2002 Volkswagen Jetta GLS wagon from North America - Comments

I seem to have a very similar issue that I just noticed today. Heavy rains on the Coast in Southern CA. I have a 2004 Jetta GLI and based off others comments I'm getting nervous about my Recaro seating becoming drenched.

My Fiance noticed her purse was soaking wet earlier today, I figured it was just her shoes. Later that day her purse was soaked again, so we felt the floor and it was soaked. I lifted the floor mat and noticed the floor of the passenger front seat was soaked even more so.

The wet area is a very circular centered section (like a puddle formed on your houses carpet coming from the ceiling). It appears the soaking is coming from underneath the carpeting because the sides of the flooring (by the door, under the glove box, by the vent near the gear box) were completely dry. There are no other wet or moist areas that I am aware of inside the car (I have yet to check the trunk).

I have since removed the floor mat and semi-dried the floor with a towel, then searched online to find this site. I'll check on the drains when it stops raining and talk to my local dealer when I get a chance.

Count me in on a possible class-action, or if the dealer reads this, I'd love a free correction to the problem.

I can be reached at shtiksh@hotmail.com on either of those two requests or any specific questions dealing with my water issue.

I have a 2001 Jetta TDI with sunroof which is experiencing the same problem. I have also found the following class action lawsuit proposal based on this problem.

http://www.volkswagen-classaction.com/

I too am having the same leaking problems in my 2004 Jetta. It just started this Fall. I am very frustrated this is happening, but I am glad to know I am not the only one. I thought I was losing my mind!

Okay...I mean we all have these water issues, but are doing what again about them? there may not be much we can do, without knowledge, but someones got to have it! WHERE THE HECK is the solution?

I have a solution to try for anyone waking up to flooded floors with a VW. I drive an 02 Jetta and am fed up with dealers ignorance and took to researching sunroof drain problems and found some very good advice out there.

I at first thought I probably had a clog since that's the main response you get from mechanics. I found the drain nipples in my front driver and passenger doors and the first thing I did was cut off the end! Next I poured water down the drains in the sunroof to find out which was the problem... water ran out the drivers door and behind both back tires so no problem there. However the water running out of the passenger front side was not through the drain, but instead under the dashboard and straight onto the floor.

I rationalized that if it had been clogged, a drop or two may have squeezed through the drain, but there wasn't one, or at least the water would have backed up and leaked out the ceiling, but again, no water there. So I determined the tube was disconnected from the nipple in the passenger door. So I popped the nipple off (which is easier said than done, the little thing was quite stubborn, plus you don't have a lotta room to work with between the car and the door). No tube connected, and NO I didn't disconnect it when I pulled it off, it wouldn't have fallen as easily out as it did. So I fished around for the tube inside, and of course couldn't find it.

So I got some quarter inch-thick tubing from Home Depot and ran it down the drain through the sunroof until I could grab it through the hole in the door and there was the main tube... blue in my 2002 Jetta. Pushed the nipple back onto the tube and back into the hole (far harder than pulling the darn thing out, that's for sure). I left the tubing in let it run a couple inches farther out of the drain in the door for drainage. At the top I stuck a pin through the tube so it won't fall into the main tube and that is now serving as the tube within the tube to help drain.

Poured more water down and TADA! No water in the car! I'm sure this is not a textbook fix, but I'm a female and for me this is huge, and all it cost was $2.50 for the tubing. No dealer offered that!

Now if I can just get the carpet pads dry before the mold starts growing...

My car is a 2002 VW Jetta Wagon without a sunroof.

I, along with the rest of you, have been having the water problem, and was recently able to solve my problem, although I am not sure if this will help yours.

I took the cover off some kind of air filter located on the passenger side under the hood, right in front of the windshield. I believe it is the interior air filter. I noticed the cover is cracked, which allowed the water coming off the windshield to run into the air filter and into the car. So far fixing this has fixed my leak. It was not a factory defect; I believe it occurred when my wife took it to get the oil changed (which I usually do myself) and they checked the filter, and some idiot just crammed the cover back in without being careful and cracked it. So beware of those quick oil change places, because on the same visit they wanted to charge her $80 to change a part that costs about $3, and takes about 2 minutes to change without any tools. Luckily she knows a little about cars and called them out on it. Hope this helps.

