Help, Water Leaks Into My Roc!
------------------------------
Here are my most common early VW leak prone areas;
1. Windshield. Look for dried mineral tracks left behind by
evaporation, easy to spot against the black rubber. I could
repost my detailed fix for this but the short answer is to insert
the silicon sealant (black) UNDER the lip of the gasket and run a
bead all the way around, letting excess squeeze out. Do both
gasket to body and gasket to glass circumferences. Don't skimp, a
bubble or gap out of sight will fail the fix. The surplus can be
removed before it sets up.
2. Inner Door liner, or lack thereof. The plastic liner between
the door panel and the door shell redirects the water to the
drain holes in the bottom edge of the door. Reseal or replace
with any solid sheet PVC or whatever. Bottom edge hangs down
inside the door shell, I believe.
3. Rain Tray Drainage Tubes Blocked. In the Engine compartment
are two drain tubes to each side, near the wiper linkage, etc.
Kept free of leaves and such aids to preventing backed up water
flowing in the fresh air intake, and into the dash.
3b. Rain Tray Plastic Shield cracked. Found this is chronic with
hot engine bays and older cars. Quick solution has been to
recondition the things from underneath with black gaffers tape.
(Almost like Duct tape but not as 'tacky'.) Really became evident
how much these things work when I left it out of the A2 Jetta.
Pools and pools of water on the passenger's side, were the fan
intake is.
4. Rear Hatch Seal. Like all things flexible they get less so
with age and ozone. No OEM replacements readily available AFAIK,
Artistic black Silicon sealant, applied with plastic wrap as a
temp 'Don't seal to this side' (removed after semi curing),
?????. No great solution yet , still in development.
5. Real Tail light seals? Never seen this one but others have,
remove, silicon it up, reattach and clear excess with a popsicle
stick for a proud finish.
hth,
TBerk
PS-
drew wrote:
I've used the silicone treatment several times in the past, but
my experience is that silicone sealant works well if and only if
both surfaces are CLEAN (i.e. prepped with solvent) and DRY.
This is rarely the case, especially under a dirty windshield
gasket that has already been leaking. The silicone will not stick
well to the glass or the metal, allowing wind/water to lift the
gasket away from the windshield or car once it has cured. I opt
for the tar-based(?) sealant that windshield shops use to seal
gasket-style windshields - it stays tacky and sticks to
everything (including your fingers.) Ask around at your local
auto-glass shop, they might even sell you a cartridge over the
counter, or better yet come out and do a "professional" job
(yeah, right) for $20 - and it's their skin that gets peeled off
by the solvent used to clean up, not yours.... :)
Of course, YMMV, and I always say go with what works for you...
Drew MacPherson
--
