FOR EVERY GOLF 7 OWNER: check these out: (tip: keep a toilet paper roll in the sidepockets of the booth. Thats how i noticed my problem, it was wet, even tho no water was visible) 1. slam vents (water in booth or underneath the backseat) take vents off, clean and apply tons of silicone, new ones will corrode eventually. 2. Panoramic roof drains (they might be clogged leading to infiltration by the panoramic roof) ugly mess, stained interior on all walls down to the footwell. 3. Speaker sealant foam (all 4)(water underneath the speakers grill and on the inside of the door sealant at speaker level, leads to water in the footwell and mold later) ugglier mess. 4. Reverse camera cover/drain pipe (water in the booth). I was lucky. Had all of them. 5. Tail lights. Water in booth. Dont know how to fix this, but check after pressure washing your car.
Great comment, thanks for sharing I’ve pinned it so everyone can read it as haven’t had the speaker one myself yet but it’s probably only a matter of time before I do 😂👍🏼
Hi, can you please help me in uderstanding the issue? I ve mk7 63 reg. Just noticed a puddle in spare wheel well and the puddle is on driver's side only. The other side of the well is dry. What could be the cause of this?
Hi, can you please help me in uderstanding the issue? I ve mk7 63 reg. Just noticed a puddle in spare wheel well and the puddle is on driver's side only. The other side of the well is dry. What could be the cause of this?
VW should be compensating owners for these ridiculous errors on these vehicles. I have exactly the same issues. It shouldn't be for us owners to be rectifying the water leaking problem. It's a very poor design. As we can see, there are so many videos showing the same problem on UA-cam. Thanks for this video👍🏼
oh man, this video was *so* useful! My passenger side floor mat was constantly soaked. It turned out the leak was in the left tail light, exactly as you show! The boot was soaked too and the water had travelled under the rear passenger carpet and onto the front. I would have never guessed! Thank you so much!
Just found 2 inches of water in my spare wheel well yesterday and thought I was just unlucky till I started googling the possible cause. I was amazed how big a problem this is and can't believe that vw hasn't done a recall to sort it out. Good video mate,I just need the courage to start ripping all the fasteners off without any damage😁
I've brought my 2019 Golf into VW three times and they've cleaned the drains and told me there wasn't a problem and they tested it. i believe the issue is due to parking on a specific incline. our driveway is pretty steep and it didn't start happening until we moved here.
I CANT BELIEVE VW DIDNT do a recall on this issue. We all have this damn issue. And now it went on my right rear seat. And now started getting moldy damn
@@allybearbear I've got mine for a little over a month so don't know where it was parked before but I am parking exclusively on flat ground. And I noticed this issue yesterday
I also noticed that my windscreen was always showing signs of condensation. When I checked the boot, a puddle of water was present underneath the space saver wheel. The water had also found its way to the rear seats - the bench was soaking. On closer inspection, the water was entering the boot from both the rear light clusters and bumper vents. I removed the old vents and replaced them with new parts, as well as applying tonnes of silicone sealant inside and out. For the light clusters, changed gaskets. Gave the rear bench a deep clean with a shop vac, as well as cleaning up the boot area and allowing everything a good chance to dry out. We’ve had loads of rain since the maintenance on the car and the boot is thankfully bone dry.
@@Jamiekhan-qg2jiI used Everflex 145 Butyl Rubber Sealant for the air vents. I also recently discovered leaks in both rear doors, which is also a common fault on these vehicles. The water was bypassing the rear door seals and entering the footwells. My door situation was due to both of the speakers. I removed the door card and leaked tested it, which revealed the water rapidly dripping from the base of the speaker mounts. After the leak test, I allowed everything to fully dry. Once dried, I applied a decent amount of the same Butyl sealant where the inner seal was on the speaker itself and around the speaker mounts. I allowed the sealant enough time to set, then water tested the rear doors for a few minutes with a water hose - no leaks! 🙂 Now I can finally say my Golf is fully water sealed. We’ve had loads of heavy rain over the Easter period and the interior is dry throughout.
Discovered I have water in my boot, pulled out the liner as my seats were getting wet, which stopped it for a bit. But now I have to investigate further which sounds exactly as described as stated in the video. Thanks for the great video, very informative. Glad I found it
I have just been sorting my Golf Mk7 out. Your guide helped me sort the water in the boot by sealing the vents with silicon. I also replaced the rubber drain pipe on boot handle and also sealed around the light foam fittings. Some extra tips for anyone else with this VW water ingress problem and with water in the car cabin. I also found that where the speakers are riveted in the rear doors there are cracks in the plastic so when sealing also ensure you get them sealed also. Aswell, at the outflow drain at the bottom of the rear door, mine was blocked. When pouring water down the outside of the window nothing came out so there was sitting water in the door causing the water level to raise and pour through the speaker. So top tip to remove the rubber seal at the bottom of the rear doors and ensure its not clogged/blocked. I also found some water ingress in the hinge in the centre of the rear door. I created a small silicon route so it doesn't run down the inside seal. Hope this tidbit helps anyone else with this problem. Both my door speakers were leaking and both my rear vents were also leaking. I sealed my speakers without removing them by scraping out the foam seal and just using silicon around the speakers. Took me a week to dry out the car with an ordinary fan by lifting the carpets, inserting wooden blocks underneath for airflow. Just purchaed a small fan heater from Amazon for £15 to hlep dry out the cabin. VW have so many issues with water ingress its insane!!!
Hold on a minute… there’s a bung! Is that purely for draining the in-auto pond every once in a while!? I have this problem… so happy I found this video.
Excellent video for something that is quite tedious to fix. Well done! It is a disgrace that VWs are designed this way. It’s not even that the vents do very much - I still get pressure in the car if the window is open!
Thank you so much for this very informative and detailed video! I had wet seats in the back of my VW mk7. I had tons of condensation in my golf, as well as very damp back seats w/ some mould growth. Cleaned it all up, got some humidity absorbers. Thought I’d remedied the problem. Was checking my car boot the other day purely by chance and lifted everything down to the spare wheel and saw loads of water in a big puddle! We were shocked and trying to figure out where it was coming from as there were no obvious holes anywhere. So glad hubby found your video on this and appalled to hear how common it is and that VW didn’t do a recall because of it.
CHECK OUT if you are not comfortable removing the bumper! Hi Turner, many thanks and great video that you made! and you have put me on the right track to solve the water ingress in the boot of my mk7 Golf. I had already changed the little water drain hose as it was broken but that did not solve the problem fully. I followed your steps until halfway the removal of the rear bumper and was getting concerned about damaging it as it was really hard to release the clips. I had a rethink and based on your work I came up with a variation in the way of working that does NOT require the bumper removal! It is possible to carefully push the ventilation pieces out and subsequently turn them sideways and pull them back and out through the boot. Then apply the silicon as per your advice and then carefully pass them through the insert, turn to the right orientation and pull the carefully in position, maybe using pliers and making sure the 4 clips click into position. Downside is not so good control over the quality of the silicon sealing and to cope with this I used a lot of silicon so it would surely sealed and the excess on the outside can obviously not be nicely removed this way. I also decided to not silicon some centimeters/an inch or so at the lowest point to allow an exit for any water that unexpectedly still passes. Maybe good alternative for those that are also not comfortable to remove the bumper... Take care!
Great video. I had the vents leaking problem with my 2014 Golf. 3 years later though I still have really bad problems with condensation on the windscreen and rear one. I can't identify any more leaks so I'm at my wits end as to why it happens as otherwise it's a great car.
Yes only recently found my mk7 has very soggy carpets in the wheel well. I had noticed condensation was a bit more than you would expect but this is the reason. A friend had the same issue but with standing water! VW charged a lot to fix his. Removing the bung did let our some water but you might get more coming in from spray... Very helpful video though...
Man great video. I found it today. We were blaming our kids for spilling water on the back seat but much like everyone else once i lifted the boot to reveal the spare wheel it was swimming in water. Going to seal the door vents tomorrow! Fingers crossed. I'm notoriously impatient when it comes to stuff like this! Thanks again
I also thought my kids had spilt something and that because they were dropping crumbs, mould was then growing. I have taken enough out that I can see I definitely have this problem… now need to get that bumper off. 😕
Did this today, fairly straightforward but there is one more tx25 screw holding the bumper on either side. It's behind the lining and is an absolute pain to get out. Eventually managed with a small allen key. Jacking up the car might help.
Great vid, really helpful. Am I missing something here? If the side vents that leak have a rubber bung underneath them that lets the water out that has built up. Why not just take the bung out permanently and then any water that leaks in will immediately drain straight back out again??
