Seen postings on this topic before and wondered what the current state of play was regarding the all to familiar problem of water ingress in VW Passats? Vehicle is a V reg 1.8T Passat Estate, 100k miles. Problem is water is comming in from somewhere and saturating carpets on drivers side front and rear. Originally manifested as alarm fault approx two years ago and at vast expense (>£1K)the VW dealer 'fixed' the problem. Carpets saturated and wiring rotted through. Carpets dried, wiring replaced along with pollen filter and seemed OK.
However carpets now saturated in even lightest rain shower and at a loss as to where the water is comming in and what to do about it? Other sites/bulletin boards suggest drains blocked under battery, or, sun roof rain channels blocked or pollen filter housing leaking-but pollen filter is on passenger side. I'd love to keep the car as otherwise its been OK, but as have young children in the car, unless someone out there can come up with a solution, it has to go.
Any ideas anyone?
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Stick some strips of newspaper all around the carpet about two or three inches above the damp areas in the footwells. This might give you some indication of where it's coming from. You can also use loo roll but you might find that it absorbes too much water.
Kevin...
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Have the windscreen checked.
I was lucky (or maybe not) and managed to get a stone through mine. Glass replaced, Problem sloved.
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The ECU box is on the drivers side and has a seal to the firewall underneath it.
Take the cover off and see if there is evidence of a leak.
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The first thing to do URGENTLY is lift the passenger footwell carpet and lift the ECU box out of its well. When the water gets into it, you're in for a v. large bill again as this controls the heating & ventilation. Although unsightly, keeping it dry above the carpet makes sense.
As for diagnosis, I fixed mine recently :-
1. New pollen filter housing. The foam gasket under it was perished so I replaced it and the housing. About £15 parts.
2. Also, look in the bulkhead well (the area the battery sits in). Mine had about 5" of water sloshing around in it. There are 2 drain holes which seem to get blocked by rotting leaves & muck. One of them is under the battery but the other is more accessible.
If you have to remove the battery, be aware that the ECU gets confused when you reconnect power and loses its throttle settings. This leads to very rough running. This is solved by performing a 'throttle body adaptation' procedure. I used VAG-COM to do it.
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Thanks for the info.
My mech had a look at the drainage chambers under the battery and rodded them with a coat hanger and jet washed them through. He reports them as clear. Took the car through a car wash today and lifted the bonnet to see where the residue of bubbles were-bubbles+water=indication of where the water is sitting? Found an accumulation arround the gasket relating to the bonnet release handle cable where it comes through the fire wall into the engine compartment. Anyone had any experience of water ingress at this point?
Also other bulletin boards seem to be suggesting that accross the board VW are great for metal work but woeful regards rubber gaskets etc.
Thanks for the replies so far.
GG
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