Beware of the Plenum Leak!

So, I started this thread a few weeks ago and documented my issues with flooding and the subsequent repair. Some of you may recall that my neighbor and I both bought TDI Passats in 2005 as part of a 2 car deal. He had no leaking at the time that my car flooded. Flash forward 1 month, and his car is a bathtub. The flooding appears inevitable. If you see foam bits in your vents, do not walk, but run to get this fixed, and save yourself a big hassle.

Thanks for posting this Dan. I see no foam bits but I reached up into the passenger foot well/fire wall and pulled the carpet back. There is foam up there and it was wet. I then commenced to pull the carpet back (PITA) along the door side removing the kick plate,door seal and sil cover. Yes I cracked a piece of plastic I parked it under my canopy, propped up the carpet, placed a heat gun on low underneath and a space heater on top. Been checking it every couple hours, seems to be working. Even if my TCM didn't get wet, this could become a mold problem Really sucks this is not covered...what's new

don't forget to remove the rubber duck bill in the drain under the battery which is part of the procedure. it will be clogged with mud.

Yes!, Thanks TS. It will get done today with the pollen filter housing gasket and battery upgrade. I cut the sunroof duckbills last night (razor in a needle nose pliers works good)
Happy to report that the padding is dry this AM and everything is back together, without melting or burning anything, disaster averted!!!!

For now........

Guys, you are never going to believe this. You know the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished? When I started this thread, I had gone to my dealership and had this work done under my extended VW warranty. I then had to negotiate with my dealership to get them to replace some things that they damaged, which they have now agreed to do.

So, my warranty is the 5 Star Protection Plus genuine Volkswagen Extended Warranty, with a zero deductible; the highest level of the warranties that were offered. I thought with the balance shaft issue, etc, this might not be a bad idea. Well, after nearly a month since the repair, I get a call from the dealership advising that the extended VW warranty, which is actually administered by the Omni Corporation, will not cover my claim. The reason: one of the exceptions listed, besides trim, bumpers, body metal, and chrome trim, is "weather stripping". So, of course they contorted and twisted their definition, and guess who gets boned? You got it.....me. I'm now on the hook for the $1000 bill (that's their best estimate at this point). Why do they do this crap to honest people? This was my one and only claim on the warranty, and it wasn't cheap to buy. Looks like another lesson learned.

its not weatherstrip , its a gasket or seal by definition. often the translation from Germ to English gets adulterated. the confusion is that weatherstrip is used for replacement of the gasket or seal. if the dealer stated weatherstrip on the ro, thats why the claim was denied. seals and gaskets are covered. the fault lies with whoever wrote the ro.

Great point TS, it's all about semantics with contracts. The service action 66C8/P9 clearly states, "Service air plenum area to improve drainage and install improved pollen filter seal." Dan, read the extended warranty very carefully and see if the word seal is specifically mentioned for exclusion. If it is not you have a chance. Don't let them beat you down Dan, it's a game and you have to "dance the dance" A small claims action maybe worth it.

BTW my seal is in (used the 3m product) and duck bills cut.

.... and people wonder why I am critical when others suggest it's a good deal if the dealer screws up your car and offers to 'make up for it' by providing an extended warranty. FAIL!

This warranty exclusion makes no sense on many levels. VW has a TSB which acknowledges that they designed the vehicle wrong. Why does it matter if its a seal, a washer, a gasket, or a loose screw in their head that caused the leak? The extended warranty, ahem, Service Contract, should cover a defect repair, period. If the warranty has some exclusion, then the dealer can go ask VWoA to cover the cost of the repair!

Guys, thanks for the input. The dealership fought with the warranty company, and was told that weather strip and seal are the same thing in their opinion. Each is designed to keep out water, so I am screwed, and how do you fight logically with those who don't play by rules? The warranty company doesn't want to pay, so they will find some way around it. Perhaps they will call it an Act of God if I win the fight on the semantics of weather strip verses seal. I am going to call VW Customer Care tomorrow to see if they will help, but I highly doubt it. The dealership is very anxious to get their money now too, and said they want this dealt with quickly. Real nice.

The dealer should have pre-approved this repair with the extended warranty company before even touching your car. They usually get an authorization code or similar before starting too. At least, that's always what happened when I had repairs done to my car through the extended warranty company. Don't give up yet.

Another reason why extended warranties are worthless.

They cover everything...... except for the parts on the car.

Bummer. Sorry to hear this. Glad to have mine fixed before its an issue.

DezlDan said:

Guys, thanks for the input. The dealership fought with the warranty company, and was told that weather strip and seal are the same thing in their opinion. Each is designed to keep out water, so I am screwed, and how do you fight logically with those who don't play by rules? The warranty company doesn't want to pay, so they will find some way around it. Perhaps they will call it an Act of God if I win the fight on the semantics of weather strip verses seal. I am going to call VW Customer Care tomorrow to see if they will help, but I highly doubt it. The dealership is very anxious to get their money now too, and said they want this dealt with quickly. Real nice.

Click to expand...

Guys, I cannot believe what I am about to post here, but I MUST report my good news story and let it be known that VW does care about its customers (at least in Canada). So, with the BS issue, there are many disgruntled VW Passat TDI owners, and I am one of them. There is no excuse for that. It looked like I was also going to be disgruntled over this water leak repair too, but not so.

