2002 Volkswagen Jetta GLS wagon from North America - Comments

I wrote back in November about a leaking 2003 jetta wagon. Since then I have had it in for service on several occasions and have been able to nearly fix the problem. I am not completely certain that my troubles are over, but here is what has been done: I attempted to snake the lines from the sunroof myself, but this made things worse. (I think all I accomplished here was actually pulling the A pillar drain from the drain hole, causing water to seep straight through the pillar as well as under the dash and through the hood release, so I don't recommend snaking the lines) I tried to push water through the lines to unclog them (this just proved that clogged lines weren't the problem), and by the way, VW suggests that using compressed air to clear the lines is another good way to actually blow the drain pipe from the drain at the tray- not recommended. Dealership removed the entire headliner-thank god for warranty-over five hours in labor- and they found that the seals above the a pillars at the drain were missing- factory defect. They replaced the seals and I had less water inside the car. It was still leaking badly, so I took it back. They found that the seals around the outside air intakes at the firewall are also missing or faulty-this explains why some cars WITHOUT sunroofs leak too. It has rained heavily on the car for a week now, and no significant water inside. As a good measure, they are replacing the door seals. Water lasts for a long time inside the vehicle as it pools under the carpets and soaks them every time the vehicle is at an angle. I believe the problem is fixed, but the interior will never be the same. Hopefully some of these remedies work for others- I will keep posting updates.

All I can say is "WOW!". It's interesting how the problems are in two broad categories -- passenger or driver's side.

In my case, it's the same as the person 2 or 3 posts previous: (a) first you see condensation everywhere (b) then the stench (c) then you realize the driver's front and rear floor is flooded (d) you get on line and type "WOW!".

2003 Jetta VR6. Bought brand new. Now has 40K miles and just had this problem start up in early December _before_ the big freeze down here in Texas... so it's not caused by ice expanding inside compartments... although I wonder now if the ice storm made the situation 10x worse.

Please! If anyone knows of a REAL class action that is run by a well know, high-integrity, name brand law firm -- post it! Otherwise, I'll take a pass and probably just dry the sucker up and sell it faster than you can say "Car Survey Anyone?".

PS: Not commenting positive or negative on this Dr. Vinnie guy that was mentioned earlier. If anyone has confirmed the integrity and professionalism of the law firm he associates with, please post your opinions to help the group decide.

Another update on 2000 Jetta with no sunroof. After pulling back the Driver side carpet and cutting out the padding under the carpet (it will go back in). I got the car 100% dry inside. :o)

Today was find the leak day. I had the windshield replaced due to a crack and had the tech leave the plastic "cowl/cover" off that covers the windshield wiper and cabin air filter well.

I put the hose in the drivers side of the well and turned it on real low. After a short amount of time I had a puddle in the drivers footwell. This means I can point to the well as the culprit. Drivers side.

In that "well" there is a plastic box located under the wiper linkage. Don't know what it does, but my guess is that it's not sealed anymore and is giving me my leak. Calling the dealer in the morning to talk to a tech and see if this is something they've dealt with before.

Please feel free to let me know if you've got any answers...

Hey, fellow Jetta owners. If I do the same as the above post and start pulling out carpets, is it easy to put the carpet back together in "mint" condition?

Is there a URL someone can point me to in order to pull back and replace the carpet properly? I'm out of warranty and not keen on paying someone to fix VW's engineering flaws (my 1976 dodge pickup didn't leak... why a 21st century 3yr old vehicle leaks, I have no idea).

No Sunroof Jetta Owner here...

You can't really "pull the carpets" completely out. You can do one side or the other really because the carpet goes from the dash to the back seated and is one piece. I pull my carpet back from the door side and folded it up toward the tranny hump to get under it. Here is what I did.

I began by pulling the driver's seat. Which is achieved by unscrewing two bolts under the front middle of the seat and then releasing the small plastic clip that sits between the two bolts. The seat then goes out the back of the trays behind it. Careful though, you have to detach the electircal attachements before removal. There are 3 underneath.

Next... I began removing plastic fascia pieces such as left foot rest, under dash items, fascia next to console (where your right knee might hit while driving), and the then lifted the frontmost portion of the threshhold plastic. IN all of these cases, items removed with a small screw hidden under a plastic cover, or by sliding or poping into place.

After these items were removed, I peeled the carpet loose from the front left corner and worked it loose toward the back seat. Then I lifted it toward the console.

After this the padding was exposed. I elected to cut out the padding in order to 1) Dry it completely, and 2) have easy access to future leaks while diagnosing the problem.

Hope this helps.

I wrote back in November about my 2003 tdi and the water problem on the passenger side. I gave up on the dealer and took the car to a body shop this week. They took apart the interior of the car including removing the doors. They discovered that the drain hose from leading from the sunroof was disconnected. The passenger door has to be removed to access the hose. How the pipe became disconnected is unknown. Water leakage was not a problem during the first two years of ownership. In any case, we think the problem with my car has been corrected.

