86 Jetta bathtub

One or more of your drains may be plugged up. One of them is located just to the right of the VDO tower, and towards the firewall . HTH

if it has a sunroof also check the drains for that.

When you clear the drains (and Papa is very much likely to be correct in his diagnosis), a cup of bleach through the air intake a couple of times a year does not go amiss. Bleach, sit for 1/2 hour, then rinse through with hot, soapy water.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

Your dripping clutch pedal is also symptomatic of windshield problems, though. You'll need to look under the weatherstripping around the windshield and check for rust, and repair it as needed. I gotta do the same thing right now - she's leaking all over my feet when it rains, and I just found tons of rust under the seal - ugh. You might be able to just seal it up, though. Depends on how long you want the car for. - Chris

I agree with all the previous posts and I suspect that at least part of your issue is a windshield problem. My '89 GTI 16V had apparently had the windshield replaced prior to my purchasing the car and when it was glued in (they are glued in, you know) it apparently wasn't completely sealed up correctly. So the lip that the windshield sits on started to rust, and it progressed far enough that I had significant water leaks. I ended up breaking out the windshield and cleaning up the lip, then painted it with POR-15 and after it cured had the windshield guy come out and put in a new windshield for me. MUCH better.

The same thing can be done with the other fixed glass in the car, except you can do it yourself as the rest of the glass uses conventional gaskets. On that car I ended up R&Ring the hatch glass for the same treatment, and ISTR at some point after I'd sold it replacing one of the quarter glasses for the new owner because of some neighborhood kids :(

nate

Be sure to check the area under and front of the windshield wipers and below the windshield. I had a 88 Jetta and had the exact same problem (only when it rained) :). I found that the very light weight plastic cover that was meant to protect this area to keep crud out was not doing so. And living in Michigan we have plenty of trees of all different breeds. Leaves, pine needles and other tree debris had totally plugged the water drains in the bottom corners of the plastic liner. When it would rain this "pan" would fill to overflowing and the overflow would run down the interior side of the firewall, under the carpet and fill the floor pans of the car. And since I usually parked with the front of the car several inches higher then the back, it caused the water to run to the rear floor pans causing even more head scratching. I hope this helps!

Brad_cad

Windshield more likely, but it could also be where the radio antenna enters the car (under the drip tray).

Mike