From: sgupta@pint.ecn.purdue.edu (Sameer Gupta) Subject: Summary: Water leaking into the Jetta Date: 29 Oct 92 22:25:25 GMT I had a lot of request for the solution to this problem. So, I am posting a summary of the responses I received. Thanks to all the people who responded, and also to those whole read the problem and thought it wasn't worth their time :), Sameer =============================================================================== From: Ken Clarke Dear Sameer, I have experienced water inside my '86 Jetta GL and went through lots of trials before arriving at the real cause. I am relatively new to the Net and don't know what they were saying but I can tell you what fixed my problem. I had the problem around the rear doors (4-dr Jetta) and the left rear door seemed to be the worst. After trying extra moulding around the door edge, which didn't work, I discovered that the problem was the plastic lining inside the door(s). This plastic inside the doors is usually called a vapor barrier, but it the case of the '86 Jetta, due to the way the rear door is fabricated, when water enters the gap between the window and the window weatherstripping, water flows into the inside of the door. The water then falls down inside the door and hits the plastic. The water travels down the inside of the plastic and should be channeled to the drain holes in the bottom of the door. My problem was that the plastic had gotten brittle and had shrunk and had pulled away from the bottom of the door area. Now when it rained the water followed the plastic but now, due to the way the rear door is shaped, the water ran off the end of the plastic and driped onto the cardboard part of the door. The cardboard got soaked and water driped into the rear of the car and filled the rear of the car with water. The fix was to replace the plastic with new good plastic. I used 4 mil plastic - the kind you would use to insultate windows from the winter's cold. I also used an RTV-type adhesive to glue the new fresh, pliable plastic onto the doors. I also ran the plastic from the top of the door area down and inside the lower door area. I replaced and reglued the plastic for all four doors and have not had a problem since. It was a real mess to clean up, though. I had to take out the front seats and pulled all the carpet and the sound proofing because they were all soaked! It took the better part of a week to get the mats totally dry. Also had to dry out the inside of the car with a hair dryer. Finally got everything dry and replaced. With the new plastic RTVed in the doors, everything is dry FINALLY! The front doors also had the plastic pulled away, but the front doors are different in that the water in the door drips directly down and stays inside the door. The rear doors are curved such that water driping down hits the cardboard door cover and gets everything wet. Good luck with your Jetta. I hope it's not as wet as my '86. Ken Clarke clarke@ll.mit.edu From: aqn@tivoli.com (Andy Nguyen) I had the same problem w/ my 83 GTI. Net-Wisdom sez that water can leak via: o Door: water runs down glass into door, then (normally) out bottom of door via drain hole in bottom of door, but not if: o drain holes are clogged. o plastic film inside door is ripped or unglued (I taped a big sheet of plastic (mine was missing!) on door's inside (under door panel) and have not had many problems since). o Hood: water flowing thru gratings in hood collect in tray at base of winshield & drain via drain on top of right wheel well, but not if: o drain is clogged: water will overflow into cockpit, typically on passenger's side. o tray is leaky: leak into cockpit under dash? o Sunroof: water that gets past the seal runs into drain chanels that leads across roof towards back, draining into drain chanel around hatch, but not if: o Sunroof's drain chanels are clogged. o Also check that seal around windows & windshield is OK. From: C129QP43@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Ok, you can repost. Your problem is a leaking window gasket. The rubber lower gasket(s) that run along the bottom of the window between the door and the glass have shrunk with age. The water is running down the glass into the door and then into your car. Solution is new gaskets. You should also check the "vapour" barrier (plastic sheet) that hangs between the inside of the door metal and the upholstered cover (can't think of the proper name just now). The drain holes in the bottom on your door are probably plugged up too (check the intentional holes along the seam at the bottom of the outer door skin). You may want to enlarge these drain holes too. Other reasons for leaks in the front of the passenger compartment (eg. by driver's feet) are a shrunken windshield gasket (solve by running a bead of sealer around the whole glass behind the gasket), water running in along the wires/cables through the fire wall (solve by sealing around rubber grommets in fire wall), water leaking from pan that surrounds the fresh air inlet area (check for pin holes due to rust - seal with tar, check to see if drain holes are open, make sure the plastic deflector tray is still over the fan opening), leakage around the antenna mounts (there are two, one for main antenna on fender where it induces rust, the other inside wheel well where the antenna cable goes into the car - the grommet goes and wheel kicks water up into car). Other possible problems are general rusting out of floor panels or in the seams for the fender or