Golf/GTI Rear Sunroof Drain Fix DIY

[-Kage-]

For everyone that has a leak in the rear of their Golf/GTI, this is for you.

Materials required:

[2] Thin Hose clamps that fit 3/4" OD tubing(should be 5/8" to 1/2" rated)

[10-15 FT] 3/4" OD 1/2" ID Clear Vinyl Tubing for 90 cents a foot. More flexible tubing would be better, however this does the job just fine and is available at almost every hardware store. Each stock tube measures 53" so you really only need 9 FT but having a little extra provides a cushion for any mistakes.*Note about the tubing* The 1/2" ID allows the tubing to fit over the ball very snugly and the 3/4" ID allows the tubing to create a very good seal in the drain. No need to consider other sizes of tubing. Luckily this is the tubing size I used for my watercooling system in my computer so that is how this specific size came to me. I knew watercooling my computer would be helpful in more ways than one!

Tools required:

17MM Socket for the seat belts
10mm Deep Socket for the little screws holding the C pillar panel on the bottom of it.
10mm regular Socket for the hunk o junk removal
Small extensions for the sockets, makes it easier to get the bolts on.
Standard large/medium Philips screwdriver for the handles and hose clamp.
Pointy angled pick(as seen in the headliner removal guide) for the handles.
Torx20 Screwdriver(mini hunk o junk and the two plastic pieces as shown in the headliner guide.

Time Estimate: 1-4 hours depending on your skill level. If you don't know how to take your interior apart and have the right tools ready, it will obviously take longer than someone who knows what they're doing with all the tools at their finger tips.

Bentley diagrams of the Golf/GTI temporarily removed until I research the freedom of information act, I/M me if you 'are wondering what happened to them'

When I washed my car the other week, I found a *minor* water leak.

This guide did help a little but didn't provide enough info for what I needed. So I posted a thread and that's where the searching for the Golf/GTI sunroof drain spots began.

Headed over to the MKIV FAQ for the headliner removal found here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1312975

In order to get to the rear drains, the back seat handles on the headliner need to be removed along with the rest of the standard stuff in that guide, minus everything in the front. Dropping the whole headliner is completely unnecessary for the sunroof drains. The rear lights by the handle can stay in place. I removed one of them and it was very difficult since it has a funky clip on it only to find out it can just stay there.

!!!EDIT ALARM!!! Turns out that these PITA clips are properely removed using a hook screwdriver. Follow the 42DD guide here for proper instructions: http://www.42draftdesigns.com/tech/restraintclip.html <---That's for the A-pillar, but the same method can be used for the back clips too.

ATTENTION, the following information for the clip is obsolete, use the guide above^.
One tricky part to removing the C pillar is the metal clip that holds it on. For this, you have to use both hands as to not break the plastic and just pull/wiggle it very hard until it pops out. I cracked the plastic just a little bit from bending it too much since my hands weren't close to it, no biggie my interior is trashed anyway(black 20th interior someday after the car is paid off).

Woooooops

Everything ripped apart

Driver Side

Passenger Side

Door Molding taken off, allows the panel and headliner more room to be removed.
EDIT: Be careful to keep the white cloth rubber part attached to the black molding, these things are a single piece item. DO NOT seperate them, or you will have to carefully slide it back in!!!

Don't we all love taking apart the interior of our car?

Now you need to take care of some hunk o junks in order to get to the driver side drain.

This allows you to fold that carpet on back very far for a huge workspace.

Reinstalling these things involves one special note, make sure that the prongs are tucked in.

NO!!!

YESSSSS!!!

Fold down your seats so the headliner has some more room to hang down. Here's what I found when pulling down the headliner:

How did that ish get in there?!? WAIT...VW used OPEN DRAINS instead of sealed so junk can make its way out of that and onto the headliner. <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://vwvortex.rely.net/zeroforum_graphics/mad.gif" BORDER="0"> Pure. Genius. Just. Kidding.

Pull that crap stock tube out!

Look at this, some ingenuity must have been involved in using TOTALLY SWEET FALL APART CONNECTOR TUBES:

These connectors end up losing their bond with the tubing and then the water leaks through. to VWOA for cutting costs yet again.

Here's the drain connector on top:

Time to replace that tube with something quality, how about some tubing that goes over that ball and a hose clamp? What a brilliant idea!

