I have unearthed a common issue with a lot of the VAG cars, it seems the case that the foam seal between the door and ancillaries carrier panel rots after a few years and begins to leak, allowing water to seep into the car, thus filling up the footwells with water

I am going to have to remove the old foam seal and replace it with something a bit better..

Seat and VWs answer is to replace the seal with a black sticky rubberised cord stuff ... but at £50 for the car... it seems a bit crazy...

What I want to do is remove the carier and then re-fit it using some sort of silicone...

Can anyone suggest a suitable readily available sealant that:

--Allows a nice thick bead
--Is fully waterproof (preferably soon after application)
--Does NOT smell bad (this is important, as it is going inside the car!!)

Is there any product I should use to prepare the surfaces to get the best bonding for the sealent?

[Edited on 5/8/09 by tegwin]

Don't use bathroom silicon that is acidic (probably the smell you don't like!) it will tend to cause rust...

Dan

most of the sealants - there are bound to be excpetions - will smell of vinegar as they cure but the smell goes away.

I'd recommend Sikaflex - you can get tubes of it from travis perkins.

in the old days they used non setting sealant putty which remained gloopy for decades, a similar stuff can be bought for sealing cooker hobs to worktops. Comes in long strips mounted on wax paper.

[Edited on 5/8/09 by Mr Whippy]

ON MY SEAT LEON CUPRA i have done all the door cards with normal silicone sealant, i had a problem with the seal and i can tell you where the water will be coming in.

The first place that goes is the passenger side and it will be just below the speaker, the second place is the same on the drivers side, mine are fine on the rear as it seems the front is the first to go.

When i did mine i left the door card on the car and slackened the top bolts so i could pull the bottom out, just make sure you remove as much of the old stuff as possible.

Hope this helps

p.s the smell of the sealant was gone after a few days

Yup... my front doors have gone and I suspect the water is coming from the location you mention...

What sealant did you use?

Do the two bits of metal mate nice and tightly or is there a large "gap" to fill with mastic?

There is a channel to fill, the main task is to remove the old seal cord foam crap from the recess on the metal door card, it took me about 3-4 hours to do both the front doors, the time was taken up by removing the old crap i made a scraper then i filled the channel in the door card with dow corning sealant as i sell it in my shop, only buy small tubes DONT get the big cartridge as you cant get it in between the car door, your body and the floor, the door is flat (from mem)

Join the seat cupra forum as there is a guide on there on how to do it.

Any more info just ask

Click this link

ME ME ME ME ME

Thanks for the link... I had seen that, just wasnt sure what sealant to use..

I have bought a tube of Unibond framing sealant..

Says it sticks to metal, glass, wood plastic etc without a primer... remains slightly flexible and totally water tight....


Will have a bash at one of the doors this afternoon... the inside of the car smells like wet dog!