Just found your video on how to fix this ongoing problem. I initially thought it was a failure of the crap VW foam light seals, so I replaced them with the newer equivalent of Dumdum putty (which VW used to use, before they started to cut corners with cheap materials). Water still gets in, but now I've an idea where else to look for the leak and how to rectify it. Many thanks for your detailed instructions.👍
Thanks - hopefully this will have solved the problem that I was stumped with. I’ve just put silicon around the vents and lights, so hopefully now the boot will keep dry
I really appreciate the super thanks donation - it’s the first I’ve had and it will really help towards the channel! So thank you 😊 I’m glad you found the video useful and hope that is the end of your water leak problem.
Crazy to see so many people have the same problem.. this is a manufacturing problem.. and vw should’ve recalled those cars. Noticed this morning in my wife’s car (2019 vw golf sportsvan) that the spare wheel was literally swimming in the back of the car. This video helped so much.. and found my issue.. right rear vent. So thank you for posting this in such a well manner. Btw.. sorry for asking.. but how could you leave your car to the point that mushrooms grew inside it.. and the rear seats turned green.. what the hell 😅
No problem, really glad you found it useful and it helped you find and fix the issue 😊 I thought I would turn the boot into a garden seeing as it already has an irrigation system 😆
victorprioroc1009...I was wondering IF this issue applies to the Sportwagen AND Alltrack...appears it does...damn it, I'll have to check my Alltrack now. I seem to get fogged up windows periodically seemingly for no reason, I've alway attributed to my mud guard floor mats which it could be but now I've gonna check out those rear side vents and if they haven't leaked yet I'll put a bead of silicone around them as preventive maintenance.I summer sometimes my windows will fog if I've been running my A/C and I park go into store or something and when I return and start car the front window will fog a little...this has been ongoing since new.
@@harryberry474 hi. Well sportswagen i can clearly say YES… and i would say since alltrack is made on the same platform i could bet it’s a similar issue. Honestly i was shocked that this could happen .. i mean my wife’s car has only 30k km.. bought as new. Took down the bumper yesterday evening and i properly sealed the right vent with a special glue on the inside and then applied silicon on the outside … technically now should never leak again. I did the same for the left vent asa preventive measure. Then i can only recommend (also as in the video above) to apply a small amount of silicon on the sponge that covers the rear lamps.. i don’t think in my case water entered through the lights BUT i bet was a matter of time beforenit does.. as the sponge no longer had a good grip to the body of the car. Technically my rear end should now be water proof. And yes also in mu case before noticing the “ocean” in the trunk i always had a foggy rear window . Good luck !
I had a puncture today, (first one in 25 years) and upon taking my space saver out I discovered it was under 3" of water, thank you for this video it was very helpful to fix my issue, (the flood not the puncture)
Thanks for this and the other videos. I have a 2014 mk7 Golf 2.0tdi. If only I had watched these videos before! Found water in the boot and took it to the ever expensive vw workshop. I mounted all 4 bilstein B6 and the ride and the handling are amazing, that was a huge upgrade. Cheers from Florence, Italy.
Great video. I didn’t realise there were bungs in the either cavity under the rear lights. As a temp fix I’m going to remove them until I can get the bumper off….
@@cjtr6 Yes. You need to unscrew the back of the wheel arch guard and then look up underneath where the rear light is. You should see a black circle about the size of a 10p coin. Push it… Don’t look up directly as water will p@@@ out..!
You make removing the bumper look easy. Couldn't get ours off without way more force than I was happy with (which tbh was the same for everything else too!) It is *JUST* possible however to seal up the vents without removing the bumper and that's the way I ended up doing it. If you pop them off you can then angle them so they come out, reach through the hole to clean up the face then squirt a healthy fat bead of silicon sealant around the vent. You can then do the same in reverse and pop them back on and squish the bead of silicon against the body. Fingers crossed it works but it's certainly no longer "rattling" around.
I managed to get bumper skin disconnected on one corner and wedged a piece of wood in between and like yourself realised it can be done without doing that...Fingers crossed all sorted...
@fastdruid so have you managed to take those vents out from the inside of the boot? Isnt the seal lip of the vent from the outside underneath the bumper preventing you to do that? or are you really able to angle it the way to take it out from inside of the boot? I would like to avoid taking the bumper off as I dont want to struggle putting it back up. thanks
@@BEFORETHEMHYPEBEASTS Yes. You can pop them out and then angle them so that they pass back into the car. There is enough room between the bumper and the body to be able to pop them out and manoeuvre them. You *could* undo the bumper at the bottom pop them off and "drop" them out but pretty impossible to refit them that way so IMO better to practise on the way they need to be moved to get through the hole! Don't get me wrong, it's a bit awkward, you've obviously got to clean the reverse side of the hole for the sealant to adhere which is tricky as you can't see anything. Can't remember if this vid says to apply the sealant to the car or the vent but I did it to the vents. Rather awkward holding them and getting them into place without getting the sealant everywhere but it is doable!
@@fastdruid thanks man that helps a lot, have you tried to reseal the tail lights as well? and if so, do it only around that center bulb like here on the video? I was thinking its a good idea to apply silicone around the diameter of the tail light as well but not sure if that will help.
Great video but thanks also to the person that mentioned that there is no need to remove the rear bumper. I removed trim and dried everywhere thoroughly. Removed the vents from the inside, cleaned them thoroughly and then dried. Added some silicone sealant to the rubber seals….. jobs a good un. My local VW store £270 to replace - two day job. My experience 1hr labour and a dab of sealant.
Got this exact problem on our Mk7. I guess as a short term fix you could leave those bungs out to allow the water to get out until you have time to re-seal those vents.
@@BeirBua_ Do not leave bungs out. Fumes will work their way in which is dangerous for everyone breathing this in. After long trip everyone will be extra tired and experience headaches etc.. I 'm writing from experience.
Amazing thank you so much, i braked really hard as a fox came infront of my car, noticed the next day the back seats had wet patches, checked the boot and spare wheel well found a pond in the boot, had a weird smell coming found that there was mould growing, took the rear seats out and there was more water there, havent found where its leaking from but managed to get the garage to drill a hole in the boot so no more water will sit in the boot, will be checking these recommendations out to find the source of the leak thank you 🙏🏼
Hello mate, mine has water inside for months now, thought is was from the antenna, sealed it with silicon, same on headlights but no luck, still water inside, will try your tips tomorrow I think thank you very much for digging into that :)
Same vent issue on my VW golf sportsvan. Right side last year now I got the problem with the left. I got sunroof aswell, the drain pipe goes into those rubber grommets u popped out. Headliner stained because it was clogged. The grommet from the badge drain pipe was cut off by VW when I had them clean the drains 🤷
I've just found 2" of water in my boot. I suspect the vents but in advance I have bought the light seals (from Deutcheparts) and there is one thing you don't appear to have mentioned, the new seals also comes with 2 little circles also cut in the foam and I've clearly realised from your video at 8:40 that these are for the 2 studs that fit into the rear quarter panel, on the outer edge of the light and these would presumably equally compress and fail like the main seal.
Great video I purchased a Volkswagen Golf July last year didn’t realise I would have a pond, in the boot And the back seat soaking 💦when winter came very useful video
Thanks Turner, follow your steps. Found the loose air vents. Siliconed up. Add some sound protection while at it. Sweet, no more pools if water. That water freaked us out. You're a saver!
Hi, apologies for the delay in reply. The same process will apply for a bumper with reversing sensors. The car in the video has reversing sensors. Thanks for your comment 😁
Absolutely fantastic video. I dont know much about cars, however was able to fix the leakages in the 9 year old vw golf. While I was busy fixing the leak, I was able to also seal all the other potential places of leakages, knowing it from this video. Saving heaps of money! Thank you!
Hi great video, I noticed 2” water in the boot, I changed the tube to the boot handle and thought I had fixed it. Just checked after a few days of heavy rain and it’s full again so will now strip the back of the car off and seal the vents. Are the mushrooms magic. 😊
Thanks. Did the handle tube a couple of months ago and all fine. Now I have different issue with the rear wash. Seems to be where it goes into the high level light. YT vids (and manual) seem to suggest the HL light pries from the outside, but mine is the other type. Anyway I used your video to help with the tube issue..
Been struggling with this recently trying to find a cause. Followed your video. Thought there’s no harm in sealing it even if that isn’t the cause. Cheers!
Hi. Tank you very much for this useful video. I did this today. I confirm that it's possible to take off the 2 air vents from inside the vehicle without dismounting bumper, put sealant on them and reinstall. I recommend to clean the coupling surfaces on car body very well using a dental mirror to check it, then do practice to learn the correct moves to reinstall vents before apply sealant. Tank you again.