windshield columns. This should solve most troubles though. Good luck. Hugh Jarvis C129QP43@UBVM From: arch@pei.pei.com (Arch Mott) Subject: Re: All Wet (was Re: Guess that noise!) Date: 18 Feb 92 19:29:12 GMT scottp@npg-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Scott Platenberg) writes: >I took out the padding under the carpet and tried to dry the car out as >good as possible, but I am worried about driving in the rain again. >Does anyone have a summary of that discussion that they can send me? >The plastic doo-hickey under the hood that looks like its supposed to >prevent water from getting in appears to be in order, but obviously >there was some failure someplace. Thanks again for your input. >Scott I just happen to have done some work on unplugging the drain holes in the bottoms of my Jetta's doors this weekend (I live in soggy Northern California. Boulder Creek seems to have been getting SoCal style rain lately). Anyway, here's what I did. _BEFORE_ you go taking your doors apart, open the doors and look underneath them. Chances are you'll see three evenly spaced holes clogged solidly with road-grime. Poke them clean with a screwdriver. This'll probably take care of the problem. I also have the following three articles regarding soggy Jettas in my files: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- >I've seen three leak-prone areas on Jettas. > >One is the drains for the area under the hood where the fresh air intakes >are located. There are two drains, one on each side near the fenders. They >tend to clog with leaves, and the area overflows into the fresh air intakes. > >The second is the plastic sheating behind the door panels. If the adhesive >is not perfect, water running down the windows can get through into the >interior. > >The third is the drain for the sunroof, which runs from the rear of the >sunroof on each side to the back of the car. > >The leaks are especially troublesome for people who park their cars on >a hill (nose-downhill is worst). > >If the rear floorboard is collecting water, I'd suspect the doors on the >side with the problem, unless the car is parked on a hill, in which case >the cause is harder to diagnose. > >-Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- >This is a classic. You may want to post the answer (acedemic gestapo forbids me >to). > >I had the same problem. Check the stupid paper lining inside your door panel. >If you remove the armrest and the little screw behind the door release the panel >should just pop off if you pull like hell on the little nylon clips. Water runs >freely through the inside of the door and out through little drain holes in the >bottom of the door. If these holes clog with rust or the paper is not >installed properly water will run right in. Tape the paper back in place and >check the seal by having someone hose the sucker down while you watch it. Water >should run in the door and not get past the paper. > Nate Vonada > nvonada@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- >I talked to my dealership service manager and his thought was the leak >was around the window seal for the rear/side window. This also goes >for the wet seat belt problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- -- "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." -Ford Prefect Arch Mott arch@pei.com Protocol Engines, Inc Voice: (415) 335-7233 ---- From: aje@icf.hrb.com (Andrew J. Eckhardt, MS 323) Subject: Re: All Wet Date: 19 Feb 92 03:30:21 GMT Your wet-floor problem reminds me of a similar problem I had with my '86 Jetta a couple of years ago. Any time it was driven in the rain, the carpeting on the passenger side would get wet. A leak was found in the lower right corner of the windshield seal. This was fixed at a local auto glass shop by injecting sealer in the area of the leak. The cost was only about $20. If your windshield checks out OK, one other possibility is poorly fitting seals on the door windows. These can let a lot of water into the doors. However, this water should run out the drain holes at the bottom of the door unless these are clogged. Check your trim panels on the inside of the doors. If they are wet at the bottom after a heavy rain, water is probably entering through the window seals. Also check the molding against the bottom of the door window, on the outside. It tends to pull away from the window, leaving a space for water to go down inside the door. Eventually the drains plug and the door fills up, until eventually the plastic sheet behind the inner door panel tears away and allows the water into the passenger compartment. From usc!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!sgiblab!pacbell.com!amdahl.com!juts.ccc.amdahl.com!netnews Thu Dec 1 12:10:04 PST 1994 Article: 44589 of rec.autos.vw Newsgroups: rec.autos.vw Path: usc!