# Water leak in MK4 R32.... What is it from???



## BradR3211 (Dec 6, 2006)

My girlfriend has a MK4 .:R and has been having a leak in the trunk, Well the water ends up in the trunk. 
Does anyone know where it could be coming from?
The sunroof drain??
If you have any ideas on what it could be, just let me know. Thanks. Any information is appreciated. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## diesector (Apr 14, 2004)

*Re: Water leak in MK4 R32.... What is it from??? (Brad031.8T)*

Doubt it is the sunroof drain. My wife's passat had a clogged sun roof drain and it was leaking into her glove box. The sun roof drains usually run down the inside of the body at the front of the doors. If you open the doors and look at the lower front part of the body you will see the tubes sticking out. If press them from the top down it should start to flow a little if it is clogged. If nothing comes out than it is not clogged and it is definitely not the sun roof drains.
Drains look like this...








The only other thing that comes to mind would be a leaking seal somewhere near the back of the car. Like around the rear windshield or one of the back windows. Or possibly the hatch door seal. Good luck. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## specialk98671 (Jul 12, 2008)

Where are the rear sunroof drains? Are they accessible w/o taking off the rear bumper? I have NO trunk leak, and the majority of the water is in the rear driver-side footwell. There's a bit in the front driver's side, too.


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## jameg2169 (Oct 9, 2009)

*Re: (specialk98671)*

this has been addressed a ton on this site, here's a helpful post
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1909676
goodluck


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## jameg2169 (Oct 9, 2009)

*Re: Water leak in MK4 R32.... What is it from??? (Brad031.8T)*

i just had a similar problem in my mk4 gli. the culprit was/is the sunroof rear drain connector, the water is running down the drain tube into the driver side of the trunk. I didn't see any water damage/evidence on the headliner, turns out when i pulled out my headliner the airbag was pretty wet and between the drain hose and the rear pillar covers, hence, no sign of water, but the area in the trunk where the CD changer bracket is located was pretty flooded. I would start looking around those areas in the trunk and you can pour some warm water into the rain catch areas (do this with the car on a slight incline) and watch behind the panels and see if that is where the water is coming from (my guess is that it is). There's a few forums on here that will show you how to remove the headliner and fix the problem. Hope this helps. best of luck.


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## BradR3211 (Dec 6, 2006)

*Re: Water leak in MK4 R32.... What is it from??? (jameg2169)*

Thanks dude. We got it fixed at the dealer. But next time I will do it myself. And yes it was the right rear drain. It was plugged up. So I will save myself $300, and a headache. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## nedlands (Dec 8, 2007)

I had this oin both sides on mine. Over time the connectors change shape and become oval, letting water drip into the roofliner. Best to do both sides when you are in there


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## gmoneyR32 (Dec 11, 2010)

*water leak.*

i actually have a water leak and it sits on the back left of the driver side....could it be from the antenna base? cause my antenna base is actually pretty f'd up. 








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does anyone know what to look for?! thanks a lot. :beer:


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## Airy32 (Nov 15, 2007)

This is likely sunroof drain related. There are front and rear drains that can either become clogged or disconnected. There have been several threads in the R32 forum about this. When VWOA did the recall service for this last year they only addressed (and quite poorly) the front drain nipples pictures in one of the posts above. But there is also another route that goes out the rear of the car and drains somewhere behind the rear bumper. As I understand it, there is a crappy fitting somewhere up top where a plastic tube falls off, or just leaks due to it not being a good water-tight seal, so you get water running down the b-pillar and collecting in the rear floorboards. One of the other threads shows it in pretty good detail. Just looked like such a PITA to get to it that I never attempted it. I haven't had it happen to me in the past few years anyway so I'm assuming maybe if the front passages are clear maybe it doesn't force the water to run rearward?


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## gmoneyR32 (Dec 11, 2010)

yeah its pretty weird, took it to VW and they said its not the sunroof drain. They couldn't take my car in so I had to make a appointment. The service rep said that they opened the sunroof and ran water thru it and everything went right. So know I have to drop it off and have em take a look at it.


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## meque (Nov 13, 2009)

*Sure it's a sunroof leak*

Man the same happened on my GTi and believe... even you don't notice it the rear drain tubes are stuck. 

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2115848


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## Mr_Kobayashi (Jul 18, 2011)

My car is completely apart. I am actually an audi tech. First i tought it was the sunroof drains so i went ahead and replaced all 4 sunroof drains, removed almost everything to dry. Well my car is still apart. As in no headliner and carpet.... Water tested vehicle and seems to have no visual leak. While it's parked on my driveway we had a really heavy rain and guess what rear drivers side of my car is full of water again..:banghead:. I am about to loose it. I went ahead and cleaned up and re-water tested and nothing. how is this rain water getting in...


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## Jayj (Jul 1, 2011)

Mr_Kobayashi said:


> My car is completely apart. I am actually an audi tech. First i tought it was the sunroof drains so i went ahead and replaced all 4 sunroof drains, removed almost everything to dry. Well my car is still apart. As in no headliner and carpet.... Water tested vehicle and seems to have no visual leak. While it's parked on my driveway we had a really heavy rain and guess what rear drivers side of my car is full of water again..:banghead:. I am about to loose it. I went ahead and cleaned up and re-water tested and nothing. how is this rain water getting in...


With the heavy rain, was the vehicle parked on an incline, typically the sunroof drains split 70/30 or maybe 80/20 water favoring the front. It's still possible to overrun the drains in a heavy rain setting especially if the vehicle isn't sitting level and furthermore if a particular corner of the vehicle is lower than the rest of the vehicles corners. This would favor one drain hose to evacuate 90% of the water on it's own, depending on the severity of the angle. I'd also make sure all the nipples are snipped and no dirt is present hiding in the nipple/boot.


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## builtvw (Sep 20, 2009)

Brad031.8T said:


> Thanks dude. We got it fixed at the dealer. But next time I will do it myself. And yes it was the right rear drain. It was plugged up. So I will save myself $300, and a headache. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


oo man i was gonna say rear drains oooo wait this thread is from mad long ago


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