Thanks for this video! Helped me a lot and i did the vents without removing the bumper. Also I did the boot hose replacement. It took me all together like 45 minutes.
Hi, thanks for the video! I have the same problem with my golf mark 5. I see residue at the bottom edge of the vent trim. Just for info, instead of using silicone, you could use a sealent, called butyl. There is cold butyl and there is warm butyl. As far as I know, cold or warm stands for the application. After it sticks to the surfaces, won't let there any water. I have cold butyl and the application is the same as silicone in your video as you could by in a cartouche like at the silicone. The butyl stays flexible along it's lifetime therefore you could dismount the parts as it does not provide as strong bond as the silicone. Of course, after disassembly, you have to clean the butyl and reaply.
Thought I would send you a little something to say thanks for the video. It's saved me a fortune at the garage and I have the exact same issue on my MK7 Golf.
Ours is the same, carpets are soaked now, been trying for a while to figure out where it's coming from. I'm no mechanic and could work out how to get the trims off in the boot. Looks rather doable and not expensive at all. Garage wanted to charge me £300. Just bought a £5 tube of silicone ha. Cheers
The inner lights on the trunk lid are vulnerable also. Water will get in them and corrode the connectors and bulb holders. Needed a new connector and 2 new bulb holders. Sealed everything up better now👌
Why aren’t people removing or at least making a smaller hole in the drain bung so water can’t pool up in that chamber? That can be done from under the car with no removal of bumper or inner carpet panels. Please advise. Thx
definitely helpful for me, i am currently experiencing the same problem i was even thinking of changing a tailgater rubber seal...on my care definitely is this cause i had accident few months back. thank you alot.
Thanks for your video, I found it very helpful, last year I replaced the boot badge/handle tube and now these two air vents have certainly been leaking so resealed like you did.
A great video - thanks for posting it. I'll be sealing my vents this weekend as I have a leak. The only issue I have is using silicone sealant round the lights. This stuff seals - but it also sticks. What if you need to remove those lights again in the future? I've seen people using Butyl cord which seals, but does not set. I'm going to try that round my light fittings.
My Vw mk6 golf 09 GtTdi seems to have moisture in the spare wheel well so will check this . Not sure If it has the same vents behind the bumper ?? Found big gaps between the rear doors and the metal plates that hold the window regulator must have been a fault from new as it’s riveted in . It caused a wet carpet in the rear footwells not good ! Used some butyl rubber to fill the gaps around the plates without removing them which is a PITA . Seems to have sorted the problem . Mk5-6-7 all shite never had any of this on my mk4 gtTdi. Other than a few broken wires, worn out coolant pipes , leaky tandem pump end plate for 200k (now sealed) and a broken weld on the clutch pedal at 480k ( re welded ) . Mk6 has had gps module go down, phantom bulb out warning lights that disappear on a restart , Broken springs and worn out shocks at low mileage ( koni street kit fitted in lock down with full front sus refresh ) , and broken wires in the boot causing lock not to activate . The joys of motoring lol great vid mate . 👍
Great video seems I have similar problem but why is there a bung in the recess if that can allow such water to escape? what is the point of the bung otherwise?
If you undo the wheel arch lining, is it possible to reach in and pull the bungs out to then see if water comes out and if water does come out what stops you just leaving the bungs out so even if the vents leak the water has somewhere to escape?
To answer my own question, all you need to do is go under the car from the back bumper and look up, you can see the rubber bung either side and remove it, Mine where empty after a few days rain but worth the check.
The rubber tailgate stop (It's like a big plastic rivet), fitted just above the back lights was the cause of a prolific leak into the spare wheel well on my car. The central pin that secures it was missing. I popped in a spot of sealant and that stopped it (for 2 years, anyway..... boot full of water again now tho)
My leak into mk7 boot well was solved dead easy,all I did was put a two inch clear silicon bead along the top of rear lights. Lift up boot and just fill that gap between light and the body, water then runs down the Chanel and down onto the bumper and off the car. Been dry ever since. I didn’t take anything apart. Hope this helps someone else reading this.
Jaka I’d so much appreciate a picture of your silicone channel! I was thinking of making a small hole in the rubber bung in that compartment to permanently drain. Accessible from under the car with no bumper removal.
I have a sunroof and found over an inch deep puddle where the vents sit. I have blue sunroof drain pipes going through where the bung sits so hope it’s not them as well. Also found a clear pipe just hanging behind my wheel arch when I tried to take the rear bumper off. It’s not the sunroof drain so bit confused. Any advice would be appreciated.
Be very gentle with the plastic and carefully ease the clips with a pry tool and it will be fine. You do have to remove the bumper to seal it properly really 👍🏼
thank you very much. i have a two door so im not worried about the speakers, but i used this as a tutorial for the rest of them. going to replace the hatch drain now and hopefully i should be good 👍🏾
Hi I’ve just discovered the rear bench seat is soaked in my 13 plate golf. Thinking it could be from the lights as the foot wells are dry. Going to investigate further tomorrow. Found your video very informative.
almost certainly the bumper vents...mine fill up after rain. Wondering if it actually comes through the flaps themselves rather than the gaskets. @@gregorymacdonald5446
I watched the very informative video. I CBA to take the back end off. I got under the back of the car, pulled the drainage grommet out on both sides. Water came out. Drilled 2 small holes in the centre of each grommet. Used clear silicone to seal the top of the rear lights (when boot open). Sorted. 10 mins
Thanks for this video. A few days ago I found the boot well of my car rather damp (no mushrooms!) and I’ve now replaced the boot handle drainpipe, sealed around the air vents and the rear lights. Never taken the bumper off before, this vid helped me to do it without damaging anything. I’ve got parking sensors but thankfully realised that there would be a cable before actually pulling the bumper right off. Put it all back together and everything works OK - just need to see if any water reappears where it shouldn’t be.
Next leak to fix - rear doors speaker seals have gone. Currently only minor leakage but I assume it will only get worse. Have watched a few videos about fixing this… doesn’t look as straightforward as rivets are involved.
@@TurnersWorkshop97 I did the rear door speaker seals too yesterday morning. Annoyingly the speakers are riveted in place. I just scraped out the decaying foam ‘seal’ with a blade then squidged as much silicone as I could into the gaps. Heavy rain overnight and so far so good.
@@philipmarchant7058 Yes. We have had a lot of rain and my car has been out in all of it and I've driven through the rain for hours and the boot remains dry. Good news! It was all worth it.
Great video. I tried this but it did not work. My 2014 mk7 has 2 additional screws which are at an angle in each wheel well that hold the bumper to the trim that goes over the wheel.
Ja sam samo s unutarnje strane iz bunkera skinuo panel za ventilaciju u bunkeru i sve očistio i odmastio i vratio ga nazad i problem s vodom je riješen dok se opet na zamsti. Također sam skinuo i stop svjetlo i sve oćistio. I očistiti otvor u koji dolazi ventilacijski panel. Sve sa može napraviti s unutarne strane bunkera.
@@TurnersWorkshop97 I just broke them off and ordered new ones. I still can’t get the rear bumper off though. I even broke one of the little clips at the top of the bumper. It just doesn’t budge no idea why.
Nice fix there fella,I had a similar issue with water getting in on the rear top quarter vent on my smiley,water was running down the wiring loom & into the light cluster causing a bad earth on the plug to indicator so when driving with the lights on & indicating right the unit would flash really fast when touching the brake pedal 🤬. Sealed the unit properly & fitted a new bulb holder & wiring plug harness,works perfect now but since this fix my heater fan has stopped working FFS. A bloody new unit last year as well, honestly there's always something to fix with an aging motor 😂
Cheers mate, I may have had something similar on my smiley in the past. The lamp holder is fairly corroded and think it will need a new one soon. Where did you get yours out of interest? There will always be something 😂 you sure it hasn’t just popped the fuse? I’ve still got lots to do on mine but it’s -5 here in the uk and I’m struggling to find the enthusiasm to work in this 🥶
Hey, you may need to pry it up and each end. I would use a screwdriver and be careful not to damage the plastic. But you could get some plastic pry tools if you’re worried about damaging it.
Great video. Have a leak into our 2013 golf. Thought it was the badge drain pipe, but on checking we seem to have a badge without a drain hole. Not sure if this is an unusual thing? Anyway, will be following your excellent instructions to sort out the seals when we get a dry day! In the meantime, I’m going to pop the bungs out to allow it to drain.
