22nd Jul 2002, 18:51

Thanks for taking the trouble to tell me the information. I only hope, that the new VW boss will keep an eye on quality. The new Seats have lovely designs.

31st Jul 2002, 09:38

They finally stopped the ad with the Leon in a block of ice, must feel stupid though to advertise your product in a block of frozen water while you know your product is not waterproof.

31st Jul 2002, 09:48

Seat still could use the ad, they just have to change the slogan into: "FEEL THE MOIST OF THE SEAT LE(ak)ON".

1st Oct 2002, 04:03

A friend of mine in Germany also had leaking doors, but because his Leon was out of warranty they wanted him to pay for the repair.

Only after a long argument Seat agreed to pay 60%, but he still had to pay 40% of the bill.

This is insane, Seat made a fault in the construction of the Leon and the customer has to pay to put it right.

I think Seat wants to save on repair bills by hoping the problem will occur after the warranty period so they can charge the owners.

30th Dec 2002, 12:43

I own a Seat Toledo 1.9TDi. When there is heavy rain it also lets the water in. The water remains trapped between the carpet and the floor pan and takes a long time to dry out. The damp smell is awful. Seat don't want to know about the problem which is a shame - a good car ruined by a simple fault. I certainly won't be buying another Seat.

19th Jan 2003, 08:38

I have a colleague who bought a new Toledo. It was back with the dealer every month because of water leaking in. Eventually it ruined the electrics. The dealer said it was only a problem because the car was built for Spain not the UK! The dealer was a complete waste of time and SEAT UK just didn't want to know. The car was sold after 9 months. His experience with the car and with the dealer was enough to put me off buying a SEAT - I went for a Skoda instead and I've been delighted.

2nd Feb 2003, 12:22

Pheww! Glad I checked the comments here. I was just about to proceed with the purchase of a Leon after 4 very happy and trouble free years with an Ibiza. How come all the rave reviews in motoring magazines fail to mention this obvious problem? Thanks everyone.

24th Jan 2004, 10:46

Bought my SEAT Leon 1 yr ago (sept 01 reg), constant damp smell. After scraping ice from the inside windscreen I decided I'd had enough. Dealer knew exactly where the problem was - went straight to near side passenger floor area. All carpets were replaced (under warranty) but it still leaks and the carpet is now moist again. I will print all the comments from this website and be at my dealers door 9am Monday. Apart from demanding all door seals are replaced will the correct material, is there anything else I can do?

11th Nov 2004, 01:26

I had exactly this problem, and had had enough of soaking, stinking carpets and the windows misting up whenever it rained, and went to my dealer to get the door seals replaced. As the car was out of warranty the best offer Seat UK would do was to stump up 50% of the total cost of replacement, which meant I had to pay 170 quid. I've only just had the work done so I don't know if it's fixed it yet. The dealer said that they've seen lots of Leons with this problem, and told me that they're annoyed that Seat didn't do a customer recall to fix the problem once and for all as it's clearly a manufacturing fault.

The unfortunate thing is that apart from the leaks (and the inevitable coil failure) the car is excellent. Without the reliability problems I'd have no reservation in replacing it with another Seat, but I'm certainly having second thoughts about it now!

22nd Oct 2008, 06:58

I had this problem of a leaking car and carpets that smelt like a damp dog, but solved it for less that 80 quid.

My problem was the pollen filter. It is located on the nearside just under the windscreen.

It is covered by a rubber sheet that is attached to that section of the leaf catcher. After a service, when this was re-inserted it was done in such a way that bent the rubber sheet to form a funnel. Therefore when it rained it funneled all the water into the pollen filter and tray (which sit below the windscreen and houses windscreen wiper mech and EMS)

To make matters worse the rain cover was also not replaced on top of the pollen filter. This meant water leaked in through the a/c system and also over the top of the aforementioned tray. It was characterised by a sloshing sound as soon as the car moved after heavy rain.

80 quid for new parts (inc. a new pollen filter to replace the sodden one) and a magic tree later, problem solved.

25th Dec 2012, 13:21

I have Toledo 1.9 TDI, and had the same problem; water inside the car. Spent hours investigating, no signs from the doors, so I took the pollen cover off, it was bent for some reason, but then I could see there is a water inside the pollen filter area. Now I don't know, I might need to take that tray out. It seems to me a big job to do... but I am quite sure the problem is definitely there... Any advice from anyone? Thanks.