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!sgiblab!pacbell.com!amdahl.com!juts.ccc.amdahl.com!netnews From: jdr40@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (John Ritter) Subject: Re: [w] what seals leak? Message-ID: <1994Nov30.142428.24799@ccc.amdahl.com> Lines: 39 Sender: netnews@ccc.amdahl.com (UTS Tech Support) Reply-To: jdr40@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (John Ritter) Organization: Amdahl Corporation - Dayton, Ohio X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.02 References: <3bdpto$gjb@news.bridge.com> Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:24:28 GMT In <3bdpto$gjb@news.bridge.com>, thogard@bridge.com (Tim Hogard) writes: >The door liners (thin plastic stuff between the metal and fiber stuff in >the door panles) has been removed and torn so much as to be useless. >The bottom gasket on the oudside of the window is in bad shape on two >out of the four doors. The AC hasn't been used execpt to dehumidfy >the car (it has a nasty foggin on the inside) but I don't >think its leaking. > This should be in the FAQ............. Replace the rubber wiper on the windows, they allow so much water in, the vapor barriers on the inside of the door panels can't keep up and the glue falls apart. On my GLi I had to rplace the window rubber and put new vapor barriers in as the plastic was hard and brittle. >How is the best way to reattach the liners? The original made use of >some very stickey stuff and it worked well. One shop put some calk >like stuff that heald the liner on but failed to seal it. > I used Permatex weatherstrip cement to attach new liners. It is waterproof and holds very well. When I put it on it looks like it melted the plastic slightly and it bothered me. I had to remove one door panel sometime later and the glue job looked great however. >Where do I get replacments? (other than VW) How much are the liners? >How much are the new gaskets? How much is new carpet (it is worn)? >Can I add sound proofing since I have this much apart? Where do I got replacements from VW but was a bit shocked at the price. The 4 rubber strips that go along the bottom of the glass and 4 vapor barriers ran me about US$120. I was at least happy that my floors were no longer flooding. ------------------------------------------------------------ John Ritter - Senior Systems Field Engineer Amdahl Corporation - Dayton, Ohio (513)455-1561 ------------------------ TEAM OS/2 ------------------------- From corrado-l-owner@teleport.com Thu Jun 29 18:33 PDT 1995 Received: from mailer by fshpp1 with SMTP (1.38.193.4/16.2) id AA27794; Thu, 29 Jun 1995 18:33:38 -0700 Return-Path: Received: from desiree.teleport.com by UG.EDS.COM (PMDF V4.3-10 #4) id <01HSADQB81PC00ASU5@UG.EDS.COM>; Thu, 29 Jun 1995 18:31:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by desiree.teleport.com (8.6.10/8.6.9) id SAA17561 for corrado-l-outgoing; Thu, 29 Jun 1995 18:28:21 -0700 Received: from emout04.mail.aol.com (emout04.mail.aol.com [198.81.10.12]) by desiree.teleport.com (8.6.10/8.6.9) with ESMTP id SAA17545 for ; Thu, 29 Jun 1995 18:28:15 -0700 Received: by emout04.mail.aol.com (1.37.109.11/16.2) id AA021545472; Thu, 29 Jun 1995 21:24:33 -0400 Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 21:24:33 -0400 From: BBSXanadu@aol.com Subject: Re: No Subject Sender: owner-corrado-l@teleport.com To: corrado-l@teleport.com Reply-To: corrado-l@teleport.com Message-Id: <950629212413_105170961@aol.com> X-Envelope-To: JAN@FSHPP1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Precedence: bulk Status: RO In a message dated 95-06-28 16:58:40 EDT, you write: >How goes it? I am having a particularly annyoing problem w/ my 90 >Corrado. There's some mysterious leak somewhere and after every >heavy rain about 2 or 3 gallons of water ends up coming out of my >passenger side floor vent (I think). But the net effect is a lot >of water on my passenger side footwell. Any ideas where this leak may >be occuring? Thanks, Chuck. > EASY FIX!!! It happened to me... Open your hood, look on the passenger side DIRECTLY under the windshield... Remove the plastic shield there... this directs water over the air intake instead of into it... there is a hole below that plastic shield in the corner of the crevice. remove all leaves, etc. that have accumulated there.. then pour a LITTLE water in there and be sure it drains out. if not, get some long instrument and try to clear the drain hose. What is happening in your case is water is accumulating there and can't drain out. When it fills up, it dumps into the fresh air intake... I found this out after going to the beach and leaving my car at home, outside, we recieved about 7 inches of rain that week and when I returned, my car was flooded. What a pain in the ass... had to replace the carpet, padding, etc... mucho $$$... Anyways... let me know if this is your problem... if it doesn't work, chances are it is your windshield seal...(the rubber bonding glue has dried up and cracked). Clarke Russell From corrado-l-owner@teleport.com Tue Oct 24 19:19 PDT 1995 Received: from mailer by fshpp1 with SMTP (1.38.193.4/16.2) id AA09028; Tue, 24 Oct 1995 19:19:16 -0700 Return-Path: Received: from desiree.teleport.com by UG.EDS.COM (PMDF V4.3-10 #4) id <01HWTULXQGXC0000HZ@UG.EDS.COM>; Tue, 24 Oct 1995 18:53:29 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by desiree.teleport.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) id SAA04782 for corrado-l-outgoing; Tue, 24 Oct 1995 18:51:31 -0700 Received: from netcom18.netcom.com (root@netcom18.netcom.com [192.100.81.131]) by desiree.teleport.