So for the past month I've been baffled where the damp smell has been coming from and why they car has been misting up a lot. Thinking maybe the HEKO wind deflectors have been causing the steaming up i have ignored it all.

Two days ago i found that the drivers foot well was sodden all the way through the mat and the carpet and underlay. Cleaned it all up with a wet-vac borrowed from work. Thought that was the end of it, today i found that i had a rather wet passenger foot well but the mat was fine, started to have a look around and found that the rear drivers foot well is a pond with no fish in it.

Has anyone had this before? What did they find and how did they fix it?

I'm off to get a Haynes manual as i know the carpet has got to come up and out to dry and be cleaned. The water seems to be only in the foot wells.

Details of the car:

Polo 9n - '02 reg

3 door

sunroof - could the drains for this be the issue?

rear screen water spray does not work - any chance backup of water has come out somewhere from that?

Please give me advice if you have any idea of what could be causing it and how i can remedy this, as the interior is cream and dont want it stained!

cheers

Jon

I would say it is most probably sunroof related, as if it was the washer then it would only get that wet if you held the stalk down for at least 5 minutes.

I would imagine the drains go down the a pilar and b pilar, but I am not sure.

Front water drain hoses:

The front water drain hoses → Item are routed along the A-pillars and finish at the plenum chamber. Cleaning is done from the sunroof panel aperture.

1 - Water drain hose

2 - Water drain valve

Note

For cleaning, a locally manufactured tool made from a speedometer inner cable, approx. 2300 mm long is recommended.

Rear water drain hoses:

The rear water drain hoses -1- are routed along and end at the rear edge of the roof before the rear lid. Cleaning is performed from the rear end of the hose. To do this, the cover -3- must be removed.

1 - Water drain hose

2 - Water drain valve

3 - Cover

Note

For cleaning, a locally manufactured tool made from a speedometer inner cable, approx. 2300 mm long is recommended.

Thank you nige8021 for finding that diagram, i couldn't locate where they exited. I left it over night with newspapers in all over the foot wells as it has been pouring it down with rain (standard Cornish weather) so couldn't really work on it.

Had a look this morning and the areas that were dry are now soaked, so popped the sunroof open had a look and its wet all around the drains and not draining.

Sunroof Drains confirmed as the issue here i think.

Off to fiddle with the drain pipes to see if they are the issue and fix it.

Then the carpets coming out i guess.

Cheers again nige8021 for that diagram!

Regarding the rear washer not working, on my 6n there was a production break in the pipework just by the rear passengers upper seatbelt mounting point that had popped apart, it caused the spare wheel well to fill with washer fluid.

Ok so I've tried to locate the front exit location but failed to find it, i cant see the drain pipe end in the engine bay and then proceeded to take the wiper arms off and the plastic guard. In there is a build up of ten years grime leaves feathers and hair lol? So I've cleaned as much of that out as i can in the tight space that there is to access that area.

I've threaded some cable through the drain pipes with yellow tape on the end trying to see where it was coming out. Passenger side seems to stop at the valve at the end and can not pass it, the length of the cable locates it to about where it says on the diagram. But the drivers side just keeps going upto 3m of cable, so I'm guessing the valve on the end has come off or the pipe has ended up in the chassis somewhere - foot well blatantly.

Can anyone see the exit of the drain pipes at the front in their bay? A picture of it would be great as i just can not seem to locate it.

You could try removing the trim on the "A" pillar and see if you can trace the tube

Removing

– If vehicle is equipped with loudspeakers, switch off ignition.

– Unclip A-pillar trim -2- beginning from top of A-pillar -4-.

– Depending on equipment, separate loudspeaker connector.

– Unclip A-pillar trim -2- from dash panel -arrows-.

Installing

Installation is carried out in the reverse order.

Note Before installing trim, check clip connections -3- and renew as necessary.

After installation, check that trim -2- is completely behind beading of door seal -1-.

Removing lower right A-pillar trim

– Remove sill panel moulding

– Unclip A-pillar trim -1- in direction of interior.

Note After installation, check that trim -1- is completely behind beading of door seal

Removing lower left A-pillar trim

– Remove sill panel moulding

– Release retaining clip -2- using a screwdriver and remove handle -1-.

– Unclip A-pillar trim -3- in direction of interior.

Note After installation, check that trim -3- is completely behind beading of door seal.

(30) 6Q0877231 water drain hose front /

(30) 6Q6877233 water drain hose rear / PR-3S0

(30) 6Q0877235 water drain hose rear / PR-3S3

(31) 6Q3877244 clip 2 doors /

(31) 6Q0877244A clip 4 doors /

(32) 6Q0877236A drain tube front /

(32) 6X0877236A drain tube rear /

(33) 6X0877282 covering / drain tube rear /

Can i ask where you are grabbing that info and images from mate?

Cheers for the help its being valuable.

Can i ask where you are grabbing that info and images from mate?

Cheers for the help its being valuable.

The trim removal etc are from a program called ElsaWin it's basically a copy of the dealers manual and covers VW, Seat, Audi & Skoda from 1995 to date, you can get a copy from eBay for around £20~30

The parts listing is from www.vagcat.com you have to register to use it but it's free!!

Ah awesome, I dont suppose there is any other information or diagrams on the drain pipes? I cant seem to locate them still. Oh the woes of car ownership!