Now for the driver side. The driver side hose must be routed between the metal panel that the stock hose goes through. This can be a pain with tubing that is curved. Just keep trying and you'll get it, poke your fingers through the other slots in the panel to push it down, and then once you can feel it on the bottom just wiggle it around and push from the top and pull from the bottom.

Be sure to route the tubing through everything BEFORE cutting it. Repeat this 'trick' on the passenger side as well. This is the most time consuming part of the whole project since it involves luck/skill.

Break off those clips that held the stock tube in, I left the stubs to use as a guide for the new tubing.

Route the new tubing in place of the stock:

[DO NOT] zip tie the new tubing to the tube wrapped in the blanket. Come to find out it is supposedly the curtain air bag

Instead, just let it hang there and push it up with the headliner:

Put that hose clamp on the tubing positioned right before hooking it up. When it gets on there, it's hard to take off because of the sweet seal the 1/2" ID hose makes.

The driver side drain is right below the tail light:

Looky here, a nice swimming pool; IN MY CAR! ---> ***Side Note: Soak up any leaks before continuing and let it air out before putting everything back together. ***

For the drain tube connectors that go in the hole you should take it out, wiggle/slide/push it onto the tubing so it points down, and then slowly but surely secure it back in from within the car. They are made to be inserted from the back of the car when the back bumper is off although with a little bit of magic they can be pushed back in. Slide as much as you can onto the metal, and then use the good ole roundabout to get the rest to slide under to create the seal. It's self explanatory once you have in your hands

With the tubing coming out from the metal panel, it doesn't give much room for positioning the end at a good angle. Do the best you can, it should still drain a sufficient amount of water.

On to the passenger side. Much easier than the driver side since the tubing has a straight shot down to the drain.

Hose clamp connected on top, the rear seat being folded down helped a great deal for the passenger side since you have a tight space to work with the screw driver.

Originally I had fastened this tube in place with a zip tie. This ended up preventing the C pillar panel from snapping up since it was too close to the connectors. Let it all hang loose, the panel will keep it in place.

Here's the drain location on the passenger side:

Connected together, the passenger side allows for more of an angle so the water can drain out quicker in case you didn't notice.

Put everything back together in reverse order and confidently drive in that rain knowing you have upgraded sunroof drains in the back of your car.

Revisions are complete, specific information will be added on request.

Modified by -Kage- at 8:47 PM 7-4-2007

[ArcadiaBBQ]

Great Diy

[SlavaKM]

wow man...talk about overkill

[CapeGLS]

This is awesome!

[Dan Halen]

Yeah, uhh... you're a champ. This has been added to the MkIV forum DIY thread.

[theAntiRiced]

Nice DIY.

Just a thought: Inserting diagrams taken from the Bentley Manual probably violates copyright law. I don't want to see this DIY taken off because of anything like that.

[-Kage-]

Bentley pictures removed, I'm going to look into what a man can do with pictures these days.

BRM-Thanks man

If you have any questions just I/M me and I will (most likely) be happy to answer them.

[VacantSkies88]

Thanks for the DIY, now Ill have something to do next weeked

[LETTERMAN52]

Awesome write-up....Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

[AlecGTI]

I noticed one problem, unless I'm just looking at it the wrong way (which is totally possible). I think you ziptied the new tubes to the curtain airbag. Don't think that's too good.

[-Kage-]

Is that the curtain air bag? It's a metal tube with some blanket attached to it so I didn't think it was anything important and had no clue what it was. Now if that's the case, just don't use zip ties anywhere and let the panel secure the tube like on the passenger side.

[Added the hunk o junk removal and a pic of the accumulated water from the leak.]

[firefighterjunkie]

Nice write up!!

[boi retro]

I have to do this with my driver's side A-pillar tube soon.

Hopefully many of the same points apply. Thanks for the write up.

[-Kage-]

boi- Sending you an I/M, let me know how removing the air bag pillars goes...looks like there's a bracket you have to push up to remove them.

Everything looks to be near the final product now, adding a tools required section since they are not the same as what Jkrew has listed.

[Sean2000VR6]

how do you fix the front tubes?

[evil-e]

Nice writeup

[dvltav]

Kage,
Excellent job posting DYI for rear sunroof drain. Reading through the posts it seems like you are working on the same instructions for the front sunroof drain.

I would really appreciate if you could let me know what are all the items I have to remove to access the drain outlet that is behind the dashboard on passenger side.

I have removed the glove compartment, and I cant figure out what to remove next to get access to drain.