2002 Golf TDI. 2 years ago took it to the dealer for mildew smell and he tells me my mistake was parking near trees, tells me there's a pool of water just sitting beneath me and that all the wires are corroding and that what I need is to have the VW people take out all the seats and all the floor so they can drain it and replace the padding. He quotes over a grand in labor and I say no and he says he can make it a "flood job" and report it to the insurance as damage from a recent tropical storm that wiped out a good amount of cars (this is in Houston). Don't know why, but I bite.

Two years later the smell comes back and first thing I do is rue the day trees came into existence, except I know that it's all malarkey that stuff about parking/driving near trees to clog up the sunroof drains because A) both trees and debris came before Golfs, B) heard that from the dealer, and C) I stopped parking anywhere near trees two years ago and the smell is back. Mildew all over again and I'm thinking of Seinfeld and the B/O car. What's worse is that the passenger floor is wet this time. I know this because I keep all my cd's in cases on the passenger floor and found them to be wet. At first blamed the wife for that one but after the first whiff of pungency, I decide to take quick and cheap action.

So I take it to a shop I find after typing "Volkswagen Houston repair" into Google and sifting through the non-dealers and there's only one and it deals mostly with the pre-1980 VWs. I tell the guy the problem and he takes a whiff and decides he'll take my money, but that it's likely a cat that peed "all up" in my car that somehow surreptitiously got in since I own no cat and since it smells just like cat pee. Either that or dog pee, he tells me.

Just got back from this guy's shop after he "hosed 'er down" to check for leaks (there were none). He told me my passenger side didn't feel wet and implored me to feel for myself whereupon I felt with my own hand and all I got were some really dirty-looking boogers right there on the palm, courtesy, I'm sure, of the guy that hosed 'er down. And that's what made me type "stink volkswagen mold" into google which lead me to this site and now I want to type "really very upset volkswagen trade toyota" and see where that leads me.

I have an odd feeling I will be driving with my head out the window for months after reading all these commiserations. I will attempt the nipple maneuver with extreme caution, so as not to upset the Teutonic gods. Guess I deserve it for being pushed around at the dealer's initially. Sorry for the length, but I am venting. Any good ideas for getting mildew stink out of the car?

Same problems! 2001 Jetta GL. I live in SoCal where it rarely rains. One morning after a night of heavy rain I had standing water in my passenger footwell. I then had two options: replace the carpet and padding for $750 thru my insurance, or have an auto upholstery place replace the padding and allow the carpet to dry for $250. The owner of the place even has a daughter with a 2001 Jetta and cleans the drains regularly. I think the culprit was my sunroof since there was a bit of moisture in the A frame. We're expecting more rains in the next few weeks and if I have another flood in my car I'm gonna go nuts since this has happened to SO MANY unsuspecting, considerate VW owners! Why was there no warning of these well-documented problems in the owners manual!?!?! The car place that replaced the padding was Jim's Auto Upholstery in San Diego, contact them if you need replacements!

I have a 2001 VW Jetta with about 2 inches of water on my passenger side floor board. I did some searches on the web and found some advise on possible fixes and have pasted them below.

Incidentally, I called VW customer care and spoke to my "customer advocate" (ha!) who told me that I should go to the dealership for repairs and that she had no further information on why the problem is so persistent amongst VWs. I'm going to try the recommendations below and if they don't work I will go to the dealership and negotiate away!

1. Does your car have a sunroof? If so, you may have a plugged sunroof drain.

2. Has any warranty work been done to that passenger door, like window regulator, etc. If so, there is a moisture barrier (plastic shield) and sometimes mechanics, in their rush, will tear it or forget to replace it. This moisture shield will sometimes re-direct water leaking past the window "squeegee" (rubber strip at the bottom of the window) into the door drains. If there is no moisture barrier, the water leaking past the squeegee will drip into the car instead.

Fixes:

1. Push sunroof all the way back. Using gentle air pressure, blow into front sunroof drain (there are usually two, front and back). Then pour a small amount of water into sunroof channel. Water should be seen draining somewhere in back of front tire. If no water is draining, and you can't unplug the drain by air pressure, you may have to dig into the headliner or window trim to get at the channel. There is usually a small section of rubber hose that can be cleaned.

