[scruffytoo]

Good afternoon T4 owners,

After few days of intermittent heavy rain in the south, today I noticed that rain water was pooling on the gutter of the bottom runner for the side door. The water depth was nearly half of the gutter not the runner gutter, but the very bottom gutter, where the rubber seal sits). I never noticed this before.

According to the above threads, there are drain holes on both ends (towards the passenger seat and rear). So I went to check for the drain holes just now, but there aren't any. I even gently poked around the ends with a metal skewer, but I could not feel any holes:

The bottom runner was recently been repaired by a local VW bodyshop due to rust hole at the bottom runner and they've tidied up the sill. I'm suspecting that they might have filled the drain holes?

Where are the drain holes mean to be? Inside or outside or the sill?

Many thanks and happy motoring!

You know I'm not sure there actually are any.

I would pop out and double check, but the sky is leaking here at the moment; so I will fire up the parts system in a while and look T:

 

[scruffytoo]

You know I'm not sure there actually are any.

I would pop out and double check, but the sky is leaking here at the moment; so I will fire up the parts system in a while and look T:

No none shown fitted to the sliding door step

 

[scruffytoo]

Thanks scruffy for checking. Have you ever look at your van for any drain holes in the bottom runner? If yours doesn't, and I'm pretty sure you keep yours factory original, then maybe there aren't any drain holes but owners drilled holes for this common problem of water pooling in the runner gutter.

Well just poped out to have a look, I can report, no drain hole, no water, and no rust ............... that's after almost 20 years!

The problem is, with having a hole for the water to get out, also means it's a hole for it to get in.

Best guess for the water ingress will be the door seal, not uncommon they go out of shape (flat) with constant opening and especially closing of the sliding door, and or the top outer seal.

Suggest possibly a new seal, (but get the right one) and carefully adjust the door T:T:

 

[scruffytoo]

As above and, er, silly as it sounds, park it the other way round.

Well, for some strange reason, it's worked for me !!

LOLLOLLOLLOLLOL N2-UK, that's the cheapest fix you will have this year!

 

[scruffytoo]

The new seal is much better than the old seal, but the gap is still there, slightly less. Could rain water get in from the gap, splash over the rubber seal and pool up in the gutter? I highly doubt so, even with some netagive pressure / venturi type effect when driving.

Or should I accept that some water will somehow get in and pool in the gutter when it's raining very heavily?

Thinking back, I should have chosen VW genuine seal for piece of mind, but at the same time I don't see how the seal I got can be any different if it creates good seal when the side door is closed (other than at the bottom, which I doubt even the genuine seal would cover that gap.).

defever, never underestimate water, the most powerful element on earth. If you have ever ridden a motorcycle in the wet, you will know, water gets into places you did not even know you had

Genuine or aftermarket the seal quality difference is probably only marginal. Is the gap in the image there with the door closed, if yes then it needs to be resolved. Water drawn through there would undoubtedly be dirty, if your water is clean then it's coming from further up.

A smoke test is really the only way to check vehicle seals, what you could do though is to hose down the vehicle along all the sliding door body gaps (one at a time, front and top always being most suspect), and see if you have a collection