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Volkswagen Golf GT cabriolet 2012 | water leak detection

Volkswagen Golf GT cabriolet 2012 | water leak detection

Name: Volkswagen Golf GT cabriolet 2012 | water leak detection
Uploaded: 2021-01-19T00:00:00+00:00
Duration: 3 min 45 s
Description: Seems there's no shortage of leaks on this Volkswagen, which is not uncommon. It's not only Volkswagens, it's all cars, with convertibles particularly prone to leaks.

Video transcript

0:00 OK, we've got a Golf cabriolet in today, 2012, so we're just going to show you what we've found on the water leaks. So if we just come to the cabriolet roof, Gary's going to put a little bit of water down in this bit here where the drainage system is, and I'm going to go on the inside. And if we quickly go on the inside here, and we can see in that corner, we have a drainage system. That's it, stop. So as you can see, that one's blocked

0:27 and it's backing up, and obviously all the water is then pouring into the boot area. So that would be the first leak. If we now come round to the driver's front door, we will show you the door membrane. We can see that there's evidence underneath the rear seat of water sitting on the bench seat. So we're just going to quickly come round to the driver's side. You want to show the bench seat, it's wet on here. I'll come back to. Right, okay, so we're now going to test this driver's door, and so Gary's gonna

0:57 put a bit of water on the outside, just simulating it's raining. Now it should come out the bottom of the door, which is doing, but if we look closely we can see that it's coming out from the door membrane just above that little light there. And then obviously what that would simulate is it would then fall onto this rubber seal here. Once it then sits on this rubber seal, it will then make its way inside the car. So that would be the next leak. Coming across to the rear

1:27 bumper now, and if we have a look in this section here we can see the air vent there, and we can actually see the air vent has been leaking. Let me just try and get the camera in there a bit better. Right, okay, so Gary's gonna put a bit of water down on the outside. Okay, so we can see that there's water there on the inside of that, inside of that air vent there.

1:56 And there's a puddle of water down in that box section. If I just give the car a bit of a jiggle. So there we go. So we can see all the water in that pocket there. It's the same on the driver's side vent as well. The driver's side vent, obviously you can see there's signs of water coming in the bottom of the vent here and up the top here.

2:16 So that would be that one now. And then just coming across to the actual cabriolet roof itself, and if we just shut this door now, we can see where the window joins here. We can see that there's a line of water coming down the inside of the window, so these seals are obviously dry, and so it could do with maybe a bit of cry-tops just to rejuvenate the rubbers. So there we go, and it's doing it on the other side as well. And just to quickly show you on the

2:49 floor in the passenger rear. So we can see in the passenger rear it's absolutely soaked, and passenger front is absolutely waterlogged as well. And coming around to the back seat, so we took the back bench seat out, and we can see at the bottom of that seat soaking wet on both sides there. And then just to quickly show you on this side here, so this doesn't feel as wet as the other side, and but it does feel a little bit damp on this back pocket here. And but at

3:27 the front seems to feel dry, there's no signs of any puddles in there. But there we go, so that's obviously the result of what we found.

Jan

2021

Seems there's no shortage of leaks on this Volkswagen, which is not uncommon. It's not only Volkswagens, it's all cars, with convertibles particularly prone to leaks.

This Golf GT Cabriolet had blocked drainage holes underneath the back of the roof in the trough where it sits when it's down. It's also leaking between the window and the hood because the rubbers have hardened with age.

It also has leaking rear air vents and a leaky door membrane.

Solution: To fix the problem with the roof, it needs a good clean, get all the grime and debris out from the rubbers, so they can make a good seal, and we will apply a product which revives rubbers... if this doesn't work then the car will need replacement rubbers, but hopefully this won't be the case. The drainage holes can be unblocked.

The inner door membrane needs to be replaced, and we would recommend replacing the rear air vents as on most cars with this problem, they have a built-in silicone seal which is integral to the unit. You can just get a silicone sealant and gum it all up. But that makes a mess and if it doesn't work... you are left with a leaky mess. It is better to put the car right the way the designers intended. These parts aren't that expensive, and we think it's better to do a proper job. That's how we roll.

The car will then need to be dried and in this car probably treated with an antimicrobial again to get to the bottom of that seat. (We treat all cars with anti-microbial and antibacterial before we start work because the damp conditions can lead to mould, fungus and bacteria growing in the car).

Question: "How do you make sure your roof doesn't leak? How do you clean it all out? Nobody told me about this additional maintenance when I bought a convertible car."

Answer: They don't tell you that sunroofs have drainage holes, which also need cleaning and unblocking from time to time. We plan on doing a video on this subject in the future, showing you how to clean a sunroof, cabriolet hood and also the scuttle area.