[Vwdiesel] leak in front windshield seal?

[Sandy Cameron]

At 12:53 PM 3/30/05 -0700, you wrote:
>My '82 4-door Rabbit has always leaked a few drops into the passenger
>foot well when it rains, but it has begun to leak by the gallon this
>year.  Literally.  I now keep a little plastic container to bail with,
>but really I need a bilge pump.
>
>These quantities are coming in when the car is sitting still, during
>not particularly impressive little rainstorms (we only get maybe 12" a
>year here in Salt Lake).
>
>I've poked around a bit, so I know it's coming down from the windshield
>seal, but that's about all I've figured out.  Are there typical ways in
>which this happens?  Seems hard to believe that much water can come
>right through the seal!

Here's the scoop, you may be surprised.

It's getting in across the top of the windshield,  under the lip that meets
the roof, only happens when siting still, slipstream takes it away when
driving. 

I found this out a year or so ago when I was tremclading goldie. It had been
leaking quite a bit, dripping above the relay box (install plastic bag for
protection.

I did not mask the upper edge of the windshield seal too accurately, and
painted the edge of the seal to the roof. 
The leak stopped immediately and completely. 

When I was parting out one, (or perhaps it was when I peeled the seal off
goldie2),  
I found there is a little channel behind the outer flap of the seal, and
water that gets in at the top runs all the way across, down and along the
bottom, where it drips out on the electrical vitals.

Go across the top of the seal and seal it to the roof with silicon, tar,
paint, anything that will stop the water.

The leak is very slow, and the journey through the channel is slow, so
spraying with a hose doesn't get immediate results, but the floor will be
wet in the morning.

On goldie2, the seal was so perished, I cut the lip off all away around, and
caulked the channel with silicone.

Sandy