[Vwdiesel] Rainy Season, Leaky Jetta

[Doyt W. Echelberger]

My 85 Jetta TD leaked at the fresh air intake, which is located on the 
passenger side, under the thin plastic rain cover at the rear of the engine 
bay.I'm talking about the space in front of the windshield and behind the 
firewall.  You have to raise the hood ant pull off the horizontal seal at 
the front of this space, and then loosen the clips along the horizontal 
rear edge. which fasten the shield to the lip under the rear edge of the hood.

OK, now you have the thin, fragile plastic shield off. Clean out all those 
leaves and debris, and examine the rain deflector that covers the fresh air 
intake port. I built mine up with roofing felt, using heavy-duty staples to 
hold the layers of felt in place.

I don't know if your leak is the same as mine, but what I did stopped the 
water from entering the cabin. It also restricted the intake of fresh air 
to some degree, so I guess that I overdid it.

My Jetta also suffered the leaks in the door panels, described by others on 
this forum.

The really big job was removing ALL of the cabin footwell insulation and 
carpeting, and replacing it with carpet underlayment felt from an auto shop 
that specialized in custom interiors for hot rods and antique cars. Took 
about two days, from start to finish. Removed about 50 pounds of soaking 
wet insulation that would never have dried out on its own.

Doyt Echelberger
 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
At 08:43 AM 11/28/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Well it's not snowing, yet.  But it is raining, and my Jetta parked with a
>3 degree noseup attitude is getting wet footwells in the back seat.  As
>near as I can tell, it's not coming from the cable feed-throughs.
>
>Can anyone discuss (again perhaps) the leak sources?  I'm wondering
>if the windshield may be leaking at the bottom, but haven't figured
>out how to prove that one out.
>
>Pointers anyone?
>
>Val