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id SAA04775 for ; Tue, 24 Oct 1995 18:51:29 -0700 Received: from DialupEudora by netcom18.netcom.com (8.6.12/Netcom) id SAA04702; Tue, 24 Oct 1995 18:49:40 -0700 Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 18:51:09 -0700 From: bdunning@netcom.com (Brian Dunning) Subject: Water on the floor SOLVED (sort of) Sender: owner-corrado-l@teleport.com X-Sender: bdunning@localhost To: corrado-l@teleport.com Reply-To: corrado-l@teleport.com Message-Id: X-Envelope-To: JAN@FSHPP1 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Precedence: bulk Status: RO (might be good for the web site, since a lot of people report this problem) Lift the hood and you'll see the big gutter running from side to side below the windshield. At either end, below the hinge for the hood, is a drain hole. The one on the driver side is bigger and unobstructed by any mechanisms, thus more free flowing, explaining why most people have the problem on the passenger side. The passenger side drain is smaller and has the tube for the wiper fluid coming up through it, making it much easier to clog with leaves and debris. When a large volume of water, such as that from a car wash, fills the gutter and tries to drain out, it drops right out on the driver side but may pool on the passenger side. Note that right beside this drain is the intake for the ventilation system. It's about a six inch wide, two inch high tube held down with plastic tabs and with a sticky foam rubber gasket to seal the bottom edge. Mine was sealing perfectly and in excellent condition, but if your problem is chronic, you may want to check it. To remove the intake tube, you'll have to lift off the rubber strip on the FORWARD wall, and you can lift away the flimsy plastic cover. I recommend against trying to loosen the rear edge; it's covered by the robust strips covering the bottom edge of the windshield, and I broke several plastic tabs trying the lift these off. Anyway it isn't necessary. Move the flimsy plastic thing aside and you'll see, on the outside edge of the intake tube, a little black cotter thing with an upright tab. Pull that piece out and the intake tube will be free...careful peeling it up. If it's in good shape, put it right back down because you want want to get the sticky surface dirty. Here's where I discovered the problem most of us are probably having. Looking inside the intake tube, I could see trails in the dust where the water had spilled over the top and poured into the ventilation system, to drop out onto the passenger's feet. By pouring water into the passenger side drain, I saw that it clearly drained more slowly than the driver side. I used a clothes hanger to ream out the drain; it had some muck in it, but not much. It flows a little better now, but even with a perfectly clear drain, the passenger side can be overwhelmed and water will always pour into the car. Workarounds: 1) Make sure the air is turned OFF when you take the car to the wash. Some lazy carwash guys may leave the key in the accessory position (they often do if you're getting foam wax, sometimes they turn the lights on to signal this). I don't know if the suction into the intake would be enough to lift water in, but it's something to try. 2) Don't let the car be in heavy water conditions. I know that's not much help for some people. Brian Dunning bdunning@netcom.com PASS SET CRUSH Translation: SHANK DOUBLE CHOKE From owner-corrado-l@teleport.com Thu Aug 1 22:57 PDT 1996 Received: from mailer by fshpp1 with SMTP (1.38.193.4/16.2) id AA27952; Thu, 1 Aug 1996 22:57:10 -0700 Return-Path: Received: from greta.teleport.com (greta.teleport.com) by UG.EDS.COM (PMDF V5.0-6 #15834) id <01I7S17O4ELS004C9P@UG.EDS.COM> for jan@UG.EDS.COM; Thu, 01 Aug 1996 22:54:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) by greta.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id WAA08790; Thu, 01 Aug 1996 22:52:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: by greta.teleport.com (bulk_mailer v1.3); Thu, 01 Aug 1996 22:52:08 -0700 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by greta.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id WAA08738 for corrado-l-outgoing; Thu, 01 Aug 1996 22:52:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: from desiree.teleport.com (desiree.teleport.com [192.108.254.21]) by greta.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id WAA08728 for ; Thu, 01 Aug 1996 22:52:05 -0700 (PDT) Received: from serbia.it.earthlink.net (serbia-c.it.earthlink.net [206.85.92.125]) by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id WAA14911 for ; Thu, 01 Aug 1996 22:52:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from default (pool033.Max5.Seattle.WA.DYNIP.ALTER.NET [153.37.126.33]) by serbia.it.earthlink.net (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id WAA24379 for ; Thu, 01 Aug 1996 22:52:26 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 01 Aug 1996 23:01:09 -0700 From: Richard Anderson Subject: Water Leaking Sender: owner-corrado-l@teleport.com To: corrado-l-digest@teleport.com Reply-To: Richard Anderson Message-Id: <320199A5.18DE@earthlink.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (Win95; U) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk Status: RO Just a thought- Alot of people are having probs. w/ water leaking on the passenger side floor. I had that same problem when I had my GTI. The cause of my problem had nothing to do with outside water or rain. I looked in my Cor. Bentley and it looks similar to the GTI but I haven't actually looked at my C yet; The AC system is crammed into the space over the passenger's feet. Part of the system is a drip pan with a drain valve directly under the evaperator. The drip pan would fill and when I went around a corner about 3 cups of water woud splash on the psngr floor. Have you guys noticed that this only happens when you use the Air cond. I haven't had this problem in my C, and I live in Seattle where we know a little bit about rain, so I can't determine if this will help at all.