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Whilst cleaning my spare tyre compartment I noticed there was an oil-like substance all over the bottom of the compartment. I have no clue how it got there. I have owned the car for a few months now and have never taken the spare tyre out before, so I’m not sure how long the oil-like stuff has been there. It seems to have eaten away at the three little pads (vibration absorbers perhaps), partially around the little plastic disk things which are squishy (circled in red). Can anyone hazard a guess as to what is going on here? What do the three pads do and can I replace them? What do the little plastic disks do? I am very intrigued by this.

leaky spare oil bottle?

you can go to your paint supplier shop- like automotive refinishing supply shop and get a sheet of sound mat.

It's not expensive about 5-10 euros. and you will have extra
If you want to remove it easily get some dry ice, and put it over the desired area and wait to to cool down, then simply remove it.

I had an issue with oil in the boot of my previous car, a VW Passat 4Motion, first noticed it when on a long trip down from Scotland to the South end of England. We stopped for fuel etc and I opened the boot and there was a strong smell of engine oil - but fresh unused engine oil! It had come out of a bottle of spare oil that was in the boot, and it attacked the same material on the boot floor, the problem was that it was a very hot summer and I had used the oil in that "spare oil" bottle at my last service and refilled it with newer/new oil. Since then, I've bought one of these "bags" for holding spare bottle of oil, and used a strong poly bag that seals - to avoid that happening again - and keeping the oil upright.

The circled items are are just body plugs/bungs/grommets.
They're just sealing up a cut-out in the sheet metal.
Cut-outs might be there from tooling or construction process, for draining, or for wiring for some unfitted option.

EDIT: Admittedly, I have no idea why they're need to many in the wheel well.

That makes sense! I wasn’t aware that people kept spare oil containers in the boot. There isn’t one in my boot currently, but there might have been one that was in there and leaked in the past. I’ll look into getting a bottle because I think it’s a good idea.

I will have a look into the sound absorbing pads. Is there a VW part number or are they not sold as OEM parts? I will give the dry ice method of removal a go.

I’ve had a look in CarProg2 ETKA and found the bungs under picture 803-035. However, I am struggling to decipher which diagram is the wheel compartment in the boot. It appears as though they are POS 11 (1K0899185). Does this look right?

I do also wonder why there are so many bungs in the wheel compartment!

I assume that some holes in the sheet metal are used during the manufacturing process or later repairs if necessary.

Item 11 seems adequate, diameter '40mm'.

Perfect! I will get those replaced ASAP.

After several hours of scraping… I think it came out pretty clean compared to how it was originally. How do I change the bungs though? It looks like they are glued in from the bottom of the car: On another note, what is this glue looking stuff in the spare tyre compartment? It looks like the car body was slathered with glue

The 'glue' you circled is just factory sealant for the welds. That's how all cars look. Nothing to worry about.
The bungs can be pushed out, in this case from the inside out.

Good to know! I’ve never seen that ‘glue’ seal on my older car which is interesting. It totally makes sense to have.

I will try to push them out. Hopefully they don’t require much force.

Hi having same issue how did you manage to get it all off what did you use if you don’t mind me asking

Leahpatto wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 8:42 am Hi having same issue how did you manage to get it all off what did you use if you don’t mind me asking

if you can buy dry ice use it. Puty dry ice over it, let if be for few minutes. And it will come off no glue residue.

If not you can use a scraper, heat, gasoline etc. to clean ( its a mess)

also turning an can of compress air upside down an spraying it can freeze it, so it lifts off easy

But dry ice is the best

amer6R wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 5:47 pm

Leahpatto wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 8:42 am Hi having same issue how did you manage to get it all off what did you use if you don’t mind me asking

if you can buy dry ice use it. Puty dry ice over it, let if be for few minutes. And it will come off no glue residue.

If not you can use a scraper, heat, gasoline etc. to clean ( its a mess)

also turning an can of compress air upside down an spraying it can freeze it, so it lifts off easy

But dry ice is the best

Freezer spray is pretty easy to get hold of. Screwfix & Toolstation sell it off the self. Think they call it pipe freezer. £10+ a can though. Might do the job.