Thanks for a very good, well presented video. It was easy to follow as you explained the steps as you went along. (not sure about the mushrooms though).
I don't understand how the badge drain thing can cause water inside/under the boot - It looks like the hole sits outside the seal, and even if the water would end up inside the boot door, how does it end up underneath the boot? (have a Golf Sportsvan and discovered tons of water in the spare tyre compartment!) grateful for an explanation!
There is a tube that runs from the boot badge, inside the tailgate and then drains outside. If the end of the rubber tube gets dislodged/ perished. It ends up in the boot and fills the boot with water. I hope that makes sense.
@@TurnersWorkshop97 thanks for you reply, I appreciate your very pedagogical videos! On my car the rubber is indeed gone, but I still have a hard time understanding how the water can get from there to the boot, since the tube doesn't seem to go inside the car (the only place it can go is inside the boot DOOR, but maybe it can go from there to the boot somehow?) - then again I am really not informed about how it is constructed!
@@ellinorisgren9574 thank you! when the tube comes out inside the boot door, the water can then get into the boot. Pretty sure there are more videos about that specific leak. If I had more time I would make a separate video but unfortunately I don’t at the moment.
I seem to remember seeing on a forum that they leak in from the speakers as well. I haven’t had that problem myself, not yet anyway! Might be worth giving it a google 🙂 the boot leak will be one of the areas I’ve highlighted though for sure 👍🏼
@TurnersWorkshop97 ive got a mark 7 gti and water seems to be coming in from the vents (90% sure), only happens after car washes and driving in heavy drain. Had a citroen c4 before that, dry as a nut even though it had damage at the back.
@@ferhatovic86 Same. Had an Opel before and when I just bought it new somebody hit my backdoor. Little water came in but nothing dramatically... A little mold after 10 years. Bought a VW not half a year ago and had like 3 liters of water in the boot. Just left my car at the mechanic, called half hour ago and he "can't find the source". I just do a quick google search and find 3 video's of water problems with VW. I'm a little pissed off right now...
@erisblisset yes its very annoying considering that the car is awesome in every other way. Have you checked to see if its the vent. I stripped my boot and found that its coming from the left bottom which is why i think its the vent. I'm thinking of spraying some rust laquer until i get it fixed but just soaking it up with a cloth atm before it gets that bad.
@@ferhatovic86 I have some more problems with the car. Engine indicator light always turns on, car mechanic says it's because I drive too slow, but I doubt it. There's water leaking from my exhaust, which should stop once the engine is hot, but mine keeps dripping. The indicator light is related to sensors in the exhaust, so I think the water in the exhaust and indicator light (CO2 sensor) are related. And the consumption is higher than my previous car while it's 10 years newer and has a lighter engine 1.2 instead of 1.4. Consumption might of course also be related to sensors in the exhaust and fuel injection regulation based upon these sensors. Else it's a beautiful car with many options, but these issues on a second hand with only 30000km are really frustrating.
I think there’s a better chance sealing them will last longer than replacing with new ones. Just make sure both surfaces are clean and dry before applying the silicone.
How did you get the t10 screw underneath off? mines broken and I can’t get it off, and does it matter if you leave it when putting it back together again?
Big mushroom in the spare wheel is a little bit too much!!!! (Supermarket mushrooms?????) However the video is very interesting for my golf mistake.... Thanks
Thank you, I would recommend removing the bumper as will give much better access to do a decent job. The space is too tight to apply silicone from the inside really and you will more than likely end up having to redo it.
Thanks for making this video. I've got a 2014 Mk7 golf which although I've had since new I found water in the spare wheel well last week. I've replaced the drain pipe as the grommet had perished. I've removed the grommets from each side to let the collected water drain out. Am now removing the rear lights and applying silicone, after doing the tailgate I now have one bulb on the left (rear light) and one bulb on the right (fog light) not working, I suspect the water has got in there too. One to puzzle over. Overall this car has been great, I'm not impressed with this design flaw from VW though.
still working on getting access internally but now have soaked back seat off and slowly drying in kitchen, after finding my wheel drowning in water. What do we feel about those rubber grommets?...do they serve any useful function? I am debating removing them when I manage to get into those side boxy areas... and - Surely this needs a group litigation case sending to VW.
The boot drain tube costs £6 from a VW dealer and you can replace it yourself in about 15 mins. Remember to cut the tube to size and don’t leave a bend/kink in it when it feeds through the hole. Otherwise it will wear away
Crazy there is no recall. We all have the same issue!!!!! Is it not worth leaving the plug, unplugged so the water drains on the road. Hence you dont need to reseal it?
I've got the same problem with my Mk7 Golf GTD and have already replaced the boot badge pipe with no improvement...clearly its coming in via my rear vents and the light fittings so can u tell me do I need to replace the vents on either side or can I just seal the original ones in?...I'm planning on getting mine done next wknd so any info from you guys would be much appreciated...I'm just glad I'm on top of it and it's only going into the spare tyre well so in the meantime I know I can keep it from not damaging anything in the boot...cheers guys...p.s great video...👍🏻👏🏻🤞🏻
I think everyone with one of these models will have this problem eventually if they haven’t already. I used the original vents. Cleaned them up and used some clear silicone to reseal. Doesn’t take too long to sort it out. Thanks mate! Really appreciate it 👍🏼
FOR EVERY GOLF 7 OWNER: check these out:
(tip: keep a toilet paper roll in the sidepockets of the booth. Thats how i noticed my problem, it was wet, even tho no water was visible)
1. slam vents (water in booth or underneath the backseat) take vents off, clean and apply tons of silicone, new ones will corrode eventually.
2. Panoramic roof drains (they might be clogged leading to infiltration by the panoramic roof) ugly mess, stained interior on all walls down to the footwell.
3. Speaker sealant foam (all 4)(water underneath the speakers grill and on the inside of the door sealant at speaker level, leads to water in the footwell and mold later) ugglier mess.
4. Reverse camera cover/drain pipe (water in the booth).
I was lucky. Had all of them.
5. Tail lights. Water in booth. Dont know how to fix this, but check after pressure washing your car.
Great comment, thanks for sharing I’ve pinned it so everyone can read it as haven’t had the speaker one myself yet but it’s probably only a matter of time before I do 😂👍🏼
Me too...Speaker seals 🤬🤬🤬
Pp😮p99p
Hi, can you please help me in uderstanding the issue? I ve mk7 63 reg. Just noticed a puddle in spare wheel well and the puddle is on driver's side only. The other side of the well is dry. What could be the cause of this?
Hi, can you please help me in uderstanding the issue? I ve mk7 63 reg. Just noticed a puddle in spare wheel well and the puddle is on driver's side only. The other side of the well is dry. What could be the cause of this?
VW should be compensating owners for these ridiculous errors on these vehicles. I have exactly the same issues. It shouldn't be for us owners to be rectifying the water leaking problem. It's a very poor design. As we can see, there are so many videos showing the same problem on UA-cam.
Thanks for this video👍🏼
oh man, this video was *so* useful! My passenger side floor mat was constantly soaked. It turned out the leak was in the left tail light, exactly as you show! The boot was soaked too and the water had travelled under the rear passenger carpet and onto the front. I would have never guessed! Thank you so much!
Just found 2 inches of water in my spare wheel well yesterday and thought I was just unlucky till I started googling the possible cause. I was amazed how big a problem this is and can't believe that vw hasn't done a recall to sort it out. Good video mate,I just need the courage to start ripping all the fasteners off without any damage😁
Right. If I had known this I would never have bought a volkswagen...
I've brought my 2019 Golf into VW three times and they've cleaned the drains and told me there wasn't a problem and they tested it. i believe the issue is due to parking on a specific incline. our driveway is pretty steep and it didn't start happening until we moved here.
I CANT BELIEVE VW DIDNT do a recall on this issue. We all have this damn issue. And now it went on my right rear seat. And now started getting moldy damn
@@allybearbear I've got mine for a little over a month so don't know where it was parked before but I am parking exclusively on flat ground. And I noticed this issue yesterday
did you change the vents yet??@@allybearbear
I also noticed that my windscreen was always showing signs of condensation. When I checked the boot, a puddle of water was present underneath the space saver wheel. The water had also found its way to the rear seats - the bench was soaking.
On closer inspection, the water was entering the boot from both the rear light clusters and bumper vents. I removed the old vents and replaced them with new parts, as well as applying tonnes of silicone sealant inside and out. For the light clusters, changed gaskets.
Gave the rear bench a deep clean with a shop vac, as well as cleaning up the boot area and allowing everything a good chance to dry out.
