We have only had this car for a year and a half. We experienced some problems with water leakage this past winter.
Something caused water to pool at the base of the driver and passenger doors, inside the vehicle, where the rocker panel meets the front fender.
Because temperatures were extremely low this winter, this water froze and expanded. The ice warped the door frame. Now, the doors do not open properly and the paint job is ruined.
Has anyone else experienced these kinds of problems? Where is this leak coming from? Is water being forced into the door frames when the front tires kick up water from the road, or is it coming through elsewhere?!
I don't think the repairs fall under any of our warranties. Unfortunately, I don't think we will keep the vehicle beyond our four year lease if Volkswagen
doesn't do the necessary repairs for free.
The source of your water is almost definitely from a problem with your sunroof, assuming you have one. I had a similar problem, noticing a strange sloshing sound in the back seat. I called my dealer (always a good move when you have a car problem, at least when you have a good dealer) and they took it in right away. It turned out that my the drain from the sunroof out the side pillar of the car had become misaligned.
The end result was that water puddled in the back foot well (floor of back seat), and then mildewed a bit. The dealer fixed the problem under warranty at 20,000 miles (I'm pretty sure it's actually covered up to or past 50,000 here in the US), then kept it for a day or two longer so they could clean and dry the carpet. I got a loaner for the whole time the car was in the shop.
I had the same problem. Water would build up in the passenger front footwell... soaking the carpet. My dealer finally traced the problem to the moon roof drains being clogged. They blew them out with compressed air and the leak stopped. After two weeks to verify the car was no longer leaking, they replaced the carpets, under warranty. 2002 Golf GLS with 32000 miles.
Our 2001 Volkswagen Golf 1.8 has the same problem with the front doors becoming jammed with ice in the winter. It appears that melting snow and ice from the the door-surround leaks down the front door posts and re-freezes at the base. Ice build up over time and interferes with the bottom corners of the doors as they are opened. The metal skin on the door corners have bent and curled by this repeated stress.
The newer models of Volkswagen have an elegant "fix" to this problem as I have seen that rubber spacers have been fitted at the base of the door post in order to preclude the build-up of ice.
We had the problem fixed at no cost in 2003, after emphasizing that this is a design flaw, not a warranty issue, but the problem recurred in the winter of 2004 and now the doors are rusting. It is currently being "fixed" again and one can only hope that this problem will not recur.
We are having the same water problem with our 2000 Golf. The carpeting is often covered with over an inch of water in the backseats. As it took us a while to figure out the source (drainage tubes in the sunroof), the car now smells strongly of mold and mildew. We called the dealership and Volkswagen, but were told by both that since the clog was due to outside sources (leaves and such) it was NOT covered by any warranty, and replacing the carpeting would cost $700 for just the labor! Suffice to say we are hopping mad, and as this is, in fact, a common problem, I would advise you not to buy a Volkswagen with a sunroof.
Class action suit against VW for water leaks is underway.
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