Wet bunny

err... as I was saying, the gasket for the left rear window looks rock solid and there is no water trickling down the fabric on the left rear pillar. I would be tearing out the left speaker mount panel and hunting but it's

The places I suspect now are a very small crack that is near the driver side lock on the A-pillar and what looks like a small gap in the rubber sealant around the hatch door at the very top left.

Anyone remember leaky hassles with their old GTIs?

Cheers,

-Antony

I remember a '84 Scirocco that didn't have a gasket around the antenna wire, nor was the gap sealed worth a darn. Water from the tire spinning would hit the wire and "walk" down it into the passenger compartment.

Repaired with a gromet and about a half a tube of RTV.

trebor

Okay, it was a predictable enough ending. I poured some water down the sunroof drain pipes to test them, the front two work fine, the back two drain into the right wheelwell and the left side of the hatch internals respectively.

Terrible! So I guess there is nothing to do but tear out the head liner and try and get the drain tubes clean and properly fastened.

Sorry to bug the group with silly questions.

-A

So I ripped the head liner out, unclogged the partially-blocked drain tubes, and the sunroof still leaks... it looks like the water is seeping in the left side hatch from a hole in the rear pillar of the car.

I assume the drains from the sunroof are supposed to just dump into those rear pillars? I thought they should have been plumbed to the little nipples midway down the hatch pillars but doesn't seem like there is any way to get at the inside where those nipples attach.

I will try putting longer hoses on the sunroof drains, hopefully that will let the water dump out past the point that has rusted out and keep it out of the hatch.

Any other ideas? Thanks,

-Antony

Still replying to myself, no worries, hopefully this will get archived so someone else doesn't have to spend the time diagnosing.

Turns out what happened is the drain hoses from my sunroof shortened up with age (or something) and slipped out of the rubber nipples that sit just under the hatch mounts.

Instead of draining through these nipples to the outside world, the tubes were just hanging down into the car and draining there. Plus they were full of pine needles & gunk.

As soon as I can get my hands on another rubber nipple to replace the one I ripped in removal I will be set to end this difficulty.

Putting new hoses in requires a heat gun to soften the tubing enough for sliding over the sunroof drain pipes.

Cheers, all

-A

Ant>

As soon as I can get my hands on another rubber nipple to replace the one I ripped in removal I will be set to end this difficulty.

If I remember correctly, Ren Hoek and Stimpson J. Cat once sold rubber nipples. Perhaps you can get them to solve your problem.

-- Tom Werner

The rrrubber neeples were not torn so badly that 'Gloozit' rubber cement couldn't glue them back together. I used a hairdryer-warmed 4" long length of 1/2" tube as a butt connector to join a new length of 3/8" tubing onto the sunroof drain. Stretching the 3/8" tube out the rear hatch drain holes, I cut it off 1" from the body, socket-glued the stub into the drain nipples, then while holding the tube from the access hole in the rear pillar poked the drain nipples back into place. After a bunch of wiggling it seems to be rock solid. No more water in the hatch, hopefully.

The leftover tubing worked as a siphon to drain out the puddle in the bottom of my wheel well frame member.

I hope someone will eventually find this useful on a newsgroup search. Cheers,

-A