We’ve had loads of rain since the maintenance on the car and the boot is thankfully bone dry.
Hi which sealant did you use
@@Jamiekhan-qg2jiI used Everflex 145 Butyl Rubber Sealant for the air vents.
I also recently discovered leaks in both rear doors, which is also a common fault on these vehicles. The water was bypassing the rear door seals and entering the footwells. My door situation was due to both of the speakers.
I removed the door card and leaked tested it, which revealed the water rapidly dripping from the base of the speaker mounts. After the leak test, I allowed everything to fully dry. Once dried, I applied a decent amount of the same Butyl sealant where the inner seal was on the speaker itself and around the speaker mounts. I allowed the sealant enough time to set, then water tested the rear doors for a few minutes with a water hose - no leaks! 🙂
Now I can finally say my Golf is fully water sealed. We’ve had loads of heavy rain over the Easter period and the interior is dry throughout.
Discovered I have water in my boot, pulled out the liner as my seats were getting wet, which stopped it for a bit. But now I have to investigate further which sounds exactly as described as stated in the video. Thanks for the great video, very informative. Glad I found it
I have just been sorting my Golf Mk7 out. Your guide helped me sort the water in the boot by sealing the vents with silicon. I also replaced the rubber drain pipe on boot handle and also sealed around the light foam fittings. Some extra tips for anyone else with this VW water ingress problem and with water in the car cabin. I also found that where the speakers are riveted in the rear doors there are cracks in the plastic so when sealing also ensure you get them sealed also. Aswell, at the outflow drain at the bottom of the rear door, mine was blocked. When pouring water down the outside of the window nothing came out so there was sitting water in the door causing the water level to raise and pour through the speaker. So top tip to remove the rubber seal at the bottom of the rear doors and ensure its not clogged/blocked. I also found some water ingress in the hinge in the centre of the rear door. I created a small silicon route so it doesn't run down the inside seal. Hope this tidbit helps anyone else with this problem. Both my door speakers were leaking and both my rear vents were also leaking. I sealed my speakers without removing them by scraping out the foam seal and just using silicon around the speakers. Took me a week to dry out the car with an ordinary fan by lifting the carpets, inserting wooden blocks underneath for airflow. Just purchaed a small fan heater from Amazon for £15 to hlep dry out the cabin. VW have so many issues with water ingress its insane!!!
My rear door is leaking so the rubber seal at the bottom of the door do you remove it completely or do you put it back on again after inspection?
Hold on a minute… there’s a bung! Is that purely for draining the in-auto pond every once in a while!? I have this problem… so happy I found this video.
Excellent video for something that is quite tedious to fix. Well done! It is a disgrace that VWs are designed this way. It’s not even that the vents do very much - I still get pressure in the car if the window is open!
Thank you so much for this very informative and detailed video! I had wet seats in the back of my VW mk7. I had tons of condensation in my golf, as well as very damp back seats w/ some mould growth. Cleaned it all up, got some humidity absorbers.
Thought I’d remedied the problem. Was checking my car boot the other day purely by chance and lifted everything down to the spare wheel and saw loads of water in a big puddle! We were shocked and trying to figure out where it was coming from as there were no obvious holes anywhere. So glad hubby found your video on this and appalled to hear how common it is and that VW didn’t do a recall because of it.
CHECK OUT if you are not comfortable removing the bumper!
Hi Turner, many thanks and great video that you made! and you have put me on the right track to solve the water ingress in the boot of my mk7 Golf. I had already changed the little water drain hose as it was broken but that did not solve the problem fully. I followed your steps until halfway the removal of the rear bumper and was getting concerned about damaging it as it was really hard to release the clips. I had a rethink and based on your work I came up with a variation in the way of working that does NOT require the bumper removal!
It is possible to carefully push the ventilation pieces out and subsequently turn them sideways and pull them back and out through the boot. Then apply the silicon as per your advice and then carefully pass them through the insert, turn to the right orientation and pull the carefully in position, maybe using pliers and making sure the 4 clips click into position. Downside is not so good control over the quality of the silicon sealing and to cope with this I used a lot of silicon so it would surely sealed and the excess on the outside can obviously not be nicely removed this way. I also decided to not silicon some centimeters/an inch or so at the lowest point to allow an exit for any water that unexpectedly still passes.
Maybe good alternative for those that are also not comfortable to remove the bumper...
Take care!
Great video. I had the vents leaking problem with my 2014 Golf. 3 years later though I still have really bad problems with condensation on the windscreen and rear one. I can't identify any more leaks so I'm at my wits end as to why it happens as otherwise it's a great car.
AC condenser drain hose grommet under front passenger carpet?
Yes only recently found my mk7 has very soggy carpets in the wheel well. I had noticed condensation was a bit more than you would expect but this is the reason. A friend had the same issue but with standing water! VW charged a lot to fix his. Removing the bung did let our some water but you might get more coming in from spray...
Very helpful video though...
Man great video. I found it today. We were blaming our kids for spilling water on the back seat but much like everyone else once i lifted the boot to reveal the spare wheel it was swimming in water. Going to seal the door vents tomorrow! Fingers crossed. I'm notoriously impatient when it comes to stuff like this!
Thanks again
Thanks man glad you found it useful. Poor kids 😂 luckily it doesn’t take too long 👍🏼
I also thought my kids had spilt something and that because they were dropping crumbs, mould was then growing. I have taken enough out that I can see I definitely have this problem… now need to get that bumper off. 😕
Did this today, fairly straightforward but there is one more tx25 screw holding the bumper on either side. It's behind the lining and is an absolute pain to get out. Eventually managed with a small allen key. Jacking up the car might help.
Great vid, really helpful. Am I missing something here? If the side vents that leak have a rubber bung underneath them that lets the water out that has built up. Why not just take the bung out permanently and then any water that leaks in will immediately drain straight back out again??
Thank you, glad you found it useful 😊 the bungs will also prevent spray coming into the car from underneath so probably best keeping them in.
Just found your video on how to fix this ongoing problem. I initially thought it was a failure of the crap VW foam light seals, so I replaced them with the newer equivalent of Dumdum putty (which VW used to use, before they started to cut corners with cheap materials). Water still gets in, but now I've an idea where else to look for the leak and how to rectify it. Many thanks for your detailed instructions.👍
Have you had any more leaks?
@@nataliegrn17 Bumper off and resealing the vents has cured it, thankfully.
this is my next job...any tips on getting bumper off??@@richardmartin1519
Thanks - hopefully this will have solved the problem that I was stumped with. I’ve just put silicon around the vents and lights, so hopefully now the boot will keep dry
I really appreciate the super thanks donation - it’s the first I’ve had and it will really help towards the channel! So thank you 😊 I’m glad you found the video useful and hope that is the end of your water leak problem.
@@TurnersWorkshop97 It definitely saved me some pennies - and I learnt a new skill in the process. Win-win! Keep up the good work👍
Crazy to see so many people have the same problem.. this is a manufacturing problem.. and vw should’ve recalled those cars. Noticed this morning in my wife’s car (2019 vw golf sportsvan) that the spare wheel was literally swimming in the back of the car. This video helped so much.. and found my issue.. right rear vent. So thank you for posting this in such a well manner. Btw.. sorry for asking.. but how could you leave your car to the point that mushrooms grew inside it.. and the rear seats turned green.. what the hell 😅
No problem, really glad you found it useful and it helped you find and fix the issue 😊 I thought I would turn the boot into a garden seeing as it already has an irrigation system 😆
victorprioroc1009...I was wondering IF this issue applies to the Sportwagen AND Alltrack...appears it does...damn it, I'll have to check my Alltrack now. I seem to get fogged up windows periodically seemingly for no reason, I've alway attributed to my mud guard floor mats which it could be but now I've gonna check out those rear side vents and if they haven't leaked yet I'll put a bead of silicone around them as preventive maintenance.I summer sometimes my windows will fog if I've been running my A/C and I park go into store or something and when I return and start car the front window will fog a little...this has been ongoing since new.
@@harryberry474 hi. Well sportswagen i can clearly say YES… and i would say since alltrack is made on the same platform i could bet it’s a similar issue. Honestly i was shocked that this could happen .. i mean my wife’s car has only 30k km.. bought as new. Took down the bumper yesterday evening and i properly sealed the right vent with a special glue on the inside and then applied silicon on the outside … technically now should never leak again. I did the same for the left vent asa preventive measure. Then i can only recommend (also as in the video above) to apply a small amount of silicon on the sponge that covers the rear lamps.. i don’t think in my case water entered through the lights BUT i bet was a matter of time beforenit does.. as the sponge no longer had a good grip to the body of the car. Technically my rear end should now be water proof. And yes also in mu case before noticing the “ocean” in the trunk i always had a foggy rear window . Good luck !
