[Vwdiesel] puddles question '91

[Doyt W. Echelberger]

At 06:27 AM 9/27/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>I know this has been covered before (and is not strictly diesel) but the 
>dreaded puddles on the drivers side floor after a heavy rain- they used to 
>be coming in under the hood of the Rabbit models and poking out the little 
>drain tubes would fix it but on the'91 there is no obvious place under the 
>hood where water would end up on the floor. This list may know of a door 
>leak or some way to diagnose and repair this? The two women (wife and 
>daughter) never complain about diesel rattles but they hate this floor 
>puddle thing. Thanks,... Dan.
 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
My experience with puddle diagnosis came from working with a 1985 Jetta TD. 
It collected quarts of water in the passenger foot wells.

The problem was three-fold.

(1) The plastic liners that sealed the doors underneath the trim panels 
were not diverting rain water properly.

(2) The fresh air intake system that runs across the width of the rear of 
the engine bay was allowing water to get into the mouth of the intake tube.

(3) The air-conditioner drain tubes were plugged at the level of the firewall.

I redesigned all three systems.

I took off the door handles and window cranks and I removed the trim 
panels. I discovered that the lower edge of the plastic sheeting under the 
trim panels did not tuck into the lower edge of the door sheet metal, thus 
creating a path for rain water to escape at the lower edge of the trim 
panel rather than diverting to the drain channel at the bottom of the door.

I used clear cellophane sealing tape about 2 inches wide to seal the lower 
edge of the sheeting, after tucking it into the upper edge of the metal 
strip that formed the inner horizontal section of the lower door.

I also enlarged the cover of the fresh air intake tube, using roofing felt 
and a stapling gun.

And I traced those air conditioner drain tube and run a probe up through it 
from under the car. The next year I removed the entire tube and took out a 
fuzz ball that had collected at the point where the tube exits through the 
firewall.

So, on a dry day take a hose and spray the doors, and have someone in the 
car to feel for water leakage at the lower edges of the trim panels. And 
spray the fresh air intake grill and see if water is coming in that way. 
And check out that air conditioner drain tube.

Or, it might be something else :~)


Doyt Echelberger