2002 Volkswagen Jetta GLS wagon from North America - Comments

It's good news and bad news that I finally find this place. I have a leaking Jetta Wagon of 2001 and have planned to solve the leaking problem. It seems now hopeless to solve it by myself.

The car shows no sign of leaking until two weeks ago when there was heavy rain and there was obvious water accumulated in the driver's side. I have tried to find where the water comes from by drain the windshield which resulted obvious water leaking under the dashboard of the driver's side.

I have called VW customer service to see if they have any helpful suggestion for this problem. The only suggestion is go to a dealer to check for it which I do not believe will solve the problem according to the posts above except costs me a lot of money and time.

Is there any progress for the law suit which I have enrolled?

Count me in if there is any further action. I can be reached at wgtang1978@yahoo.com.

Continue previous post.

Here is a post I found from a forum which I hope will help some. I'm trying to follow the suggestion by myself first.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2993188

My heart is breaking a little tonight. I just bought an 02 Jetta TDi less than a week ago and after some rain have discovered damp floors on the front and rear passenger side. The dealer did not tell me that they had a problem with leaking (how could they not have noticed, I've had the car less than a week and a wet floor after 2 rain storms...?), and in all my research about these cars, never did I dream that I should have googled "leaks."

I can't quite figure out exactly where it's coming from, possibly the windshield seal or maybe a problem with the sunroof. I began reading this thread earlier today and investigated the sunroof drains. I "manipulated" or "milked," if you will, the nipples of the drains on the inside of the door frames and managed to work loose a large hiccup of black muddy/sandy matter on both sides, so it's entirely possible that my new car was suffering from clogged sunroof drains and nothing more.

It's raining heavily tonight, so I cleared a spot in my garage and drove her in and opened the windows, hopefully I can get her dry enough to do more diagnostics. I have an appointment with the dealership in a couple of days and have written a whole list of things I want them to look over based on the experiences of all you previous posters. I really appreciate everyone posting and commiserating here, I only wish I had found this site sooner, then I would have at least known to ask if my car had issues with leaks before I bought her. I can't believe I traded a perfectly sound (and dry!) Honda Civic for this potential disaster. It's a shame because I really enjoy driving this car and am looking forward to converting it to run on WVO.

I will post any updates on my progress with this situation. Please email with any suggestions on how to handle the dealership or anything else that might be of use to me: smashingdarling@netzero.net.

Many thanks - Kristy.

Update on the above post - the 02 Jetta TDi purchased less than a week ago with the wet passenger foot wells. I took the suggestion of one of the previous posters and detached the "nipples" on the inside of the doors (not easy!) and ran a 1/4" plastic tube through both of the front sunroof drains. The tube was easily pushed through on both sides, so I determined that if they had previously been clogged (most likely, a huge amount of black muddy/sandy material came out of both drains the day before after manipulating the nipples a little), they were clogged no longer. Once that was confirmed, I replaced the nipples and then pulled the tubes out (I found that using the tubes as a guide to reconnect the inside of the nipple to the drain itself was helpful). I poured a glass of water into each drain. The drivers side drained quickly and entirely out the nipple. The passenger side, however, drained partially out the nipple and the rest into the cabin of the car. I could see the water entering the inside of the car between the side of the dash and the door and draining right onto the passenger foot well.

So, I'm not sure where exactly the leak is, but I know for certain there is a hole somewhere in the sunroof drain - the extent of any other damage is uncertain. I'm speculating that water got backed up in the drain because of the clog and that water later froze and expanded in the drain, tearing a hole in it. At least I was able to give the mechanics somewhere to start with locating the leak.

Thanks for the tips in the previous posts, as frustrating as this situation is, it's helpful that others have gone through it and can offer advice. Because I bought the car less than a week ago, the repair should be covered by the dealership. My next hurdle is to get them to install new flooring on the passenger side if it's been determined that the damage is so extensive that there is mold growth or rot or rust. I'll know more tomorrow about what they've found and will update in case the information is helpful to anyone.

I purchased a 2004 Jetta GLI new in November of 2004. Approximately 6 months ago, I noticed my first "wet floor", front and back driver's side. I chocked it up to possibly forgeting to close the sunroof. Dried it out as best I could. It just happened again, front and back passenger side. Fool me once, but not twice. I found this site, and now I know. I will take it to the dealer next week, but I'm not very optimistic.

I TOO HAVE A VW Jetta TDI, a 2001, and it also is leaking constantly with a heavy rain. This has only been going on for about 1-2 years, on and off. The first few years, the car never had this issue (despite many others...

What is one to do?

I have a 2003 golf... Whenever it rains, my car will smell like dirty diapers for the next 2 weeks... It's great!

Worst is... My father in law owns the VW dealership... I thought of bringing him to court, but that would mean having to pay for a divorce as well...