I had a puncture today, (first one in 25 years) and upon taking my space saver out I discovered it was under 3" of water, thank you for this video it was very helpful to fix my issue, (the flood not the puncture)
Thanks for this and the other videos. I have a 2014 mk7 Golf 2.0tdi. If only I had watched these videos before! Found water in the boot and took it to the ever expensive vw workshop. I mounted all 4 bilstein B6 and the ride and the handling are amazing, that was a huge upgrade. Cheers from Florence, Italy.
which model of B6 please??
Great video. I didn’t realise there were bungs in the either cavity under the rear lights. As a temp fix I’m going to remove them until I can get the bumper off….
Were the bungs easy to access?
@@cjtr6 Yes. You need to unscrew the back of the wheel arch guard and then look up underneath where the rear light is. You should see a black circle about the size of a 10p coin. Push it… Don’t look up directly as water will p@@@ out..!
You make removing the bumper look easy. Couldn't get ours off without way more force than I was happy with (which tbh was the same for everything else too!)
It is *JUST* possible however to seal up the vents without removing the bumper and that's the way I ended up doing it.
If you pop them off you can then angle them so they come out, reach through the hole to clean up the face then squirt a healthy fat bead of silicon sealant around the vent. You can then do the same in reverse and pop them back on and squish the bead of silicon against the body. Fingers crossed it works but it's certainly no longer "rattling" around.
I managed to get bumper skin disconnected on one corner and wedged a piece of wood in between and like yourself realised it can be done without doing that...Fingers crossed all sorted...
@fastdruid so have you managed to take those vents out from the inside of the boot? Isnt the seal lip of the vent from the outside underneath the bumper preventing you to do that? or are you really able to angle it the way to take it out from inside of the boot? I would like to avoid taking the bumper off as I dont want to struggle putting it back up. thanks
@@BEFORETHEMHYPEBEASTS Yes. You can pop them out and then angle them so that they pass back into the car.
There is enough room between the bumper and the body to be able to pop them out and manoeuvre them. You *could* undo the bumper at the bottom pop them off and "drop" them out but pretty impossible to refit them that way so IMO better to practise on the way they need to be moved to get through the hole!
Don't get me wrong, it's a bit awkward, you've obviously got to clean the reverse side of the hole for the sealant to adhere which is tricky as you can't see anything. Can't remember if this vid says to apply the sealant to the car or the vent but I did it to the vents. Rather awkward holding them and getting them into place without getting the sealant everywhere but it is doable!
@@fastdruid thanks man that helps a lot, have you tried to reseal the tail lights as well? and if so, do it only around that center bulb like here on the video? I was thinking its a good idea to apply silicone around the diameter of the tail light as well but not sure if that will help.
Great video but thanks also to the person that mentioned that there is no need to remove the rear bumper. I removed trim and dried everywhere thoroughly. Removed the vents from the inside, cleaned them thoroughly and then dried. Added some silicone sealant to the rubber seals….. jobs a good un. My local VW store £270 to replace - two day job. My experience 1hr labour and a dab of sealant.
Got this exact problem on our Mk7. I guess as a short term fix you could leave those bungs out to allow the water to get out until you have time to re-seal those vents.
Definitely, take the bungs out and sort when you have spare time 😊
I'm having same issue where is the Bung? Can this be used to drain my water out as I have a puddle not just moisture that can be cleaned with towel
@@BeirBua_ Do not leave bungs out. Fumes will work their way in which is dangerous for everyone breathing this in. After long trip everyone will be extra tired and experience headaches etc.. I 'm writing from experience.
Amazing thank you so much, i braked really hard as a fox came infront of my car, noticed the next day the back seats had wet patches, checked the boot and spare wheel well found a pond in the boot, had a weird smell coming found that there was mould growing, took the rear seats out and there was more water there, havent found where its leaking from but managed to get the garage to drill a hole in the boot so no more water will sit in the boot, will be checking these recommendations out to find the source of the leak thank you 🙏🏼
Hello mate,
mine has water inside for months now, thought is was from the antenna, sealed it with silicon, same on headlights but no luck, still water inside, will try your tips tomorrow I think
thank you very much for digging into that :)
Same vent issue on my VW golf sportsvan. Right side last year now I got the problem with the left. I got sunroof aswell, the drain pipe goes into those rubber grommets u popped out. Headliner stained because it was clogged. The grommet from the badge drain pipe was cut off by VW when I had them clean the drains 🤷
I've just found 2" of water in my boot. I suspect the vents but in advance I have bought the light seals (from Deutcheparts) and there is one thing you don't appear to have mentioned, the new seals also comes with 2 little circles also cut in the foam and I've clearly realised from your video at 8:40 that these are for the 2 studs that fit into the rear quarter panel, on the outer edge of the light and these would presumably equally compress and fail like the main seal.
Great video I purchased a Volkswagen Golf July last year didn’t realise I would have a pond, in the boot
And the back seat soaking 💦when winter came very useful video
Great video you make it look so easy. I have this problem but can't get off the first piece across the back
Thanks mate, don’t worry that’s the hardest part 😁
Do I just pull it?
@@markwebb9730 yes you just carefully prise it up, maybe use a flat blade screwdriver around the edges or a trim removal tool.
Thanks so much for making this video. Saved me heaps of hassle trying to figure out the root cause for the leak on my golf.
Thanks Turner, follow your steps. Found the loose air vents. Siliconed up. Add some sound protection while at it. Sweet, no more pools if water. That water freaked us out. You're a saver!
No problem at all, really glad you found the video useful 👍🏼😊
Hello, I’m just wondering would the same process work if you have reversing censors on your bumper ? Thanks in advance !
Hi, apologies for the delay in reply. The same process will apply for a bumper with reversing sensors. The car in the video has reversing sensors. Thanks for your comment 😁
Absolutely fantastic video. I dont know much about cars, however was able to fix the leakages in the 9 year old vw golf. While I was busy fixing the leak, I was able to also seal all the other potential places of leakages, knowing it from this video. Saving heaps of money! Thank you!
Hi great video, I noticed 2” water in the boot, I changed the tube to the boot handle and thought I had fixed it. Just checked after a few days of heavy rain and it’s full again so will now strip the back of the car off and seal the vents. Are the mushrooms magic. 😊
Thanks. Did the handle tube a couple of months ago and all fine. Now I have different issue with the rear wash. Seems to be where it goes into the high level light. YT vids (and manual) seem to suggest the HL light pries from the outside, but mine is the other type. Anyway I used your video to help with the tube issue..
I came across this video because I have the same problem with my MK4. Can't believe they still haven't fixed it for the MK7!
That’s pretty poor that they haven’t fixed the problem 3 models later! 🙄
Cheers for making this look so easy man. Spent 5 hours lying on the ground considering burning out my car 😂
It is water tight now though. Cheers.
Top video mate really thorough and no corners cut well done
Thanks mate 😊
Been struggling with this recently trying to find a cause. Followed your video. Thought there’s no harm in sealing it even if that isn’t the cause. Cheers!
Hi. Tank you very much for this useful video. I did this today. I confirm that it's possible to take off the 2 air vents from inside the vehicle without dismounting bumper, put sealant on them and reinstall. I recommend to clean the coupling surfaces on car body very well using a dental mirror to check it, then do practice to learn the correct moves to reinstall vents before apply sealant. Tank you again.
that plastic piece at 1:04 its very stuck im afraid if i pull harder it will break
Thanks so much for taking the time to make this video. I have sam issue on my VW Touran. Now I know what to do. Many Thanks.
Thanks for this video! Helped me a lot and i did the vents without removing the bumper. Also I did the boot hose replacement. It took me all together like 45 minutes.
Great video mate thanks for showing all the places water can enter into the back. My mate's car tyre bay is a swimming pool. Keep up the good work .
Hi, thanks for the video!
I have the same problem with my golf mark 5. I see residue at the bottom edge of the vent trim.
Just for info, instead of using silicone, you could use a sealent, called butyl.
There is cold butyl and there is warm butyl. As far as I know, cold or warm stands for the application. After it sticks to the surfaces, won't let there any water. I have cold butyl and the application is the same as silicone in your video as you could by in a cartouche like at the silicone. The butyl stays flexible along it's lifetime therefore you could dismount the parts as it does not provide as strong bond as the silicone. Of course, after disassembly, you have to clean the butyl and reaply.
That's an awesome video. Thanks so much for showing us how to fix this problem Olly.
