'94 Passat Wagon - internal leak - need help!

Hello, I'm new to this forum, but have been a VW owner for almost 10 years now. I have a '94 Passat Wagon that I'm trying to get ready to sell but I have a bit of a problem. There is water coming in along the seat belt track over the drivers side whenever it rains.

This has been going on for a while and thought it was related to the sunroof. For some reason, when I have my roof rack mounted, it doesn't leak at all or very little. But, when not mounted, the leak is much worse. The roof rack has attatchments that hook onto the roof where the drivers door and passengers door meet the car. Somehow, the extra pressure (I'm assuming) slows the leak quite a bit.

I've used silicone sealant all around the windshield and to seal the rubber strip on the top of the car to the car to try to close that off. I'm guessing there is a run off that runs along the top corner of the windshield and above part of the door. I'm not sure if it is coming in the actual track or the plastic around the track, just that the leak is pretty good these days.

Any help you could offer would be highly appreciated. I don't know the architecture of the car beneath what I can see, but need to try to fix this. Thanks much in advance!!

I know that you posted this almost a year ago, but I have a 1994 Passat wagon with the EXACT same problem. Were you ever able to resolve the issue? Any idea where the leak is coming from? I've blown out the sunroof drains, which was the first thing I thought was wrong, but it's still leaking.

I hope you get this - if so I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer!

Disco

I'm glad I got this, has been a while. Here's what I've done and this seems to have worked. I chatted with a friend about it recently and I've tried some things. First, so you know, his thought was that the door seal is starting to wear. Valid enough, I thought. So I picked up some waterproof sealant from NAPA, cauk-type stuff, and put it everywhere I could imagine the leak coming from. (along rubber strip on top, around windshield, etc.) I mostly focused on putting it between the rubber seal and the frame of the car. Pull the seal out from the car a bit, (don't remove it, just pull away from car) jam the nozzle in as best as you can and run it along the top of the door frame coming down a little on each end. That seems to have pretty much stopped the leak. The other thing I have yet to do is replace the door striker pin. I found them online for only $6 or so. Mine is really worn as the door is saging a bit. I think this will help hold the door shut tighter. I tried to find a hinge assembly but no luck without hitting a junk yard.

Anyway, hope that makes sense and helps you out. Best of luck!

Onespeed,

Thanks so much for the advice. I'll give it a try and see if it works. I only bought this car 6 months ago and have had nothing but problems - $1500 in repairs already. Have you had lots of problems with yours? I don't know anyone else who has had a 94 passat wagon so I'm curious to see how others have held up.

Thanks again for your help!

Disco

I've had the Passat for almost 10 years now, bought it in '95 with low miles. It's had its share of problems, but nothing much until it was well over 100K miles. I'm at 160K now and will be selling it shortly. It has needed repairs and actually needs some now. However, nothing unusual. A car this old with this many miles is expected to have some issues. Main this is that up until now, I've never really had any problems with the engine (VR6) or transmission. Even the clutch seems in fine shape. (knock on wood).

Even after all these miles, and with a suspension that needs to be reworked, it still handles better than my 2001 Saab. In my opinion, they're very solidly built vehicles, And while having their problems, I feel they are built better and more solid than the newer VWs.