Water Everywhere!

[Ty<3'svV-DUB]

I washed my car today. And something happened that never happened before. The passenger side rear floorboard was soaked, and when I drove down my driveway I turned the steering wheel and water splashed EVERYWHERE! My instrument cluster is non-operable now (was before, but the tach and lights still worked.) None on the seats, windows, dash, nothing, not one interior piece was wet. Just the floorboards, and however the water got through the firewall I guess. My VW ownership experience so far hasn't been that great, and I'm starting to feel a bit discouraged at this point :/.

Anyone got an Idea of why this happened; hopefully not requiring me to remove my dashboard . (Btw the headliner of my cabby is not wet either! Where's the water comming from???)

Tyler

[stevethefolkie]

sounds like you've got clogged drains under the cowl. Open the hood - there SHOULD be some flimsy plastic that'd be sort of under the louvers on the hood (were the hood closed) - remove it. Look for accumulated rubbish (leaves, spooge, paper towles, small animals) - and remove it - then look for the drain holes - there should be one on each side - they should have a rubber thing jammed into them (grommet with a soft rubber hose dangling down below) - clean it out - now the water should run out and onto the street rather than in through the holes where the speedo cable and stuff pass and onto the floor. Put what's left of the flimsy bit of plastic back in place and test the drain with a hose - if all is well with the world close the hood and pat yourself on the back -

I would GUESS that the water cascaded down from the cowl, under the carpet and accumulated in the rear footwell -

I had a MK1 diesel years ago that suffered from this one winter - I had an ice rink until the weather warmed up ....

When the MK1's first came out - the antenna hole used to be above some electrical controls - it'd leak - the water would bridge some contacts and the starter would engage - so your rabbit would stagger forward - occasionally hitting another solid object or car - if you parked in gear! They changed the antenna location the next year ....