No problem at all mate, glad you found it useful 😊
Thanks
Thought I would send you a little something to say thanks for the video. It's saved me a fortune at the garage and I have the exact same issue on my MK7 Golf.
Thank you so much mate, really appreciate that, it’s very kind of you. It helps massively towards the channel and future videos 😊👍🏼
Ours is the same, carpets are soaked now, been trying for a while to figure out where it's coming from. I'm no mechanic and could work out how to get the trims off in the boot. Looks rather doable and not expensive at all. Garage wanted to charge me £300. Just bought a £5 tube of silicone ha. Cheers
The inner lights on the trunk lid are vulnerable also. Water will get in them and corrode the connectors and bulb holders. Needed a new connector and 2 new bulb holders. Sealed everything up better now👌
Why aren’t people removing or at least making a smaller hole in the drain bung so water can’t pool up in that chamber? That can be done from under the car with no removal of bumper or inner carpet panels.
Please advise.
Thx
Super helpful video. I have this exact problem. I was wondering whether simply removing the rubber bung, in the side wells, would be a solution?
Glad it was useful, definitely a temporary fix. Would recommend sealing the vents though as the bungs will also stop water getting in from underneath.
definitely helpful for me, i am currently experiencing the same problem i was even thinking of changing a tailgater rubber seal...on my care definitely is this cause i had accident few months back. thank you alot.
Thanks for your video, I found it very helpful, last year I replaced the boot badge/handle tube and now these two air vents have certainly been leaking so resealed like you did.
A great video - thanks for posting it. I'll be sealing my vents this weekend as I have a leak. The only issue I have is using silicone sealant round the lights. This stuff seals - but it also sticks. What if you need to remove those lights again in the future? I've seen people using Butyl cord which seals, but does not set. I'm going to try that round my light fittings.
My Vw mk6 golf 09 GtTdi seems to have moisture in the spare wheel well so will check this . Not sure If it has the same vents behind the bumper ?? Found big gaps between the rear doors and the metal plates that hold the window regulator must have been a fault from new as it’s riveted in . It caused a wet carpet in the rear footwells not good ! Used some butyl rubber to fill the gaps around the plates without removing them which is a PITA . Seems to have sorted the problem . Mk5-6-7 all shite never had any of this on my mk4 gtTdi. Other than a few broken wires, worn out coolant pipes , leaky tandem pump end plate for 200k (now sealed) and a broken weld on the clutch pedal at 480k ( re welded ) . Mk6 has had gps module go down, phantom bulb out warning lights that disappear on a restart , Broken springs and worn out shocks at low mileage ( koni street kit fitted in lock down with full front sus refresh ) , and broken wires in the boot causing lock not to activate . The joys of motoring lol great vid mate . 👍
Great video seems I have similar problem but why is there a bung in the recess if that can allow such water to escape? what is the point of the bung otherwise?
If you undo the wheel arch lining, is it possible to reach in and pull the bungs out to then see if water comes out and if water does come out what stops you just leaving the bungs out so even if the vents leak the water has somewhere to escape?
To answer my own question, all you need to do is go under the car from the back bumper and look up, you can see the rubber bung either side and remove it, Mine where empty after a few days rain but worth the check.
Hi, sorry I wasn’t ignoring you! In all honesty I am glad you answered your question as it will be useful for others reading 😊
The rubber tailgate stop (It's like a big plastic rivet), fitted just above the back lights was the cause of a prolific leak into the spare wheel well on my car. The central pin that secures it was missing. I popped in a spot of sealant and that stopped it (for 2 years, anyway..... boot full of water again now tho)
My leak into mk7 boot well was solved dead easy,all I did was put a two inch clear silicon bead along the top of rear lights. Lift up boot and just fill that gap between light and the body, water then runs down the Chanel and down onto the bumper and off the car. Been dry ever since. I didn’t take anything apart. Hope this helps someone else reading this.
Jaka I’d so much appreciate a picture of your silicone channel! I was thinking of making a small hole in the rubber bung in that compartment to permanently drain. Accessible from under the car with no bumper removal.
I have a sunroof and found over an inch deep puddle where the vents sit. I have blue sunroof drain pipes going through where the bung sits so hope it’s not them as well. Also found a clear pipe just hanging behind my wheel arch when I tried to take the rear bumper off. It’s not the sunroof drain so bit confused. Any advice would be appreciated.
when removing the bumper were the clips breaking? could you of taken those vents and replaced without taking bumper off?
Be very gentle with the plastic and carefully ease the clips with a pry tool and it will be fine. You do have to remove the bumper to seal it properly really 👍🏼
@@TurnersWorkshop97 thanks for the reply. Handy video, cheers
thank you very much. i have a two door so im not worried about the speakers, but i used this as a tutorial for the rest of them. going to replace the hatch drain now and hopefully i should be good 👍🏾
How did you pop the plastic rivets out under the bumper? Mine are stuck on 😅
Hi sorry my reply might be a bit late now. You use a flat blade screwdriver to pop out the middle and then they should come out :)
Hi I’ve just discovered the rear bench seat is soaked in my 13 plate golf.
Thinking it could be from the lights as the foot wells are dry.
Going to investigate further tomorrow.
Found your video very informative.
same here...how did you get on??
and me... going to take a proper look tomorrow, clearly a lot of us suffering with this wet weather.
almost certainly the bumper vents...mine fill up after rain. Wondering if it actually comes through the flaps themselves rather than the gaskets. @@gregorymacdonald5446
I watched the very informative video. I CBA to take the back end off. I got under the back of the car, pulled the drainage grommet out on both sides. Water came out. Drilled 2 small holes in the centre of each grommet. Used clear silicone to seal the top of the rear lights (when boot open). Sorted. 10 mins
Thanks for this video. A few days ago I found the boot well of my car rather damp (no mushrooms!) and I’ve now replaced the boot handle drainpipe, sealed around the air vents and the rear lights. Never taken the bumper off before, this vid helped me to do it without damaging anything. I’ve got parking sensors but thankfully realised that there would be a cable before actually pulling the bumper right off. Put it all back together and everything works OK - just need to see if any water reappears where it shouldn’t be.
Next leak to fix - rear doors speaker seals have gone. Currently only minor leakage but I assume it will only get worse. Have watched a few videos about fixing this… doesn’t look as straightforward as rivets are involved.
No problem, I’m glad it was useful to you 👍🏼 haven’t come across the door speaker seal leak as of yet but no doubt it may come up 😅
@@TurnersWorkshop97 I did the rear door speaker seals too yesterday morning. Annoyingly the speakers are riveted in place. I just scraped out the decaying foam ‘seal’ with a blade then squidged as much silicone as I could into the gaps. Heavy rain overnight and so far so good.
Any joy? With the boot leak stoppage
@@philipmarchant7058 Yes. We have had a lot of rain and my car has been out in all of it and I've driven through the rain for hours and the boot remains dry. Good news! It was all worth it.
Great video. I tried this but it did not work. My 2014 mk7 has 2 additional screws which are at an angle in each wheel well that hold the bumper to the trim that goes over the wheel.
Great video and thank you for mapping out the different potential leaks and symptoms, helped me find mine!
Ja sam samo s unutarnje strane iz bunkera skinuo panel za ventilaciju u bunkeru i sve očistio i odmastio i vratio ga nazad i problem s vodom je riješen dok se opet na zamsti. Također sam skinuo i stop svjetlo i sve oćistio. I očistiti otvor u koji dolazi ventilacijski panel. Sve sa može napraviti s unutarne strane bunkera.
For me on my Mk6 GTD the rear wiper washer hose had split. So everytime used rear washer it emptied into boot floor
I’ve got the same issue with 2017 Tiguan, is it likely to be the same problem?
It’s highly likely, they all seem to be of similar design
All of the screws at the bottom of rear bumper are stripped, can’t get the bumper off. How did you do it so easily without breaking the clips?
You could drill the plastic screws out and replace with a suitable metal screw when you refit the plastic clips.
@@TurnersWorkshop97 I just broke them off and ordered new ones. I still can’t get the rear bumper off though. I even broke one of the little clips at the top of the bumper. It just doesn’t budge no idea why.
Good video definitely helpful, I couldn’t be arsed doing all that so I just bought the parts off ebay and took it to my mechanic all fixed now
Thanks for your comment, glad you found it helpful and managed to get it sorted!
Nice fix there fella,I had a similar issue with water getting in on the rear top quarter vent on my smiley,water was running down the wiring loom & into the light cluster causing a bad earth on the plug to indicator so when driving with the lights on & indicating right the unit would flash really fast when touching the brake pedal 🤬.
