Help! Water collecting inside my 2001 VW New Beetle 1.8T

Help! Water is getting into my car on the driver's side -- I've found standing water behind the driver's seat (floor mat area) and the driver's seat carpet (where the pedals are) is wet.

Thing is, water only seems to be accumulating if my car is stationary for a period of time. Initially, the dealer said that drainage holes in the door had been plugged (probably by the previous owner fitting after-market speakers) so they took apart the door panel and fixed that problem. However, water continued to collect over the weekend (I'm in Boston where it basically hasn't stopped raining for two weeks) so that clearly wasn't the issue. My car is now back at the dealership and they now think it might be caused by a missing "body plug" on the driver's side undercarriage and that water is coming into the car as I drive. I'm not convinced and am looking for advice.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this is happening?

Reply to
Miri
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D you have a sunroof? If so it is a 90% bet that it is leaking because the drain is clogged.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Yes, I have a sunroof. Would I see water dripping down the inside of the car if this was the problem? I haven't seen any leaking directly from the sunroof and the interior (roof and sides) are all dry -- where does the drain let water out?

Reply to
Miri

I had a Jetta that did that. After a hard rain, there could be as much as a half-inch of standing water under and behind the driver's seat. Turns out it was coming from out of the rear door, which I didn't suspect, because the drain holes at the bottom of the door were clear and draining freely. Problem was, the water was being diverted before it got to the drain holes. As the water got in at the lower window seal, the drips got channeled over to the interior door panel by running down the latch and window mechanisms, and then it ran down the inside of the interior door panel and escaped at the bottom edge of the interior door panel. So, instead of going all the way to the bottom of the door and out the weep holes, it dripped onto the inner edge of the rocker panel, and from there to the floor. If you take off the inner door panel, and then run water over the outside of the door, you can trace the way the water flows down in the interior of the door, and you may find that you can re-route it so that it makes it all the way to the bottom and out the drain holes, without contacting the interior panel.

Reply to
Brian Running

Check the drains. You should be able to pour water down the drains from the top and watch it come out the drains under the car on each side. You would not likely see it dripping from the sun roof as it would run under the interior finish down to the floor.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

I had this exact problem on both my scirocco's, that don't have sunroofs. Turned out, that the tray in front of the windshield has a hole on each side to let water drain out from under the fenders. These were clogged with leaves. Water was filling up the tray, and running down the heater blower fan. Pulled the crap out of the two holes, cleaned out the tray, flushed with water till it came out really well. No problem since.

Reply to
TheDM

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