2. Obviously replace the moisture barrier and the window squeegee.

I have a 2002 VW Jetta with a sunroof and the same problem - after 2 bouts of heavy rain this month, I've found deep puddles on my driver side floor. Had to bail it out like a boat! I've noticed it only happens when I park downhill during the storms - level ground and uphill are fine. I called the Dealer after the second leak, and he said it was probably the sunroof drains, and that they should be cleaned every year or so (costs about $150 to have them do it). No one ever told me about this when I bought the car! I've owned cars with sunroofs since I was 16 and have never had this problem. Now, 1 day after the second leak, my speedometer and clock LCDs stopped working, can't wait to hear how much that's going to cost to fix.

1998 Jetta with no sunroof. Had a similar problem. Found a vent thing under passenger side windshield wiper under plastic shielding. The plastic shielding was not installed correctly after the windshield must have been replaced and it was folded back exposing the vent so the water was being directed into the vent instead of around it causing it to pour right down into the car. I forced the shielding so it was around the vent thing and hopefully no more leaks.

I am also in Southern California and it has been raining here more often than other years.

I have always parked my car outside, and had never had an issue until two weeks ago.

I was out of town one day and returned to discover my 2001 Jetta GLX flooded about 3 inches in the rear passenger floor and 2 in the front passenger floor.

I am so peeved after reading that this is an ongoing problem and that VW has taken no accountability for this matter.

I am taking my car into the dealership tomorrow and am fearing I will be told I need to spend several hundred dollars to fix the sunroof drains---which is totally absurd!

If anyone has any info on how to handle this, please email me. I am in full support of a class-action suit with this!

Erin_ab@yahoo.com THANKS!

I have a 2001 VW Jetta and have had several problems. Currently I have noticed dampness on the front passenger floor and up where the windshield and roof meet. Today there was a significant amount of water on the floor (after ice and rain all day). I scooped some water out with the plastic floormat and then soaked up what I could with a towel when I got home from work. Now I just have a towel down to catch any new waterfall, but it is so cold out and the wetness has frozen on the floor. I am scared of how much this is going to cost me to fix! I am calling around in the morning to see where to take it. I had no idea this leaking issue was so common with VW's, especially Jettas, but now I have been hearing of so many other owners with problems. I am so frustrated! Why don't they send out a recall so owners are aware of the problem before it becomes so bad?? How much does it usually cost to fix the leak? My car was bought used and is no longer under any warranty. Does anyone have any advice? I am also worried about being taken advantage of as far as what I am charged to fix the problem...

I too have the same problem with my 2002 VW jetta. Water leaks

into Driver side and Passenger side. I just bought it a couple of days ago. The dealer said that they didn't know that the car leaked. Total BS. I felt I was totally ripped off. I did some research and I'm going to attempt to fix it myself. I have noticed that there could be several areas that are the problem. Sunroof, wind shield, and the doors. I will go by process of elimination and find the root cause, but I"m afraid there might be several areas that are leaking. Until its fixed it will parked under a roof... PLease can someone help US!!!

Splitline@gmail.com.

What could be causing water to leak into a 2000 Passat wagon on the driver' s side floor board? It seems to be a common question in this car survey. It is still winter so the mold has yet to develop.

I groped under the seat with my gloved hand and grabbed my box of business cards. It would not budge. I looked closer & found that it was a water sodden box of pulp frozen into a brick in a frozen puddle under the driver seat. The rubber mats were frozen to the carpet front & back.

After reading the comments above, I have come up with a solution which many will baulk at, but I can attest to fixing many leaks in many boats with a similar repair. I will install a couple of scoops facing aft under the car, at low points in the floor pan, with a flap of rubber as a gasket that will allow the water to leave, but not come into the car at that point. This will drain the water off. I will remove the carpet under the floor mats and seating, heat sealing the edge of the carpet to prevent fraying and lay out litmus sheets to identify where the water comes in then trace & seal the problems as I find them.

Mine is not a new car, bought without a warranty, has 96,000 miles. It will still look OK with those changes, if made neatly, but the carpet will not mildew. I hate that smell. Good luck to the lot of you. - Bill.