... "On the road of life, there drivers and passengers with wet feet,"

;)

A class action lawsuit against VW/AUDI. http://www.volkswagen-classaction.com/ We have signed up to be a part of this. We own a 2002 VW JETTA sedan 1.8T. Bought NEW in Oct 2001. We can write a thesis on the mountainous volume of problems that plague of vehicle from day 1. Since this is our only car we plan to trade it in next week. The $$$ spent does not justify spending more for such low mileage 51,000 all hell broke loss ie ignition coil pack, very poor placement of the ignition coil wiring where heat is king, holes found in the breather and related hoses, diverter valve, passenger door fell but was fixed under recall and the list goes on. Very unhappy with how the local VW dealerships handle these poor QA problems. Let's hit them where the wallets are at!!

I had the wet footwell and water leaking in at the hood release problem with my 2002 Jetta with sunroof back in Fall 2006. If the water gets high enough, it can migrate from the front to the back footwells too. The VW service department was too busy to try to fix my car the day I called, but I got someone who actually knew something on the phone, and he told me how to fix the sunroof drains myself. On my car, the drains come out near the front door hinges, and they have a rubber seal on them, which is supposed to open when water pressure builds behind them. They were clogged, and when I squeezed them open, out came some muddy water. I poured some water into the inlets at the corners of the sunroof to help flush it out, and my drains have been fine since then. The guy at the dealer said they just cut off the bottom seal to prevent them backing up again.

A previous poster commented that their leak due to a cracked cover on the pollen filter was due to shoddy workmanship at an oil change place -- I can't agree with that. I have replaced my pollen filter myself, and that cover is almost impossible to get in and out without breaking. It is a badly designed VW part. vwvortex has a nice how to, documenting the procedure right down the the scraped knuckles you will get trying to do it yourself!

I have a 2002 Jetta as well and am having the same problems. My car used to leak on both driver and passenger front floor mats. But by blowing some forced air, I.E. air compressor, down the holes I haven't had a problem with the passenger side. I am still having the same problem with the driver's side but under my steering column is where the air vent is and when it rains hard the pad is saturated and the floor has a unique spot from where it drips. I am to believe that some how water is getting into my air duct. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who has this problem, but am really sorry that it is happening to so many beloved VW owners.

Another victim here. 2001 1.8t jetta wolfsburg driver's side. just hit 40k miles, surprise. didn't have a very heavy rainfall so the carpet was sopping but no puddle (yet) thank goodness. nobody else really mentioned it, but my A-frame was very wet, as well as the roof liner by the handle area and visor. so it's pretty much a given to be the moonroof, I squeezed the nipple and had some water come out but not much, I will try to flush the drains some this week, but mainly worried about mildew smell.

I posted October of last year... and have since remedied my problem with the sunroof drainage tubes (there are four - two in the front, two in the back). My friend has a compressor and blew 100 lbs. of air directly into the tubes (you'll probably need an attachment because they're at weird angles). When the air went through, about five pounds of black guck came spewing out... no kidding. It was disgusting. Since then, I've had no problems whatsoever with leaking.

Hope everyone finds solutions to their problems.

Any questions, goddess0510@gmail.com.

We own a 2001 Jetta Wagon with sunroof. --

Same problem as everyone else,... flooded passenger side, front and back. Unbelievable.

We're past warranty, and I plan on tackling the drainage issue myself, but does anyone have any good solutions for getting rid of the mold and smell?

I have a 2004 Jetta that has the same leak issues on the driver side. I am taking in my car to the dealership tomorrow and see what they have to say about it. When I called them and talked to them about it, they made it sound like they have no idea what the issue could be. At least now I know that it's just not my car.

I tried to sign up for a class action but their website doesn't seem to work.

http://www.volkswagen-classaction.com

May 15, 2008 I went grocery shopping. At 9:30PM I open the trunk with the remote, put the food in and notice the trunk light is off. Soon I learn that the ignition won't work, the inside lights are out, the power windows no longer are and the door locks don't.

Four hours later after first replacing what I thought was a faulty battery I discover that all the above items are routed through one teenie 10 amp fuse. Finally at 2 in the morning with a new fuse I get the 2002 Passat home.

Furious researching has lead me to this site and two others detailing how to fix the drainage problem and the damage done to the CCM (Comfort Control Module) located in a hidden well under the drivers floorboard (US LHD version).

The two sites are www.headfuzz.co.uk and www.weirdlittlebiscuit.com/passat/leak/index

Both contain photos and detailed descriptions. Since both my wife and I are hands on types who like digging into stuff like this we think we can solve the problem ourselves. But the facts are we shouldn't have to do this kind of repair work. I've driven Volkswagens since I first got my license in 1972. I've owned '65 and '67 Beetles, '77 Rabbit and an '83 GTI (Brother I loved that car). Sadly to say we will never own another one again.

We received a recall notice to replace the air plenum to improve drainage in November of 2007 and had the work done on 5 Dec 2007. We didn't have any problems until this month. Frankly if we can't the dealer to fix this for free then we'll probably join the above mentioned lawsuits.

When it comes to customer complaints my wife is a take no prisoner kind of girl. We had some problems with our cable company last year. I told the guy he really wanted to settle this issue with me. He didn't. After the wife finished with him the problem was solved, we got a free digital converter box and fifty percent off the previous month's bill.