Ah awesome, I dont suppose there is any other information or diagrams on the drain pipes? I cant seem to locate them still. Oh the woes of car ownership!

That's all the info on the drain tubes.

Can you see the drain tube exit on the passenger side? as you can't pass the wire through it sounds like the valve (32) needs to be replaced? How about the rear drains are they open & clear?

Do you have access to a supply of compressed air? as this might be easier to listen and locate the outlets?

As it's the drivers front that seems to be at fault, block the drain hole in the roof off with some silicon bath sealant?

It might be an idea to replace the seal on the sunroof? If you do this there is a proceedure listed for this

(2) 6N0898209 gasket set for glass sliding sunroof panel Listed @ 46.5 €uros

Yeah i was thinking of blocking off the drain hole for the drivers side at the front, will this not cause a backup of water and make the passenger one take too much?

Yes the rear two are clear and fine. Defiantly got to be a front one if it is to do with the drains, if not i have no idea where it is coming from.

I'm going to go grab a can of compressed gas from ASDA and see if i can locate the exit port. Just had massive heavy rain and hail! So covered the roof and the area I've been working on with black bags to save any more being added to the foot wells.

There are some gaps on the sunroof to check

Panel adjustment, front:

a = 0...1 mm lower than roof level

Arrow = forwards

Panel adjustment, rear:

b = 0...1 mm higher than roof level

Arrow = forwards

And for the seal itself

Adjusting panel seal

Check that preload between panel seal -2- and body is uniform all-round using a 0.3 mm thin strip of card (e.g. business card). It must be possible to pull the paper strip through tightly between the panel seal and body.

The glass panel -3- must be removed to adjust the sunroof seal.

– If preload is too great, the panel seal can be pressed apart using wedge -3409--1-.

– If preload is too great press panel seal -1- together all-round with roller -3356-.

If the seal is doing it's job properly there should only be minimal amount of water getting into the guttering and going down the drain tubes

Hey guys, so this morning i dropped this into the local garage that i use and solved this with them. I have taken pictures to upload of locations of the drain pipes and the exit holes etc and what needs to be removed to get them. If anyone needs the images uploading cause you have the same issue, give me a shout and ill get them up for you.

Hey guys, so this morning i dropped this into the local garage that i use and solved this with them. I have taken pictures to upload of locations of the drain pipes and the exit holes etc and what needs to be removed to get them. If anyone needs the images uploading cause you have the same issue, give me a shout and ill get them up for you.

Mate if you could upload them that would be awesome - I've been having the exact same problem on the passenger side what with all this bloody rain, and its doing my nut in. Or email them to livetoclimb@hotmail.co.uk? Thanks, shay.

Only just seen this mate, i will get them off my phone to the pc and send them over to you or post them on this thread for you.

Right so here we go, images of how we fixed it and where we found things were etc. This is for if you have a sunroof on our 9n, then this will probably be the first place to look if you have a set of puddles.

This is what i first saw in all of my wells and worst at the back and drivers side. Puddles everywhere:

So this is what it looked like when we poured some water down the drains of the sunroof, confirmed they were blocked:

This green highlighted area is where the scuttle tray drains out, its behind the wheel arch cover, so it runs out the gap or around it to the edges. Worth a check here, few screws gets it off so you can see if that drain is blocked, even if not get a hoover and give it a quick clear.

So to access the scuttle to clear that of any dirt you can take the wiper arms off and clear it a little (not much room to work in here, i just used a spoon).

Okay so this is where the drain runs, down the front top a-pilar section, just pull the trim off and make sure its still attached at the sunroof end of things, RED points to the drain tube, GREEN is a connector to disconnect the speaker and trimming so its out the way.

So when we got it in the garage we figured you need to move the ecu box and then the scuttle tray front? Also you may need to move the wiper motors out of the way to acces the area ou need to work in ( not sure what to call it) GREEN indicates where the tray part was. RED is where the drains exit and the water should flow freely into the scuttle then out of the car, if you have leaks then we shall assume they are not flowing freely :p :

This is the valve that you should be able to see that the water drains out of.

If like on mine on the drivers side there was no pipe connected to the actual valve, it had popped off and the water was flowing into the chasis (this is where most of my water was coming from anyway). RED is where we had to re-feed it back out and then we cut GREEN to a flat end not some weird angle like it was from the factory and glued it back to the valve. Feed back through cleared with compressed air or cable if you dont have air.

Then, put everything back where it was, before you do that just give the scuttle tray a thorough clean with a hoover or what ever so there is nothing there.

I hope these images help you find and resolve your leak in your 9n with sunroof.

Any questions and ill be happy to help if i missed something.

Jon

That's a very good guide Jon, very useful as it seems it's a common problem with the 9n an 9n3 and it apears to be a fairly simple fix.

This should be put in the FAQ section

Yeah i rang VW when it first happened and they said that it was most likely a sunroof drain, they also said it can happed 3 days into the warranty of a new car or 50years later, its just luck. Easy fix but there is no info on it on the web from what i could see.

Hope this helps anyone with the same issue.

And yeah making it FAQ for people would be good.

As I said in an earlier post, If the panel and seal is sitting correctly the ammount of water getting into the guttering should be minimal

Yeah it was and is, but it couldnt go anywhere so it was just building up.