternatively would just removing the bottom rivets, cleaning out old seal, resealing, and re-riveting with smaller say 3 or 4mm rivets be OK?

[felicia16v]

Right guys, at work we seal every single fabia that comes thru the door and that is a lot of cars, we do it differently to most and get 100% success rate and it is still easy to remove the carrier if needed in the future.

remove the door cards as usual, then drill into the door like so

I used a 5mm drill here on my own car this evening.

then clean the area around the carrier. and use aluminium tape to cover the seal around the carrier like so

(we usually do the same around the speaker but I have just fitted these and used sealant to join em lol)

the tape sticks like a sticky thing and is water proof so as the water comes past the seal on the carrier it is trapped under the tape, then it runs down and back inside the door thru the holes we have just made..

as long as you are careful with the tape and don't press it into the gap it leaves a nice channel for the water to run thru 

rear doors

same principle

best bit is it is an instant fix, no waiting for sealer to cure and easy to remove if a window reg breaks or a door latch packs in.

the tape is a couple of quid for a roll of it and there is enough to do lots of cars usually and the first cars we did this to were at least 5 years ago and none of them leak. 

we usually run a small paint brush round the hole we drill to protect the bare metal from rusting away.

simples!!!

[bris24]

Very novel way  of fixing leak and a lot cleaner than fiddling with all that sealant!!

Can you recommend a brand of aluminium tape or are they all very similar.

This is very helpful.  Many thanks for taking the time to take photos and post reply.

[bris24]

I meant to ask how wide the tape needs to be.  It looks like 50mm.

[felicia16v]

Yes it is 50mm, we just get a box of it from our workshop consumables place , screwfix or b&q would have some I guess or ebay maybe ?

[bris24]

Thanks for info.  As mentioned this is a great idea and will give it a go.

[KevT1986]

is this only an issue on the rear doors or can it happen to the front as well?

 

Just checked our fabia and the rear foot wells are damp but when I looked at the fronts they are dry but I can see a little water trickle down the platic trim next to the footwell and water sat on the door seal in the same place the rears are

[DGW]

It can happen to the fronts as well. I had all 4 doors resealed under warranty.

[joe_vrs_tdi]

Do you coat those holes in anything as surely they would start to rust?

[Oakleyhopkins]

Yes joe, he said he brushes some paint over the holes

[joe_vrs_tdi]

Oh yer last line, just shows how short my attention span is lol. I see pictures and make my own words up.

[Arlie71]

This topic is brilliant, need to do mine this weekend.

But thought I would add a useful tip. If you have soaking carpets, try using nappies to soak up the water. Worked fantastically, and you can also use them as a "glove" and wipe up all the moisture on the sides of the door, door card, carpet beneath back seat. You can get a huge pack of cheapo Asda / Tesco nappies for a £5 (recommend size 5 as a decent size rather than the tiny new born ones).  Yep I am a dad, and this tip came from a Midwife, but was much cheaper than renting a dehumidifier and much quicker than endless towels / kitchen roll :-) and if you want an even stranger tip, use kitty litter in an old plastic put on the dashboard and rear seats really helped get rid of the condensation.

 

Hope this helps others

 

Cheers

 

Andy :-)

[jdh780]

Hoping this fix will work for me and will be giving it a go next weekend. Can someone point out exactly where I should drill holes as I can' be sure where they are from the picture (rear doors).

[grr666]

Yes joe, he said he brushes some paint over the holes

What about the bare metal on the inside of the 

door where the water is? Can't easily paint that bit?

As for the tape, search ebay for 'Class O ' tape. 

It should be about a fiver a roll.

[fabdavrav]

Scrap all the old foam from the join between the door skin and the window carrier plate then use the proper black Loctite sealent (I got some FOC from the dealership!.........

 

 

I also have a nice dry garage to enable me to thoroughly dry the doors out before cleaning and resealing!!

[flodoms]

Door cards off, cleaned and degreased. Applied plumbers gold. Both rear doors done in an hour. Been perfectly dry since.

Great advice on here. Only had car a few weeks, this will keep it dry through the winter.

Phil.

[bowen]

I've sealed mine with plumbers gold and it's still leaking. May result to drilling holes.

[Titanium_Man]

I found when I sealed my doors, Lloyd, that I wiped it too thinly to tidy it up after which made the seal pretty thin and had a couple very small air holes. I noticed after a couple of days that the door cards were still wet so took them off again to take a peek and found the tiny air holes