2002 Volkswagen Jetta GLS wagon from North America - Comments

I have a 2003 Jetta Wagon TDi - Not a single problem experienced until this week - water in the rear passenger area.

- I cleaned out the 2 front rubber nipples from the sunroof (not much there)

- I cannot find the 2 rear ones - even using the photos that were referred to at http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1909676

Any ideas? Thanks.

I have a 2002 Jetta and have been having the same water leakage problems on the driver side! I am so relieved to have found this site because now I see that it is really common. I was getting ready to take it into the dealer, but will now scratch that since they will just try to rip me off. If anyone finds out if there is a recall involving this, let me know!

Water Leak- 2005 1/2 Jetta 2.5. My Jetta started flooding the driver's side passenger floor shortly after the left door speaker (s) were replaced (the first replaced the wrong one). The dealer said it was a door seal and replaced it. Still leaked. They tested it, I tested it, couldn't find the source as it did not leak from the car wash or using the hose on the door for 15 minutes. I did find a loose rivet sticking out of the left rear front door drain. Water was evident on the seam of the door threshold where the metal and plastic meet. They took the door apart, removed the rivet but said I must have left the window open (no!). Now my driver door electronics don't work, I assume from constant moisture. At midnight I needed gas and found I could not open the fuel door and there is no bypass in the manual. I had to pry open the door with a screwdriver!

I have been trying to figure out my water problem for the past year. We finally opened the sun roof and poured a bottle of water down the drain in the corner. I sat inside with the flashlight looking down by the drain that is inside the door. The water did not come out the spout, but you could hear it gurgling, and sure enough the water was running out down inside where the hood release is and running onto the floor. We then poured water in the drain on the other side and it came shootin out the little spout. So we then run a coat hanger down and it was not plugged. They obviously have an issue with the drain tubes from the sun roof. I am going to the garage on Monday.

Just one more leaking VW story: A week after buying a 2002 VW Golf from a friend (who had never noticed any leaks before), I discovered a lot of water pooled on the *rear* driver's side floor. Today, after a rain, when I pulled down the driver's side sun visor, I got dribbled on. Water has also collected in the vanity light.

My VW clearly has a number of plugged drains. I'd like to sell, but it seems pretty crappy to pawn the problem off on someone else.

Kind of wish I hadn't sold my faithful, bombproof 1990 Jetta.

Jetta 2005 GLS. Found an inch of water in the rear passenger side footwell. Poured water in sunroof weep holes and water ran out rubber nipples in door jam. So then directed hard water spray from hose on top of rear doors and found water leaking into the cabin. Looks like the door seals have a small crack in them allowing the water to run in underneath the plastic trim that covers part of the rubber seal. This seal goes 360 degrees around the door frame as you look inside the car with the door open. We had to pop up the plastic trim in the left bottom corner very gently to see this. Now what? I've taken it to a body shop to replace the rubber door seal. The body shop will check for themselves to see if I have in fact found the culprit.

I have 2002 Jetta TDI. I have used the coat hanger on the drain plugs, but they were not clogged.. I have had this car in several times, but they can't seem to find the problem? I put automotive tape around the seal of the sunroof when I know it is going to rain, and this seems to work, but if I run the air conditioner or the heater, the floor is wet again!!! I am going to sell this car..

I finally got the mold smell out, by shampooing, wet and dry vac my carpets and using the antibacterial spray for carpets.. it took 6 months to do that... also I put a small electric heater in the car on the floor to dry out the carpet every day for 6 months.. this car is a pain... BYE BYE JETTA for me.. VW will not recall this defect and I do not know why??? Insurance will pay for your carpets just so you know if you want new..

My wife has a 2003 Jetta. She left town for 10 days, and while she was gone, we had the first "real" rain we have had in at least 6 months. Of course, it rained for 3 days. When she returned, her car smelt, shall we say musty? More like cat pee. It was a day before she noticed her shoes were wet getting out of the car. I spent the better part of the day with a wetvac, trying to salvage the carpet. then I stumbled upon this site. To try to avoid this occurrence again, I first tried the "nipples" on the sunroof drain lines. Seemed like a gallon of water came out of all of them. Hopefully this will cure the problem, and now I will know to keep tabs on the pesky drain line nipples...