Thanks to the above 'no sunroof jetta owner here' poster.

I was pressed for time, so I left the seat in place.

I just removed one screw on the left foot pad (very top of pad) and slid the plastic foot pad up towards the underside of the dash. This was necessary because there are three plastic hook-like things that keep it in place against the metal flooring. It also has a nasty lip tucked under the left side fascia... had to do some yanking.

The rest was done with a flat-head screwdriver by popping out the plastic molding along the bottom rim where the door meets the carpet. I was able to pull up the carpet so that I could wedge the left foot pad on it's edge under the carpet (like you're making a tent).

Just used towels and then a hot blower over 48 hours to get it 90% dry. I didn't cut the bottom padding, but only because I plan to sell this lump of metal in the coming weeks. If I was forced to keep it, I would have surely taken a blade to it.

By the way, I bought some foot talc that claimed to soak up 114% of its weight. Dusted under the carpet with it hoping that (a) it would take care of the last 10% of hidden moisture and (b) deal with the smell. If it can handle sweaty feet...??? Dumb idea?

In closing, just want to say I really love VW Jetta 1.8T and VR6 models. I've owned 3 VWs for 7 years now, but I think much like Dell Computer, VW has gone to the 'dark side' where manufacturing in (name your 3rd world) with unskilled labor and using cheap plastic parts has taken a permanent toll on quality. Remember the days when you drove a car off the lot knowing it was built somewhere in Europe by skilled craftsmen? Sniff... me too... :-)

We own a Jetta 2002. We had the whole problem of water, smell, etc. We almost sold the car.

Thanks to my neighbor we fixed our problem. Besides cleaning the sun-roof drain (where the water goes in), you need to clean the little pipe that lets the water goes out. Open the door (driver or passenger), there you will see a short rubber pipe coming out of the car. Clean that and the water will come out of the car. That was pretty darn simple.

Just a heads up to the person who posted above about cleaning out that rubber pipe and then water will run through it, I tried that and in the long run it didn't save my car : (The problem is much more serious, and still unsolved, so watch out!

I have a 2003 Jetta TDI GLS wagon. Water leaking into passenger and driver side... no pattern, sometimes driver-side, sometimes passenger-side... sometimes both. Dealer utterly unhelpful, and shoving the responsibility on me. Have cleared sunroof drains, seemed to help for short while, now back to same symptoms, only worse. The drains ARE NOT CLOGGED. Would love to hold VW accountable for this unacceptable design flaw. Please send recall/lawsuit info to fox. walker at gmail.com. Thanks.

I have a 2002 Jetta Wagon GLS. I also had a water issue

on the passenger side - 3-4 inches of water. I had a friend

of mine check underneath and he discovered the pollen filter cover was cracked. Having serviced the car a week earlier explained the reason - the filter had been recently changed. I called the dealer, brought in the car and after 5 days the floor was dry, the car detailed and pollen filter and cover replaced. (cost - 0.00) After reading prior posts - I got off pretty lucky.

Yeah, you were lucky :) The passenger side water leakage is the easier side to have the leak on, as most people find that it is a cracked pollen filter, the driver side water leakage is what I had and the more serious of the two sides. The problem was never resolved and I had to get rid of the car. The mechanics that looked at it said it was prob. a rip or tear in the firewall or inner portion of the dash, what a mess to have to rip the entire front end of the car to find out, so they both advised to get rid of it, and boy am I glad.

I'm afraid that other VW owners will get confused, however, if and when water leaks into their car on the passenger side thinking that once the pollen filter is replaced all will be well, my advice is to still keep an eye on the driver's side where the bigger problem lies. If you see water there, on the driver's side, it's not a cracked filter or clogged drains and I wish you the best of luck in fixing it, it's literally a headache once the mold begins to grow in your carpets : (I speak from experience unfortunately.

I just got rid of my 2001 Jetta wagon. Passenger side water leak. It had gotten so bad, that there was mold, smell and a general toxic mess. Carpet, padding was saturated and covered in mold. Health hazard, plus cost was too much for me to try and get fixed. I got a Honda.

I own a 2003 jetta wagon and about 6 months ago, after a night of heavy rain, the front driver and passenger floor area was saturated with water. Feeling the amount of water in the car made my stomach sink, for I knew that water takes a long to time to evaporate. I took it to a VW shop and they said the sunroof drain hoses were blocked. They cleaned it out and I haven't had water in the car since, BUT THE SMELL WAS STILL THERE and IT WAS GETTING WORSE because things have started to grow underneath the carpet. I did everything to get rid of the smell, but so far, nothing has worked. I AM SO MAD OF THIS DEFECT! I have no choice, but to sell the car! If there is a VW engineer/designer reading this, you need to take responsibility for this defect.

Some helpful information here folks. Can anyone direct me to the sunroof drain location or the pollen filter? I have a water leak on the passenger side of a 01 Jetta. - The leak seems to be coming in somewhere on the side of the dash? It is definitely not the windshield as that has been checked professionally already. Thanks in advance.