How to - Replace carpets and underlay

[greencode]

So, after the dreaded rear speaker seal leak my car smelt so bad and was growing mould on the underlay. No way around it other than replace the carpet and underlay. Fortunately managed to get a near new one on eBay for £150.

I thought I'd put together a quick guide with links to helpful videos and guides on how to remove the interior in order to get to replace the carpet.

Hope it helps somebody else that may be in the same position.

Tools required
- Trim removal tools
- M10 Spline Bit (for the front seats)
- Torx screwdrivers
- 10mm spanner (to disconnect battery terminals)

Tips
- Keep taking photos of stuff, mainly when you have a load of wires so you know where they go!
- Keep a note of the screws i.e. put them in separate bags clearly labelling where they go.
- Disconnect the battery first and then don’t do anything for 20-30 mins
- When I connected the battery at the end, I waited for 10 mins before turning the ignition (probably don’t need to). I got around 7 errors come up quickly. Drove the car around for 10 mins, turned it off and then on again and the errors were no more.

Removed rear bench seat
https://www.autoinstruct.com.au/manufacturer/volkswagen/mk7-golf/mk7-golf-rear-seat-base-removal/

Remove centre console
A mix of these two videos. The main video here
https://youtu.be/uq9Yb031Kzw?si=4PYOXuSOvAIjvZ-C Is slightly different to my 2017 Mk7 R.
There is no connector after you’ve removed the rear vent panel
When removing the storage compartment, remove the rubber inlay and use your fingers to pull outward. It does come out and is just held in by clips
Then using this video https://youtu.be/orm7JaHVmmU?si=3QQH1uo2PnkCH1Si to remove the gear knob surround (easier to remove this and then disconnect the connectors below.

Remove front seats
I found removing them from your car, to take them out of the back doors but also put covers on the car to protect the paintwork as the feet are metal and can scratch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoa_9CqxN8A

Door trim removal
This is good but they don’t talk about removing the foot rests and also the panel that has the bonnet release
https://www.autoinstruct.com.au/manufacturer/volkswagen/mk7-golf/mk7-golf-sill-panel-trim-removal/

This video shows the bonnet catch panel section being removed. Trickiest bit here is the bit that sits behind the handle to keep it on the body. When you put this back on the car, just push the bit back on the handle and then push the handle on the spindle with a bit of force. You’ll hear it click.
https://youtu.be/TYScR_RYVKI?si=1qqlc9CajEAlVcRa

Carpet and underlay
No guide for this, just pull it all up and chuck it in the bin!!!

Putting it all back together
This is the bit I wasn't looking forward to as I had a lot of parts lying in the dining room and bags of screws. I also thought i might break plastic clips when I was pushing and pulling it all back into place - thankfully I didn't and actually it was way easier than I thought it would be.

After everything was removed!





New underlay



New carpet



Errors when connecting battery

[EB2019]

Great job, very impressed

I have taken apart interiors before but not a newish VW, I get the impression they kind of made the Golf to never come apart easily, if that's true hats off to you sir for the hard work! 

[greencode]

Great job, very impressed

I have taken apart interiors before but not a newish VW, I get the impression they kind of made the Golf to never come apart easily, if that's true hats off to you sir for the hard work! 

Yeah, thanks. Not something I wanted or looked forward to doing but had to be done and actually much easier than I thought it was going to be. I think some of the hardest bits were trying to figure out how some of the wiring connectors can undone as they all seemed to vary!!

[Adam T7]

Something I hope I never have to do but a great interesting read.

[greencode]

Something I hope I never have to do but a great interesting read.

Yeah, just keep an eye on those pesky speaker seals!!! I knew mine had leaked but didn’t realise it was that bad until the mould smell started to appear. The problem is, the carpet may seem dry but the underlay could be soaking, like mine, and I think because there’s nowhere for the water to escape once trapped then unless you know it’s happened and is bad so you can uncover the carpet and dry out the underlay, you’re a bit screwed. So annoying TBH. Had my R since new and absolutely love it but it’s ridiculous that a 7 year old car should have an issue like this.

[Cwt]

Hey chaps does this also happen on the 2 for car ?
We have the same on our car being 2 door I wasn’t sure where to start to look.
However I found the sound deadening to be wet as there’s a small access panel by the front of the seat just at the back centre of the drivers foot mat.
Where would water be getting in.
I’ve sorted th3 boot water as that was the plastic pipe that had come off in the boot tail lid.
Any tips chaps would be great to look for water ingress

[SRGTD]

Hey chaps does this also happen on the 2 for car ?
We have the same on our car being 2 door I wasn’t sure where to start to look.
However I found the sound deadening to be wet as there’s a small access panel by the front of the seat just at the back centre of the drivers foot mat.
Where would water be getting in.
I’ve sorted th3 boot water as that was the plastic pipe that had come off in the boot tail lid.
Any tips chaps would be great to look for water ingress

Check out the list of possible sources of water ingress in my post (reply #16) in the discussion thread at the link below;

https://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=286818.

As your car is a three door, some of the items in the list might not be relevant to your car.

[Adam T7]

Just found the door drain holes / slots and stuck and twiddled a cotton bud around. Dirty, but dry.