Experience with Headliner Replacements

The original headliners in the Mk5 Jettas had a thing for sagging and falling apart. Has anybody here had theirs replaced under warranty?

If so, what's your experience with the replacement? Is it holding up well?


I'm replacing mine, but the one I removed is not usable for re-covering. I'm asking to see if it would be worth it to get a new VW one, or hit up the junkyard for a used one to re-cover.

I have replaced mine 3 years ago. I did the job myself and this far it still looks like new. During the hot summer days I always leave the windows cracked open and the sunroof open for ventilation.

Did you re-cover your existing one or replace it with the OEM part?



For me to get a salvage yard headliner, I'll have to go about 3 hours and hunt around to find a decent one. Time costs money too, lol. If the new headliners are holding up alright, I may just bite the bullet and get one.

I got a new one.

Thanks man! Good to hear. I can get one for about $360 new but I'll have to pick it up. Small price to pay to beat the shipping.



Did you pull your seats to install yours?

Pulled the seats and center console I heard that it can be done without removing the center console. Removed the old headliner through the front passenger door, installed the new one the same way. make sure that you use new hardware. Read the info in this link:
https://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/headliner-removal-and-overhead-light-replacement-mk5-vw-jetta/

Mine was replaced under warranty several years ago and it is holding up well here in Florida.

I had a shop do it, turned out pretty crappy but I didn't care for looks.

relumalutan said:

Pulled the seats and center console I heard that it can be done without removing the center console. Removed the old headliner through the front passenger door, installed the new one the same way. make sure that you use new hardware. Read the info in this link:
https://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/headliner-removal-and-overhead-light-replacement-mk5-vw-jetta/

Click to expand...

That site is amazing. I'm a paying member. Good to hear that the method used in that how-to works for others.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Looks like I'll be driving to Dallas to pick up a new headliner. I'm surprised at how distracting the interior is with the headliner and trim removed. Can't wait to have everything buttoned back up.

It comes in a box. You will need to make sure it (the box and the headliner) does not get bent when transporting. We tied the box to the top of a Subaru wagon to drive it across town.

I removed mine through the right front door. The console doesn't come out, Shifter must be able to move. The headliner is flexible enough to be bent quite a bit. The front seat must be laid back to snake it in over the passenger seat and to the back.
I got a headliner from the junk yard, just to learn how to remove it. I took much of the screw hardware, because, believe me, you will drop it into the B pillar and elsewhere and never recover it. Then i took the headliner that I got at the junk yard to an upholstery business and had it recovered. I brought it home in the back of a Passat stationwagon. Then we installed it. The practice at the junk yard was very instructional. All in all it cost me $130 to recover, and $30.00 for the junk headliner. I used the best interior light ribbon cable of the two for the replacement.

I just had mine done by an auto-glass and upholstery shop. The headliner started to sag about 3 years ago. This summer it started to look really bad with a big sag very evident every time I looked in the rear-view mirror. I was going to do it myself and priced a replacement headliner from a VW dealer and found my cost was going to be about $800 CDN for the part. I also recently picked up a big rock chip in my windshield that was starting to crack so I thought that with the windshield removed it would be easier to get the headliner out and back in. The shop recovered my headliner for $900 CDN and did it during an insurance windshield replacement claim saving me several hundred dollars in labour. The new headliner cloth is much thicker than the original cloth and one of the first things I noticed is that the car seems to be noticeably quieter inside driving down the road now.

I finally got my headliner installed. One of those "to hell with it, I'm doing this" moments. My replacement was a new headliner from a VW dealer about three hours away, their online price was $340 out the door.

Date code on the headliner is 2019, and you could see the thicker materials and larger overlaps of fabric onto the backside. I don't foresee this headliner contracting or sagging. Imho, worth the $340.

Being a new headliner, it had sufficient "give" to handle being bent enough to fit in the car *without* removing seats or center console. I wore gloves and had a drop cloth inside the car to keep the headliner from picking up any smudges.

I also took the time to wash all the interior trim pieces with hot soapy water, which made them all look new.

All in all, not bad for a day's labor and $340 in parts.

Thanks for the update! I'll probably need to do this sometime this summer. Been dragging it out long enough...

The fabric on my 2003 Golf (yes, a MkIV) has come away from the headliner foam backing, and I wonder whether there's any means of simply getting the fabric back onto the foam. It's not something I need to look perfect, and in fact I would be happy to hear that pushpins or wide-threaded ultra-short screws could be used, to simply get the fabric back up. Seems spray adhesive is hit or miss.

You would have to remove the rotten foam from both the backer and the fabric. Then headliner rated contact cement would do it. Useless to try re-gluing the fabric to the rotten foam. I bought the fabric and adhesive (get 2 cans) for 85 bucks. Took a few hours. Gotta completely remove all the old foam and then the new foam will stick with the headliner specific contact cement. Dont just use any contact cement. Some will let go in high heat.
I followed a yt vid

The foam is fine, and holds tight to the roof. It's just the fabric what's come loose of the foam.

I bought a can of 3M headliner adhesive (3M 88, I think?); and it did a serviceable job on my saggy 2003 Golf headliner.
Does it look perfect? No.
Does it bother me, given that I never look at the headliner because it's no longer sagged and blocking my rearview out the back window? No.

Well, I've found my solution. As noted above, the foam is generally tight to the roof of the car, it's just the headliner fabric what's come loose from the foam. I saw a kit on amazon, a set of screws, metal snap bases, and fabric-covered plastic snap heads. It works as well as I need it to.

Pushpins to stake out the fabric:


The finished snaps holding tight:


Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085XZLVLX/

B100 said:

Well, I've found my solution. As noted above, the foam is generally tight to the roof of the car, it's just the headliner fabric what's come loose from the foam. I saw a kit on amazon, a set of screws, metal snap bases, and fabric-covered plastic snap heads. It works as well as I need it to.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085XZLVLX/

Click to expand...

That, my friend, it's pretty damn cool. Good job!

sptsailing said:

Mine was replaced under warranty several years ago and it is holding up well here in Florida.

Click to expand...

As of today, May 5, 2021, my granddaughter alerted me to the fact that this liner is sagging now. This was replaced under warranty about 10 years ago if I recall. VW apparently was content to replace poorly engineered and/or manufactured items with identically poorly made items instead of actually correcting problems as they surface. If any VW management is reading this, I suggest that you hire Toyota engineers as soon as possible, as unlike your engineers, they appear to understand continual process and product improvement. I am now going to go to Joanne Fabrics and pick up some twist pins for a cheap redneck repair attempt. https://www.dritz.com/product/twist-pins-2/

I did see the other posts recommending the KUFUNG Car Roof Headliner Repair Buttons, but as the car and I are both significantly older now, I am less concerned about appearance than I am about functionality.