Rainwater leak

[Nero Morg]

I'm close to my wits ends here. This time my own car, 03 wagon.

Whenever we get a hard rain, just the drivers floor is damp. No swimming pool or anything like that, but moist to the touch. I've already checked my sunroof drains, they're still attached and not plugged. I had glued my bulkhead pass through that's under the cowl cover a few years ago.

Whats odd is theres no sign of water running down the firewall, is there somewhere else it could be getting in?

 

[WolfgangVW]

I'm close to my wits ends here. This time my own car, 03 wagon.

Whenever we get a hard rain, just the drivers floor is damp. No swimming pool or anything like that, but moist to the touch. I've already checked my sunroof drains, they're still attached and not plugged. I had glued my bulkhead pass through that's under the cowl cover a few years ago.

Whats odd is theres no sign of water running down the firewall, is there somewhere else it could be getting in?

I’ve had water get in my driver door basically the top where the window starts to angle down. I think it’s due to the weather stripping getting old etc. It only has happened ( that I noticed ) when it’s a hard driving windy rain and I’m on the highway. Like I’ll catch it drip every so often and not a lot. In my case it’s never amounted to the carpet getting wet but it would be possible if the leak was worse. Not sure if this helps but another place to look ??

 

[mk4mr]

Every time I see a post about wet floors, I have to chime in. I have an 01' wagon, with no S-roof, that was getting "gallons'' of water in the driver's floorboard with any decent rain. I checked all of the obvious things, and found some rather concerning ones, but I still had lots of water in the floor after any rain. I finally received a hint in a VW forum from a guy who had car that started taking on rainwater rather suddenly, and the only thing that had been done to the car was window regulator work, where the metal regulator panel had been removed. He went back and used kitchen/bath caulk and sealed around the metal window regulator panel and his water problems ended. I caulked around all 4 of mine out of desperation, and I have no water problems at all now. It might not be what's happening with your car, but it was with mine and at least one other guy out there. It might be worth looking into since waterproof caulk is so cheap anyway. I could tell where someone had pried under the edge of my panels in multiple places so there was no seal when they were bolted back on. Hope you find the issue. I know how irritating it is to have damp, musty carpet...then you get condensation on the glass inside too....

 

[Andyinchville1]

My car has no sunroof and I had a water leak that , on a long rain, would run down the area inside the driver firewall area , soak the front carpet and make a small puddle in the rear seat footwell.

My leak , and maybe yours, came from the cowl area drivers side where there is a bunch of wires going in to the car .... it's on by the flat spot near the windshield wiper area towards the outer side it the car drivers side ... its on a horizontal section. Not vertical. .. it looks like a rectangular box bolted down I believe .... ( I know a pic would be much better but I can't figure how to post pics here but if you pm a cell number I can text them) ...

The proper fix is a new gasket but that looked real hard to do (stiff wires, cramped area etc) so I cleaned the area well with isopropyl alcohol and siliconed the area of the box.

The first application stopped most of the leak ... it's hard to get to. A second application if silicone sealer did the trick .... have not had leaks since.

Andrew

 

[Nero Morg]

I've removed some of my interior trim so I can try and watch it as it rains. I had to replace my drivers door latch assembly recently, and the metal panel was glued TIGHT when I first took it off, so I'm willing to dismiss that for now.... Since the cowl wiring pass through was an issue before, I wonder if it's an issue again...

 

[csstevej]

I’ve had it leak from two locations.
The first was from the hood release cable through the firewall, the rubber was cracked and silicone fixed that.
The second was when I pulled the inner door panel while changing the door lock actuato , the leak was where the inner panel was sealed with that sticky foam strip , some of it ripped off, again some sealant after the panel was reinstalled fixed that issue. I ran a bead along the bottom and up about an inch or so on either side where the door turns up.
Thats where mine were at.

 

[Nero Morg]

The weather thought it'd pull a prank on me and not rain all week with my interior torn apart. Well it started raining today, guess it's the door leaking.

 

[csstevej]

Nice find!

 

[P2B]

The weather thought it'd pull a prank on me and not rain all week with my interior torn apart. Well it started raining today, guess it's the door leaking.

Door drains are plugged? You can use a hacksaw blade to clear them from the bottom, but if there is detritus inside the door they will plug up again.

 

[Nero Morg]

I made sure they were all clear when I replaced the door latch assembly. I think it's rolling down the inside like others have said. I guess I'm going to have to pull the panel off and wait now

 

[csstevej]

All you really need to do is remove the bottom three screws and pop the lower part of the panel loose , block it so you have a gap and then run a bead of sealant along the bottom , maybe 10 minutes to do it.

 

[Gothmolly]

I get leaks but only at speed in driving rain, from years of frozen doors tearing apart the weatherstripping when opened.

 

[csstevej]

Use either Vaseline or silicone spray on a rag and wipe down the rubber door seal , Clean the seal area on the door and doors will never stick again.....

 

[tgray]

The best way I found to figure this stuff out is to get everything dry and a hose with a full stream of water pouring where water would normally fall. Start at the bottom and work your way up the car around window and then to the sun roof. Keep looking until you find the problem. The hose will help you narrow things down. I had a sun roof that could not handle a hard rain and would over flow the channel. I think the top gasket shrunk or something out of adjustment. I finally gave up and caulked it shut as I never use it. Of all the issues in these cars these leaks are the most frustrating I have ever dealt with on any car I have owned. I have also had windshields rust out the paint under the hold down glue and everything looks fine until a hard rain. One way I narrowed that down was to put masking tape around the windshield to temporarily block the water flow.