Rain rain go away!!

hi gang,

not one but BOTH my B4's now have soaked carpets!!

I replaced the sunroof and insured the drains worked on the sedan last year, and there's no telltale signs of leaks in the (newly replaced) headliner. I had all the carpets and padding out of the sedan, to clean and dry it all when I did the interior restoration last year.

I ASSUME it's from that area where the ECU sits..or????

Does anyone have a recommendation on how to check and what to seal it with?

thanks,
soggy steve

Assuming its from just sitting in rain and not driving? Have you pulled the carpet up? Floors?
What about the fuel neck area behind the neck?
Rain tray area should be 100% sealed from the cabin.

it is from sitting, I didn't drive them lately.

its under the mats, carpets and padding.

I dont think it's coming for the filler neck, as the back area is not wet.

well, sounds like one of the roof drains is leaking.

One of mine collected water like it was gold. I too had cleared the sunroof drains, but the water came (into mostly the passenger front floor).

I pulled back the carpet and hosed down the windshield and raintray. Not a drop inside.

Pulled down the headliner and ran a hose over the roof, and it was coming through the sunroof. The assembly is supposed to catch drips and channel them into the drain hoses. Unfortunately, one of those channels wasn't doing its job, and the water was just dropping through and hitting the headliner, then wicking forward (my back end is lifted), then ultimately running down the A column and pooling on the floor.

I checked the shed for a roof glass with a better seal, and it was worse. So i siliconed all around the glass.

The SOB still lets water in, just in cups instead of buckets. I hope you have better luck.

I would check:

1) windshield seal
2) door weather shields (behind door panel)
3) leaks from the seams in the roof under the rails. (B3/4 Passat)

Seems first thing that's mentioned when ever someone talks about leaks is the sunroof drains, but in all my years I've only found a deficient drain only once.

The windshield seal is problematic, especially at the lower corners, that's the first place I would look.

Next, if I had to I would pull the headliner and put a hose on top of the car.

The door weather shields, behind the panels, can come loose at the bottom and that will allow water in at the bottom of the door cars where it will flow over the inner rocker cover and down on to the carpet.

The important thing is to remove enough interior trim to be able to get a clear view of the area above, the inner structure will obscure your view but you might be able to see where the water has traveled, it should show up with some staining, at least on lighter colored cars.

This all assumes that your sunroof mechanism is performing as it should. The front and the two sides of the roof panel overhang the area where drips are easily caught. The problem area is the rear edge which is supposed to have a moveable drip pan underneath it that routes water to both sides and the rear drains. If that drip pan is not there or does not get positioned properly then the water has no where to go but down on to the headliner and from there onto the seats or down on the carpet.

This is the one thing I hate about these cars, B3/4 and Mk3 although I think the latter are easier to deal with.

If I had a choice, and unfortunately I don't being a used car buyer, I would prefer to get a car with no sunroof. It doesn't solve everything but it's a start, and in all honesty they never get used as much as one would think given the proliferation of this option now, and I really can't stand having it open all that much.

Steve

thanks everyone!

so the sedan had a new windshield installed a year ago (and PROMPTLY met a large rock and cracked it again!) I'll try that with a hose and see it it still has a decent seal to the body.

I would figure if its a sunroof issue, I'd see wetness somewhere in the headliner (I had ALL this removed, and replaced the sunroof mechanism with a good used unit I had, and installed a new fabric piece on the headliner.

I don't think it's from the door area, but I'll put a chalk line on the rocker cover, and see if a leak washes it away.

thanks everyone!

regards,
Steve

Left side, right side or both? Have you checked the foam gasket at the cabin filter?

-Todd

both sides

Yeah I have a similar thing going on with my B4, for me its only the driver side. I have tried the rails on the top with silicone, and that didn't change anything. I have done some silicone around the windshield and no improvement. I should check the door skins, and take a closer look at the sunroof.

I had one that I fixed in the trunk on my silver one by taking out the rear tail light cover and sealing all cracks with silicone. I also made a line of silicone that sends most of the water around the tail light instead of over it. The last thing I did was seal the seam on the right upper side of the trunk near the seal. That seemed to fix that.

well, it's NOT the sunroof!

We just had a nasty storm here, and I had covered the sunroofs with tape.

The floors are really wet now.

you ever check your windshield drains? this can cause it to flood the interior. and i forget what year/model. but on some the drains come out behind the front doors where it hinges. the hose comes detached from the adapter and floods the floor pan.

DivineChaos said:

you ever check your windshield drains? this can cause it to flood the interior. and i forget what year/model. but on some the drains come out behind the front doors where it hinges. the hose comes detached from the adapter and floods the floor pan.

Click to expand...