My VW 5 Star Protection Plus extended warranty (administered by Omni Warranty Corporation) boned me and gave me no coverage for my leak and the $1000 repair bill. Lesson learned.

I called VW Customer Care and spoke to a very sweet lady, named Danielle. Although my bumper to bumper warranty expired 1.5 years ago, I explained that I am super vigilant about servicing my car and go way beyond the required service levels; that I bought an expensive extended "VW" warranty and got nothing from it in this case; that my car, and other TDI Passats should have been part of the P9 Campaign but were excluded; and that I only have about 35,000 miles on the car. She promised to make some inquiries on my behalf, and 2 weeks later I got the word that VW is going to Goodwill warranty the repair, and eat the $1000 bill.

This was a joint decision between VW Customer Care, the area Fixed Operations Manager, and the Dealership. Kudos to all involved in making this decision; especially Regency VW, who also replaced the bits and pieces that I had complained about, and were damaged during the repair. I have a small fleet of VW's and this means a lot.

As an aside, nobody could explain why the 04/ 05 TDI Passat was excluded from the P9 recall, and everyone was equally perplexed. At the end of the day, though, that is just the way it is. So, once again, please do yourself a favor and be pro-active about this very inexpensive preventative repair. It'll save you a lot of grief.

Thanks VW Canada and Regency VW.

good for you. Squeaky wheel gets the oil.....

Update

Don't neglect to do the sun roof drain modification.

Passenger side plugged up and soaked the carpet. looks like the TCM will survive.


Just when you think its all ironed out......

I've been meaning to post these pictures of my pollen filter R&R job for a while.
The foam gasket you can see when the filter is removed is NOT the one that gets replaced.

Looking down at the pollen filter housing after removal. I was able to remove it while leaving the cowel at the bottom edge of the windshield untouched. I wouldn't advise this unless you are working in a warm environment where the plastic isn't brittle. Notice crack in the gasket at the lower right corner?

Gasket removed.

A closer look at the gasket. That's a water leak into the cabin waiting to happen. Lucky for me I live in California where it never rains.

Here's the new OEM gasket material. Part number: AKD 497 010 04 NAR
I used about a foot. Five more feet available.

Here's the gasket formed into the pollen filter housing.

Before reinstalling, look under the cowell and clean up the debris.

Another look.

Reinstalled.

Great pictures. That really helps to illustrate the problem. All this time I was thinking it was the gray foam that was the problem. Thanks.

Somone PM'd me asking to purchase some of the gasket material.
The stuff is inexpensive, but I'd be happy to sell enough for this application at $5 each, US Mail, or $10 shipped via US Priority mail with tracking number.
"Offer good while supplies last." Send me a PM with your shipping instructions. This is a one-time offer and yes, this should be in the classifieds section...mea culpa.

Great info and thanks for the part # as well!

Any advice on the TSB regarding the sunroof drains ?

Looks like I will be doing both procedures next month after my car comes out of storage.

How much did the 5 feet of that cording material cost you?

Great photos and description of the plenum leak concern.


Thanks
Deming

Deming, when I had the dealer do my plenum job, the cording material was under $5.00 on my invoice believe it or not. Pretty inexpensive. They also did the sunroof drain campaign. I think it cost me like $50 or $60 to have done. So far so good.

What is involved with this sunroof campaign ?


I think I can handle the Plenum myself with the proper cording material.

Thanks
Deming

Ask AJA 8888 as he did his himself...

deming said:

What is involved with this sunroof campaign ?


I think I can handle the Plenum myself with the proper cording material.

Thanks
Deming

Click to expand...

The sunroof drains that get clogged are in the front door jam near the hinge area. Clip off the closed ends (you will see what I mean once you look at them).

Then remove the plastic cover over the cabin filter area and see if the water drain under the battery is clear. Take the rubber grommet out of the drain hole and discard it (you will have to pull the battery to do this).

For the plenum seal, you will have to pull off the wiper arms, unclip the black plastic rain tray, pull it down carefully to remove it, and you will then have access to the cabin filter housing which contains the seal you need to change out.

Assembly is reverse. This whole deal should take about an hour.

There is a TSB on this procedure is here:

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/Cowl_Service_Action_Circular.pdf

Are the sunroof drains on both sides (RF and LF) near the door hinges ?

Any pics of the location of the sunroof drains ?

Sorry for the questions, but my car is still in storage for the winter.
It comes out in May.

Thanks
Deming

deming said:

Are the sunroof drains on both sides (RF and LF) near the door hinges ?

Any pics of the location of the sunroof drains ?

Sorry for the questions, but my car is still in storage for the winter.
It comes out in May.

Thanks
Deming

Click to expand...

There is one on each side like this:

Great information.

So all I need to do is just carfully snip off the crimped ends so that the water can drain out ?

Looks easy now that I know what I am looking for on the car.

Thanks for the pic !

Deming

easiest place to get the buytl windshield tape to do the job is at any auto glass shop.

For the plenum seal, you will have to pull off the wiper arms, unclip the black plastic rain tray, pull it down carefully to remove it, and you will then have access to the cabin filter housing which contains the seal you need to change out.


What's the best way to remove the wiper arms? I've seen using a gear puller but I don't happen to have one. Thanks.

battery terminal puller