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Feet of engine-erring

My mother's Golf is about 8 years old and has developed a chronic leak. The pool of water seems only to be in the front passenger seat footwell. The car has previously leaked from the roof, soaking both the drivers side and the front passengers side. The car was taken to the garage, cleared of leaf/debris build up and the leak disappeared. With this new problem the water is only in the footwell, there is no dampness down the door or roof. Again it has been taken to a VW garage but they seem to have done nothing. Having looked on this site and others a blocked pollen filter could be the cause, do you think this is possible and if so why has the VW garage not picked up on it? I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your time

Asked on 7 March 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
Standard, age-old problem. The water is coming from the vent well in the bulkhead and in through the pollen filter. The reasons might be blocked vent well drains leaving rainwater nowhere else to go except into the car. Or a failed pollen filter seal. Or (and this happened to me) a broken or misfitted pollen filter cover. This is a typically terrible piece of German engine-erring and is so difficult to replace accurately that most fitters give up in the time they are allocated for the job. So if the leak followed a service that included a pollen filter change the reason is that the garage did not fit the cover properly and is fully responsible for all the damage cause by this.

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