You're thinking of the sunroof drains, the cowl drains are just square openings on either end and yes a person should check to make sure they're clear. The driver side is easy because the cover doesn't extend that far but the passenger side will need to have the cover removed completely to check the drain opening.

The cowl drains are forward of the doors, you can also check them by pulling the fender liners but that's a little tedious.

Since both sides are getting wet I'm going to suggest that it's likely not the hvac air intake unless it's that combined with something else. The driver side won't get hit with water from the air intake.

My first stop would be bad windshield seal.

Steve

My leak was the windshield seal. The windshield I replaced was not installed correctly. The gasket seems to give the average installer some problems getting it set properly in the channel. I also suggested they use more than the normal amount of adhesive in the upper corners.

Also, if you haven't pulled the carpets, there is a thick foam under-layment that acts like a sponge. I must of squeezed a couple of gallons out of them. So even if the leak is fixed, you still may have wet carpets for awhile.

That's why I removed that carpeting and put closed cell foam with cutouts in its place. This way it can breathe and not hold water.

Not to mention the constantly wet carpet will eventually give you a moldy musty smell that is very hard to get rid off. An ozone generator was the only thing that seemed to work to get rid of that smell.

Put a few drops of uv dye in the sunroof drain area, not enough to go down the drain though. If it's clear, then look elsewhere. I'm thinking a seam or area is rusted out next to the air cabin filter area. Possible that it's a hidden issue. I'm assuming you have already cleared your cowel drains

I solved the wet carpet on the drivers side floor recently. I thought for a while it was in the firewall, and wasted a bunch of caulk in there with no results. It was definitely the lower windshield seal. I fixed mine with metal tape, which looks a little rough, but good enough for a 25 yr old car.

jdulle said:

I solved the wet carpet on the drivers side floor recently. I thought for a while it was in the firewall, and wasted a bunch of caulk in there with no results. It was definitely the lower windshield seal. I fixed mine with metal tape, which looks a little rough, but good enough for a 25 yr old car.

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Clearly a bandaid over a bigger issue. Now you know where it is, can be fixed when able.
I ran for a few years with no vowel or drip edge at all. No water inside.

Driver Door Seal was the problem.

Yes, a number of years ago, I went through all of this too. Replace windshield, sealed up the various places that might be it, but finally pulled the carpet and underpadding (for the Nth time) and put down newspaper before a rain.
Turned out to be the rubber door seal at the front bottom on the driver's door. Funny thing is, even after a door seal replacement, it still leaks!!
I ended up solving it by taking aluminum flashing, and folding it into a kind of envelope shape, and velcro-ing it just inside the driver's door toward the front (after having pulled all the plastic covering, down to bare metal, wires, etc.). I then use one of those golden colored super absorbent German? fabric cut pieces (synthetic chamois?) folded inside the "envelope" and drape the edge up toward the door seal, so if any water sneaks up over the edge, it gets pulled by capillary action into the metal envelope, and does not go into the carpet.
I back it up underneath the metal envelope with additional gold absorbent fabric piece or two, so with any heavy rain, or my neglecting to empty the envelope, it stays in the absorbent fabric piece rather than seeping down into the carpet.
This solution is what I have been using for about 6 or more years, and DRY CARPET ever since...no more pulling and squeezing, which was so irritating.
Hope this helps.

whmcc said:

Yes, a number of years ago, I went through all of this too. Replace windshield, sealed up the various places that might be it, but finally pulled the carpet and underpadding (for the Nth time) and put down newspaper before a rain.
Turned out to be the rubber door seal at the front bottom on the driver's door. Funny thing is, even after a door seal replacement, it still leaks!!
I ended up solving it by taking aluminum flashing, and folding it into a kind of envelope shape, and velcro-ing it just inside the driver's door toward the front (after having pulled all the plastic covering, down to bare metal, wires, etc.). I then use one of those golden colored super absorbent German? fabric cut pieces (synthetic chamois?) folded inside the "envelope" and drape the edge up toward the door seal, so if any water sneaks up over the edge, it gets pulled by capillary action into the metal envelope, and does not go into the carpet.
I back it up underneath the metal envelope with additional gold absorbent fabric piece or two, so with any heavy rain, or my neglecting to empty the envelope, it stays in the absorbent fabric piece rather than seeping down into the carpet.
This solution is what I have been using for about 6 or more years, and DRY CARPET ever since...no more pulling and squeezing, which was so irritating.
Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Aren't those called a ShamWOW?

Glad you found a way of keeping the interior from getting soaked. It's unfortunate that these sorts of things still go on even after repeated attempts to stop them.

I hate leaks of any kind, one reason I would not be a good candidate for a convertible and neither do I really care to have a car with sunroof, just because of these things.

Often I wonder what they're going to do when all of these pano-roof optioned cars have problems with the mechanism or assembly? It can't see people very willing to spend a lot of fixing that crap.

Steve