I'm in little bit of panic, as I had this leakage problem before, and the moisture eventually killed the car computer, I have spent $3K getting the computer replaced. I'm determined to get it fixed once and for all.

Thank you,

Dominik

[-Kage-]

Dominik- Reply sent.

Sean- I just sent an I/M to boi retro asking if he got around to the front drains. If he did, he'll be the man who can help.

On a side note, the new tubing did not help me on the driver side. Water still forms the same pattern, I believe it's because of the actual plastic connection to the metal drain. Water will still drain out of the hole(verified by some sick colored puddles on the garage floor after some rain) so I know the part I fixed is at least working and not dumping back into the car like it was before. Chances are I will end up completely replacing the whole system with tubing to get rid of this junk, but that is going to involve completely dropping the headliner and that's something I don't have time for now.

I'll keep you all updated, -Travis

[Elvir]

wow, that is a very good write up..

Elvir

[automan21]

where was this post months ago when i was swimming in the abck seat of my gti. good write up.

[PeDroMc]

nice write up kage::::It rained a bit last night and there was no water inside the car....

now to redo the headliner and pillars in black.......

[boi retro]

Sorry I'm late to the thread guys. I forgot completely about it and then couldn't find the IM from Kage.

The headliner dropping was a long, drawn out, disastrous process for me. All I wound up doing was dirtying it up and creasing it in a few places.

In order to fix the front tubes the entire headliner needs to be dropped. I removed everything and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the clip that holds the visor in place off (not the swivel, the other one). Anyhow I poked around and finally decided to run a thin gauge pipe cleaner through the driver's side tube. I don't think it really did anything, but it hasn't flooded since then, so I guess I fixed it.

It's still a mystery to me. Twice it flooded ONLY on the driver's side with about 2" standing water to greet me when I opened the door. Hasn't done it before, hasn't done it since. Hopefully it's fixed once and for all.

[idwurks]

NICE diy for people out of warranty. I recently had this issue, and the dealer flushed the system for me under warranty.

[Fugee]

good DIY man..Im glad i checked mine when i tore my headliner down

[-Kage-]

Glad to see people having good luck with this, it sure feels good to help out

When summer comes I hope to drop the headliner and totally revamp the whole sunroof drain system if all goes well between now and then.

[RENZO1200]

this kind of shiz needs to be recalled...wtf
Completely unacceptable, thanks for the DIY. Hope I never end up using it.

[VeeDubbinJetta91]

Quote, originally posted by RENZO1200 »

this kind of shiz needs to be recalled...wtf Completely unacceptable, thanks for the DIY. Hope I never end up using it.

I agree i walked out to my car today to this...(pic from above) mine looked exactly like this...its been raining here for 28 stright days or something its getting ridiculous well i guess i gotta go out and fix it before it gets any worse

[vwcorradopimp]

how thoughtful of you to help us out lol thanx

[aegis]

Thanks so much for this! Is there a terminating point or nipple for the rear tubes under the car similar to the Jetta? I would like to try clearing the existing tubes before ripping out the rear of the car and the headliner

Thanks!

[oj1480]

more flow

[dremhmrk2]

Great DIY, definitely FAq material, thanks so much!!

[clearcoatsafe]

The terminating point for the nipple is just below the tailights concealed (i think) by the rear bumper. If you look in under the tailight you can see the brown hose fitting into the nipple boot.

Thanks for the DIY I just fixed my leak!!!!

I have a 4dr and last night found about 2" of water sloshing around in my rear passenger footwell! I have noticed a leak there for a while now and thought it was the weather-strip aroung the door! After dropping that side of the headliner I found the hose connection was all cracked and brittle and had disconnnected clean off the sunroof drain plug! Fixed by cutting in a new peice of hose and a clamp, just coupled it in about 3"

Thanks again for the great pics and info!

Now my problem is to fix the sagging spots in my headliner

[digifant_gli]

Are the locations the same on a Jetta Wagon?

[xxxturbo rabbitxxx]

I finally got to it and did this DIY and thank god my leak is fixed.

[illwill0469]

Okay I found my leak inside my 4dr Golf. I think that the hose is not connected to the rear sunroof drain only because the water still comes out the drivers side rear nipple under the car. It leaks mid point right where the back seat celling handle (aka **** bar) is and then I think the rest goes right to the nipple. Do I need to rip off the ceiling? etc? Cuz that drain is not visible....