a little while back a purchased an 89' jetta diesel which I have yet to put on the road. A few weeks ago I noticed that the floor rug underneath and behind the driver and passenger seat was soaked. after leaving my windows open for a night, the rugs dried out. After they dried I just so happend to find an opening underneath the passenger seat that allowed access under the rug. when I put my hand through, I was shocked to find that the sound deadening/insulation was soaked!! it hasn't seemed to dry completey, even though I leave my windows open as much as the weather allows and after raining pretty hard today it seems to be really soaked again!!! the funny thing is, the rugs are completely dry, nothing else in the car is wet, the trunk is dry. has anybody else explerience this before? I plan on taking the seats out and removing the insulation to see if I can get it to dry. I just don't want to rot out the floors on this car, its in to good of condition bodywise.
I bet the car's a 4 door. I purchased an 86 Jetta that had the same scenario going on a year ago. What I found was the the rear door window felt had pulled away from the window. This allows 100% of the water hitting the window to run down inside the door. The plastic covering that's inbetween the door panel and door wasn't holding well either. I redid my plastic in such a way that any water that would come inside the door would always stay inside the door, and run out the drain at the bottom of the door. Do check to make sure that those drains are clear too. I just used a towel to soak up as much water as I could, and then let it dry naturally. Unless you pull all the carpet etc, it's pretty hard to get it all out.
Everybody else lists their cars here - but not me.
You can replace the rear door seals, but the door to window seal is only meant to keep most of the water and debris out. It's not 100% waterproof. So, while replacing the seals will minimize the problem, it will likely still be there unless the interior door plastic issue is dealt with.
Everybody else lists their cars here - but not me.
That's similar to how it's done from the factory. I just used a piece of plastic, cut it to fit, affixed it to the top of the door, and tucked the bottom into the door. So, any water that gets on the plastic will run out into the door cavity without the potential of the seal at the bottom leaking.
Everybody else lists their cars here - but not me.
Close to the bottom of the seal I tape another flap on the inside and flip it to the inside of that lower metal frame,
I saw it done that way on a few factory plastic pieces.
so the water doesn't run down the plastic and gather on the metal.
I've been using double stick tape but like the black butyl idea.
'91 Golf gasser converted to a 12mm pump, M-TDI.
'84 1.6TD Rabbit with a VNT-15 turbo, still setup to run on vegetable oil.
'84 GTI with 1.7TD pistons and intercooled.
2003 TDI wagon
2000 TDI Jetta.
it hasn't seemed to dry completey, even though I leave my windows open as much as the weather allows and after raining pretty hard today it seems to be really soaked again!!! the funny thing is, the rugs are completely dry, nothing else in the car is wet, the trunk is dry. has anybody else explerience this before? I plan on taking the seats out and removing the insulation to see if I can get it to dry. I just don't want to rot out the floors on this car, its in to good of condition bodywise. 
