Puddle in Rear Drivers Side Footwell - Help!

[H18Golf]

Looking for a bit of help folks.

Just been out to my 2006 3 door GTi and found a puddle of water in the rear drivers side footwell.  My car does not have a sunroof.  We have had a lot of rain recently(as has most of Britain), but this has never happened before.

It's dark now and I won't get a chance to look at this till next weekend due to work.  Anyone had similar problems or know what could cause this?  I've had a look on Google but not really found anything similar to my problem.

Thanks in advance for your help.   

[ocrory]

I've just noticed one in my rear passenger side footwell, pain in the ass! going to look at a few obvious potential causes today like door drain holes, bad seals etc...

Keen to hear if anyone else has had trouble?

[H18Golf]

Will be checking the door seals this weekend when I have the time.  I know that there are drainage holes under the bonnet, but how can the door drainage holes be cleared?  Also any others to check?

[lukemk5gti]

Sit in your car and have someone else hose it down.

The drainage holes in your bonnet might be blocked and the backflow would cause it to come in. However, if you're not parked on an incline then it would have flooded the driver front and not rear.

I'd check the seals around the back door before anything else.

[H18Golf]

Thanks for the reply Luke. 

The car is generally parked on my driveway which has an incline, so this may be why the back has ended up with the puddle.  Will check the seals around the boot when checking the other two doors as well, thanks.

[Pesky jones]

I had water in my boot, which I noticed because I had mould on my rear seats.

Behind your boot carpet side walls, you have a vent each side of the car, to allow air to escape when you shut the boot. On mine, the driver side was simply missing ( god knows why) and water was getting in here and pooling into the boot.

Id say its unlikely yours is coming from here, but, if you try everything else with no solution then maybe its worth a try. The seals around the vents can perish as well.

[adminkatana]

I had a water feature in the spare tyre well. Maybe got to an inch of water, pretty bad.

I laid tissue all over the boot and then poured water over the closed boot/ car with a watering can. Mine turned out to be a tear in the boot rubber seal. Think it was around £65 for a new one from VW fitted.

[H18Golf]

Ok, so car was parked on a level road today and i found that the drivers front floorwell was wet.  Im reckoning that the drainage holes under the bonnet are blocked.

I know to remove the seal and then the plastic scuttle.  What do i do after this, just pull all the cr@p out and thats it?  Or do i need to do anything else?

Thanks. 

[lukemk5gti]

Ok, so car was parked on a level road today and i found that the drivers front floorwell was wet.  Im reckoning that the drainage holes under the bonnet are blocked.

I know to remove the seal and then the plastic scuttle.  What do i do after this, just pull all the cr@p out and thats it?  Or do i need to do anything else?

Thanks. 

Delighted I got that incline right 

The hole is about the width of your baby finger if I remember correctly but there's probably going to be a load of it crammed over the hole. Scoop all of this out first and then what I did was actually fish out as much gunk as I could and then I jetted the line with a power hose to get the remainder.

Drying your carpet out is a nightmare though!!! I patted down mine for about an hour with an entire industrial blue roll to get the majority. I then set up a tripod with a hair dryer about 3" off the carpet so it wouldn't singe and just moved it's position every 10mins. Had it on an extension lead with all the doors closed except for one crack in the back window to let air escape.

[H18Golf]

Cheers Luke, will give this a go at the weekend.  Hopefully removing most of the rubbish by hand and then blasting water from the garden hose down the drainage hole should do it.   

[ocrory]

Having trouble tracking down my leak  Doesn't appear to be coming through the ear passenger door and the front footwell is dry which suggests it's not coming through from the bonnet drains (gave them a clean anyway - passenger side was clear but drivers side had a bit of crap in it). Any tips on getting that plastic cowling off the base of the windscreen? Had a look for a how-to guide but didn't spot one.

Got the car washed the other week and noticed a slight damp spot in the boot in below the passenger side brake light (nothing inside the brake light housing itself), might be coming from there so that's my next port of call. Had a look in the footwell and there was a little moisture but no pooling....frustrating!

[lukemk5gti]

Having trouble tracking down my leak  Doesn't appear to be coming through the ear passenger door and the front footwell is dry which suggests it's not coming through from the bonnet drains (gave them a clean anyway - passenger side was clear but drivers side had a bit of crap in it). Any tips on getting that plastic cowling off the base of the windscreen? Had a look for a how-to guide but didn't spot one.

Got the car washed the other week and noticed a slight damp spot in the boot in below the passenger side brake light (nothing inside the brake light housing itself), might be coming from there so that's my next port of call. Had a look in the footwell and there was a little moisture but no pooling....frustrating!

The cowling has probably never been removed so years of gunk are stuck in the seal effectively gluing it onto your window..

Start at one corner, scrape some of the gunk away and gently but forcefully free a piece. As soon as one corner is free, the rest will follow!

[H18Golf]

So yesterday I had another puddle in my car!!!!

A week ago I looked under the skuttle panel and saw a small hole near where the shocker is mounted that was covered over with moss, leaves etc.  I removed this and fired the hose onto the hole, water came running out the wheel arch so I thought that was it resolved.

However, yesterday, like I said I had a puddle in the front and rear drivers side footwells (car had been parked on a hill and flat).  I took the wiper arms off and completely removed the skuttle panel.  After having a feel about I could feel a lot of rubbish like mud in behind where the front shocker is mounted.  I removed this and then poured water in this area from a watering can while I held the drivers door open to see if any water ran inside the car.  I am happy to say that the water ran out where the door and wing meet at the sill.  I am hoping this is it resolved now as I am sick of getting in the car and having soaking carpets, never mind the smell.

I've put this up in case anyone else in the future has this problem, and also to see if this has previously sorted this problem for anyone or if I need to do anything else?