10-4-09.

2002 Jetta, found that water was getting in my trunk! Took liner out and let it dry, wasn't sure how water was getting in?? Thought maybe I needed new trunk seal??

Anyhow, started looking around and noticed in the rear wheel areas where the shocks mount (top), there are extra holes, thought maybe when I was driving the water from the roads was getting in side?? Today I went to put chalk in there to cover them and found that my LEFT side driver and rear floor area had lots of water under the floor mats!!! I was like WTF???

Came inside to check the computer, because before I bought this car (used) I read that some people were having trouble with excess oil consumption!! And VW said it was normal and didn't do anything about it.

So back to finding this site, I started looking at the drains! I tested the front left one and water came out the bottom, but after a few times it started leaking out around the fuse box!!! I already pulled the nipples out! (What a lame fit!!!) (Hose to nipple) Makes me wonder how tight the blue drain hoses fit at the TOP of the hose that connect to the sun roof tray. If loose, I could understand water running down the inside of the PLASTIC A pillar cover right down the fuse box area/hood release! I will investigate!! Might have to pull headliner and check it out!! But in the mean time wet stinky floors!!!

I live in a rainy area, can’t be doing this all the time with the shop vac!!! I can understand why people have electrical problems!! Water all over the fuse box/computer/ccs!!! Work in progress! Hope I can figure it out???

Still wonder about the back floor area?? There is a raised divider under the seat that separates the front and back floor area!

I purchased a used 2005 Jetta less than a year ago with a two year certified used car warranty. In the last month we have started having a really wet fall, and I have started having ankle deep water in the back floor board behind the drivers seat, which when I stop the car, the water overflows from the back seat to the front seat and fills up under my feet in the front drivers floorboard.

I had not left a window open, and could not understand where the water had come from.

I called my dealership and was informed it was a sun-roof leak, and they would charge approximately $100.00 to water test and clean out the sun roof drains. I explained I had an extended warranty and was advised by my dealership, it did not cover this problem.

After reading almost all of the 189 comments on this website, I too do not understand why VW cannot be FORCED to make this a recall item. After all some of these comments go back to vehicles manufactured in 2000.

Do only items that are deemed "safety" related get to make the recall list? What is the criteria for placing a defect on a recall list?

I have had 3 previous vehicles (none VW's) with sun roofs and have not experienced any leak problems. So to me that indicates a manufacturing / design problem.

What can we as a collective group do to resolve this?

I have a 2003 1.8T Jetta that I bought used in 2007. This summer, I moved from Denver to Boston and now, every time it rains, my passenger side puddles with water. After reading all of the comments, there are obviously a number of things it could be. Unfortunately, as a grad student, I can't afford to take it to the dealer, and don't quite understand the step-by-step for trying to fix it on my own. It's starting to cause electrical problems and I need help! If there is anyone in the Boston/Brighton area who has successfully fixed their leak problem, and is willing to offer some advice:

fosser@bc.edu

Thanks! And good luck to everyone dealing with this unfortunate and ridiculous problem!

I have a 2002 Jetta TDI Wagon. Earlier this year the passenger side footwell would flood with water during any rain. At first I thought the issue was with the cabin air filter. However I located the problem as the sunroof drain tube on the passenger side. I rigged a small piece of tubing and attached to a garden hose and inserted the tube into the drain hole under the sunroof. I turned the water on slightly and sure enough water was running down the A-pillar and into the footwell.

I removed the grab handle on the ceiling and the sun visor. I pulled the headliner corner down and revealed the drain tube. The drain tube was disconnected and nearly 1.5 inches away from the drain connection. I connected the hose back to the connection and added a small hose clamp to help ensure that it stays put.

To test, I placed a shower nozzle from my garden over the car and sprayed the car for over an hour. So far, so good. Hopefully I have solved this problem for now.

10-14-09.

To add to my 10-4-09 comment.