Sealed the unit properly & fitted a new bulb holder & wiring plug harness,works perfect now but since this fix my heater fan has stopped working FFS. A bloody new unit last year as well, honestly there's always something to fix with an aging motor 😂
Cheers mate, I may have had something similar on my smiley in the past. The lamp holder is fairly corroded and think it will need a new one soon. Where did you get yours out of interest? There will always be something 😂 you sure it hasn’t just popped the fuse? I’ve still got lots to do on mine but it’s -5 here in the uk and I’m struggling to find the enthusiasm to work in this 🥶
how does the bottom piece at rear boot come out?? I am struggling to budge it.
Hey, you may need to pry it up and each end. I would use a screwdriver and be careful not to damage the plastic. But you could get some plastic pry tools if you’re worried about damaging it.
Great video. Have a leak into our 2013 golf. Thought it was the badge drain pipe, but on checking we seem to have a badge without a drain hole. Not sure if this is an unusual thing? Anyway, will be following your excellent instructions to sort out the seals when we get a dry day! In the meantime, I’m going to pop the bungs out to allow it to drain.
Mine is also without drain pipe.
Thanks for a very good, well presented video. It was easy to follow as you explained the steps as you went along. (not sure about the mushrooms though).
I don't understand how the badge drain thing can cause water inside/under the boot - It looks like the hole sits outside the seal, and even if the water would end up inside the boot door, how does it end up underneath the boot? (have a Golf Sportsvan and discovered tons of water in the spare tyre compartment!) grateful for an explanation!
There is a tube that runs from the boot badge, inside the tailgate and then drains outside. If the end of the rubber tube gets dislodged/ perished. It ends up in the boot and fills the boot with water. I hope that makes sense.
@@TurnersWorkshop97 thanks for you reply, I appreciate your very pedagogical videos! On my car the rubber is indeed gone, but I still have a hard time understanding how the water can get from there to the boot, since the tube doesn't seem to go inside the car (the only place it can go is inside the boot DOOR, but maybe it can go from there to the boot somehow?) - then again I am really not informed about how it is constructed!
@@ellinorisgren9574 thank you! when the tube comes out inside the boot door, the water can then get into the boot. Pretty sure there are more videos about that specific leak. If I had more time I would make a separate video but unfortunately I don’t at the moment.
Are the mark 7.5 effected? I have a 2020 gti.....no leaks yet
Mine started leaking at 7years old so time will tell 🤞
Hi, did you get any water in the passenger side footwells? Mine is soaked and also in the boot just like yours. The seats are fine though. - Audi a3
I seem to remember seeing on a forum that they leak in from the speakers as well. I haven’t had that problem myself, not yet anyway! Might be worth giving it a google 🙂 the boot leak will be one of the areas I’ve highlighted though for sure 👍🏼
This video is an amazing resource for boot leaks! Cheers!
No problem, glad you found it useful 😊
Thanks for this video. Just done exactly the same to my golf after noticing a swimming pool in my spare wheel bay
Great video, confirmed what i was thinking on my lads golf. Exactly the same with 2013 onwards ford focus too!
It's ridiculous that this happens to these cars. VW are supposed to be a top manufacturer. Anyway, cheers for a good video.
I was quite surprised when I realised how many cars are affected by this problem, not only VW. No worries thanks for watching 👍🙂
@TurnersWorkshop97 ive got a mark 7 gti and water seems to be coming in from the vents (90% sure), only happens after car washes and driving in heavy drain. Had a citroen c4 before that, dry as a nut even though it had damage at the back.
@@ferhatovic86 Same. Had an Opel before and when I just bought it new somebody hit my backdoor. Little water came in but nothing dramatically... A little mold after 10 years. Bought a VW not half a year ago and had like 3 liters of water in the boot. Just left my car at the mechanic, called half hour ago and he "can't find the source". I just do a quick google search and find 3 video's of water problems with VW. I'm a little pissed off right now...
@erisblisset yes its very annoying considering that the car is awesome in every other way. Have you checked to see if its the vent. I stripped my boot and found that its coming from the left bottom which is why i think its the vent. I'm thinking of spraying some rust laquer until i get it fixed but just soaking it up with a cloth atm before it gets that bad.
@@ferhatovic86 I have some more problems with the car. Engine indicator light always turns on, car mechanic says it's because I drive too slow, but I doubt it. There's water leaking from my exhaust, which should stop once the engine is hot, but mine keeps dripping. The indicator light is related to sensors in the exhaust, so I think the water in the exhaust and indicator light (CO2 sensor) are related. And the consumption is higher than my previous car while it's 10 years newer and has a lighter engine 1.2 instead of 1.4. Consumption might of course also be related to sensors in the exhaust and fuel injection regulation based upon these sensors. Else it's a beautiful car with many options, but these issues on a second hand with only 30000km are really frustrating.
For how long do you fix the problem with the silicon? Do you think it is better to buy original parts? Vents at least? Thanks for the video!
I think there’s a better chance sealing them will last longer than replacing with new ones. Just make sure both surfaces are clean and dry before applying the silicone.
I bought a "PU" sealant, from my reading it may last longer than silicon ones.
How did you get the t10 screw underneath off? mines broken and I can’t get it off, and does it matter if you leave it when putting it back together again?
Drill it out mate and put a metal one back in 👍🏼
Big mushroom in the spare wheel is a little bit too much!!!! (Supermarket mushrooms?????)
However the video is very interesting for my golf mistake.... Thanks
Great video. Couldnt you have siliconed the vents from the inside?
Thank you, I would recommend removing the bumper as will give much better access to do a decent job. The space is too tight to apply silicone from the inside really and you will more than likely end up having to redo it.
Would this fault be covered under an extended dealer warranty?
Not sure mate, would have to give them a ring
the fifth being from rear door speakers over the door seal into car :(. Good video, was that a regular sanitary silicon or an external door frame one?
Thank you, it’s just general contractors silicone
Thanks soo much for this video. Replaced the badge hose abut still got water leak in boot, now doing the side vents and light seals 😂
It’s my pleasure, glad it helped 👍🏼 Hope you manage to get it sorted 😊
Great guide. Just got this issue on my Golf so i'll be following your guide. Cheers!
Thanks for making this video. I've got a 2014 Mk7 golf which although I've had since new I found water in the spare wheel well last week. I've replaced the drain pipe as the grommet had perished. I've removed the grommets from each side to let the collected water drain out. Am now removing the rear lights and applying silicone, after doing the tailgate I now have one bulb on the left (rear light) and one bulb on the right (fog light) not working, I suspect the water has got in there too. One to puzzle over. Overall this car has been great, I'm not impressed with this design flaw from VW though.
tbh that's something worthy of a recall
did you change the bumpre vents??
I removed them, cleaned everything thoroughly and then refitted with a good bead of silicon @@RainbowCharade So far its worked.
still working on getting access internally but now have soaked back seat off and slowly drying in kitchen, after finding my wheel drowning in water. What do we feel about those rubber grommets?...do they serve any useful function? I am debating removing them when I manage to get into those side boxy areas... and - Surely this needs a group litigation case sending to VW.
I would remove the rubber grommets to let the water out as a temporary fix :)
The boot drain tube costs £6 from a VW dealer and you can replace it yourself in about 15 mins. Remember to cut the tube to size and don’t leave a bend/kink in it when it feeds through the hole. Otherwise it will wear away
I've replaced the vents but still got a leak, not sure what else to try
Have you sealed the lights and checked the boot badge pipe?
Crazy there is no recall. We all have the same issue!!!!!
Is it not worth leaving the plug, unplugged so the water drains on the road. Hence you dont need to reseal it?
I was surprised when I realised how common the issue is and they didn’t recall it. You definitely could do as a quick fix to let the water out 👍🏼
@@TurnersWorkshop97 best video for this issue online brother
Thanks dude 👌
I've got the same problem with my Mk7 Golf GTD and have already replaced the boot badge pipe with no improvement...clearly its coming in via my rear vents and the light fittings so can u tell me do I need to replace the vents on either side or can I just seal the original ones in?...I'm planning on getting mine done next wknd so any info from you guys would be much appreciated...I'm just glad I'm on top of it and it's only going into the spare tyre well so in the meantime I know I can keep it from not damaging anything in the boot...cheers guys...p.s great video...👍🏻👏🏻🤞🏻
I think everyone with one of these models will have this problem eventually if they haven’t already. I used the original vents. Cleaned them up and used some clear silicone to reseal. Doesn’t take too long to sort it out. Thanks mate! Really appreciate it 👍🏼