Water leak in footwells via A-Pillars

[rk505]

Hello all,

Thank you for the valuable information on this issue.

I have a B7 Passat estate, 2011 reg with factory fitted roof rails, and a panoramic sunroof.

Basically 10 months ago, I had my window screen replaced. A month later I discovered water coming in via the sun visor. Both the A-pillers were wet, along with the carpets. Initially I had suspected the window screen hadn't been fitted correctly, however Autoglass came out and checked it and couldn't see a fault.

I read online the probably causes, and cleared the drains, and opened the wheel arches to clear a ton of leaves and debris.

I thought it had been resolved. Sadly the A-Pillers continued to get wet during the rain.

So I decided to seal the sunroof from the outside with a thick weatherproof tape. Carefully sealing all around the boundary of the sun roof. I tested it with a hose, also tested the roof racks (I suspected they may have been the culprit), the rubber seal around the doors, and the front window screen. I also opened the roof liner and saw the drain rubber pipes and put rubber sealent around the connectors to ensure it wasn't them.

Success, no water appeared to be coming in!!

It gave me time to lift the carpets and hoover out the water, the sound damping was soaked and the smell was awful. After a couple of days in the hot sun, all the water had been cleared.

That was until last week, when I noticed both the A-Pillers were wet. I could see water tracks on the inside of the door, and initially suepcted it could have been the seal on the door. However I realised that this was just water from the A-Piller finding a way down onto the doors.

As I had left the tape on the sunroof outside, I wasn't sure where the water could be getting in from? Assuming the seal is intact, I cannot understand what route the water is taking to get to the A-pillers??

Would welcome any feedback.

Could it be from the roof rails after all? I will order a bottle of Captain Tolley's in the meanwhile.

Thank you