White Stains Appearing

[JS92]

These are mainly appearing on the rear seats, centre arm rest and rear of the front seats.

What is causing these; salt, mould, moisture?

Thanks

[CarbonChaos]

It does look to be a mould of sorts,can it be rubbed off ? Are your carpets damp/wet including the boot area?

[SRGTD]

It looks like it might be mould, which suggests you may have a water ingress problem into your car’s interior which if not fixed, would cause mould over time and mould is a health risk, so should definitely be sorted sooner rather than later. Do you also have excessive condensation build up on the inside of your windows? Are your carpets damp? If they are, then it’s likely the sound deadening material beneath the carpets is water saturated and would need replacing once the source of any water ingress issue has been found and fixed.

Over the years, a number of potential sources of water ingress on the Golf have been identified, some of which might also be common to the Polo as cars get older. Here’s a list of water ingress problems I’m aware of on the mk7 Golf and it might be worth using it as a checklist and working through it to see if it helps you track down your issue;

• blocked cabin pollen filter

• a/c drain tube becoming detached from the evaporator, draining into the car interior rather than onto the ground under the car.

• damaged / distorted or poor fitting door or window seals.

• replacement windscreen not bonded correctly to the car bodyshell.

• blocked drainage holes in the windscreen scuttle panel.

• cars with a sunroof - blocked drain pipes.

• damaged / broken rear door speaker seals, resulting in water draining into the rear footwells. This is quite a common issue on the Golf.

• damaged / perished grommet on the bottom of the drain pipe from the hatch release handle, allowing water to collect inside the tailgate and drain into the boot underfloor area and spare wheel well. Again quite a common source of water ingress on the Golf.

• damaged / cracked rubber sleeving covering the wiring from the car into the tailgate above the tailgate opening (between the tailgate hinges).

• poor seal between the tailgate hinges and where they’re attached to the bodyshell above the tailgate opening.

• damaged seal between the roof and roof mounted aerial (tell tale signs would be water staining on the roof lining and possibly a damp rear seat).

• damaged or perished seals between the rear light clusters and the body panels the lights are fitted to.

• failed seals around the air pressure equalisation vents in the lower rear quarter panels either side of the boot (these vents are ‘hidden’ behind the rear bumper cover). A tell tale sign of failure of these vents is water in the spare wheel well and / or in the small storage compartments either side of the boot floor.

Good luck. I hope you get it sorted sooner rather than later.

[JS92]

It does look to be a mould of sorts,can it be rubbed off ? Are your carpets damp/wet including the boot area?

It can't be rubbed off no, so seems to be inside the fabric as opposed to on the surface.

Checked the carpets front and back bone dry...

Had a look in the boot area briefly, but will need to check and take everything out when I have time.

It looks like it might be mould, which suggests you may have a water ingress problem into your car’s interior which if not fixed, would cause mould over time and mould is a health risk, so should definitely be sorted sooner rather than later. Do you also have excessive condensation build up on the inside of your windows? Are your carpets damp? If they are, then it’s likely the sound deadening material beneath the carpets is water saturated and would need replacing once the source of any water ingress issue has been found and fixed.

Over the years, a number of potential sources of water ingress on the Golf have been identified, some of which might also be common to the Polo as cars get older. Here’s a list of water ingress problems I’m aware of on the mk7 Golf and it might be worth using it as a checklist and working through it to see if it helps you track down your issue;

• blocked cabin pollen filter

• a/c drain tube becoming detached from the evaporator, draining into the car interior rather than onto the ground under the car.

• damaged / distorted or poor fitting door or window seals.

• replacement windscreen not bonded correctly to the car bodyshell.

• blocked drainage holes in the windscreen scuttle panel.

• cars with a sunroof - blocked drain pipes.

• damaged / broken rear door speaker seals, resulting in water draining into the rear footwells. This is quite a common issue on the Golf.

• damaged / perished grommet on the bottom of the drain pipe from the hatch release handle, allowing water to collect inside the tailgate and drain into the boot underfloor area and spare wheel well. Again quite a common source of water ingress on the Golf.

• damaged / cracked rubber sleeving covering the wiring from the car into the tailgate above the tailgate opening (between the tailgate hinges).

• poor seal between the tailgate hinges and where they’re attached to the bodyshell above the tailgate opening.

• damaged seal between the roof and roof mounted aerial (tell tale signs would be water staining on the roof lining and possibly a damp rear seat).

• damaged or perished seals between the rear light clusters and the body panels the lights are fitted to.

• failed seals around the air pressure equalisation vents in the lower rear quarter panels either side of the boot (these vents are ‘hidden’ behind the rear bumper cover). A tell tale sign of failure of these vents is water in the spare wheel well and / or in the small storage compartments either side of the boot floor.

Good luck. I hope you get it sorted sooner rather than later.

Thanks for this, will go through the list tomorrow (sunday).