CHECK YOU TAIL LIGHTS GASKETS!!! I think I found the issue with my wet trunk and wet rear floor area! Well we got a lot of rain! Enough to have mud slides... and I finally got water to get the sides of carpet wet above the floor, and it lead to the side area (between the rear door seal and bottom seat cushion). Pulled trim off and could see it lead to the trunk area. Had someone spray water on the trunk, and I had the back seat down and the flap to the area were you can change the bulbs for the tail lights open. I could SEE the water coming in at the bottom of the light where the wires plug into... makes sense, that (especially parked with front lower) the water get in and gets trunk wet and works its way to the area of the rear floor area... it's hard to notice till is good and wet, because the water runs under the carpet... if you have wet rear floor areas, pull your trunk carpet and see if it's wet too!!??

Anyhow I RTV the tail light gasket on both sides, will see if that stops the water getting in!? I think it will! There is round floor plug under the car right under the rear floor pan. I pulled mine out and could feel the carpet, so if you are one of the people that have standing water in the back, at least you can drain it, (but still have damp carpets) till you fix the leak and lift the carpets and dry them.

Now for the front floor area, I haven't gotten to it yet, but I'm going to add a pick of hose (bigger) to the end of the blue stock one, and just let it hang out and test with water again and see if I get water around the fuse box and hood release lever. Again, like I said before, most of the water goes out, but I still get it coming inside. (I think it's a loose fit where the blue hose fits into the rubber nipple and not all water gets out). I still will pull the head liner down to check the hose connections at the top of the blue hose as the person commented before this post did. I think it's very possible for the front water issues!! I was going to do this in my 10-4 post but haven't yet? I WILL!!

To add to 10-14-09 comment.

10-17-09.

I think the taillight seal is working so far!? Pulled the headliner down in the area of the grab handles and both the blue tubes were connected good, so I ran water down them for awhile, (had a extension hose on the end to make sure it came out of the A pillar) seemed to work fine! Till I got just a little bit of water touching the headliner where it extends (folds) into the sunroof tray, and in no time water came pouring out around the fuse box and hood release!! The tray for the sunroof is not very deep at all!! The slightest amount of water that gets to it will go under headliner to fuse box (this is the side I was having issues with) (you may have right side?) hood release, and vanity lights!

Anyhow, I sealed up the front of the rails for the sunroof (I can see my finger from that area from the top and my hand under the headliner) because of the small gaps, and I also put a bead of RTV along the whole edge of the headliner where it curves over the sunroof tray. Hopefully this slows/stops the water from running down the inside of the headliner??

Like I said before, the top hose connections were good and not disconnected! Guess you have to make sure the drains are clear and be careful how you park on rainy days!! The rear drains (green tubes) seem to be working fine! Now just have to wait for rain and see how things go???

From Victoria BC.

Sad to see so many with this problem, I thought I was done with the auto manufacturer nonsense after dealing with a Chevy Z24.

Now my 2004 Jetta is wet, well if you have been reading the posts, you know the story. I love driving my VW, and prior to this had a 94 Golf (got totaled by a new driver) it was a great ride too. My bet is as another poster said, the problem lies with 3rd party manufacturing, stands to reason as the one person mentioned missing seals around certain potential leak areas and cheap plastic parts. I can get that drain tubes could come loose and fall off, but that dealer should look for that and not charge full rate for repair.

The biggest... well annoyance is how the manufacturers, will not stand behind their product and will tip toe around these common problems. VW is very much a "Drivers" car, but this kind of manifestation of water log will take me elsewhere next time I buy a car. Hmmm I think back to when I was driving Hondas, these folks know how to treat a customer and they build a ride that is more like a sewing machine, but are far more fuel efficient and reliable than any cars out there, oh and have great resale value too.

Well tomorrow I will take some compressed air to the down spouts and then be off to the hardware store for a For Sale sign. Good luck to all you volks out there, and keep those windows open on a sunny day, you will want to flush all that moldy air out, and when you park it somewhere, maybe someone will make that VW disappear and you won't have to worry anymore.