VW Golf MK 7 Boot Leak FIX, 4 common leaks! 

FOR EVERY GOLF 7 OWNER: check these out: (tip: keep a toilet paper roll in the sidepockets of the booth. Thats how i noticed my problem, it was wet, even tho no water was visible) 1. slam vents (water in booth or underneath the backseat) take vents off, clean and apply tons of silicone, new ones will corrode eventually. 2. Panoramic roof drains (they might be clogged leading to infiltration by the panoramic roof) ugly mess, stained interior on all walls down to the footwell. 3. Speaker sealant foam (all 4)(water underneath the speakers grill and on the inside of the door sealant at speaker level, leads to water in the footwell and mold later) ugglier mess. 4. Reverse camera cover/drain pipe (water in the booth). I was lucky. Had all of them. 5. Tail lights. Water in booth. Dont know how to fix this, but check after pressure washing your car.

Just found 2 inches of water in my spare wheel well yesterday and thought I was just unlucky till I started googling the possible cause. I was amazed how big a problem this is and can't believe that vw hasn't done a recall to sort it out. Good video mate,I just need the courage to start ripping all the fasteners off without any damage😁

VW should be compensating owners for these ridiculous errors on these vehicles. I have exactly the same issues. It shouldn't be for us owners to be rectifying the water leaking problem. It's a very poor design. As we can see, there are so many videos showing the same problem on RU-vid. Thanks for this video👍🏼

I also noticed that my windscreen was always showing signs of condensation. When I checked the boot, a puddle of water was present underneath the space saver wheel. The water had also found its way to the rear seats - the bench was soaking. On closer inspection, the water was entering the boot from both the rear light clusters and bumper vents. I removed the old vents and replaced them with new parts, as well as applying tonnes of silicone sealant inside and out. For the light clusters, changed gaskets. Gave the rear bench a deep clean with a shop vac, as well as cleaning up the boot area and allowing everything a good chance to dry out. We’ve had loads of rain since the maintenance on the car and the boot is thankfully bone dry.

Got this exact problem on our Mk7. I guess as a short term fix you could leave those bungs out to allow the water to get out until you have time to re-seal those vents.

Big mushroom in the spare wheel is a little bit too much!!!! (Supermarket mushrooms?????) However the video is very interesting for my golf mistake.... Thanks

Excellent video for something that is quite tedious to fix. Well done! It is a disgrace that VWs are designed this way. It’s not even that the vents do very much - I still get pressure in the car if the window is open!

MK7 Golf's are the most unreliable, over complicated useless heap of fucken junk I've EVER owned. What makes it even worse if that I owned a 2016 version which was problematic and I just thought it was that car so I sold it and bought a 2013 which is the same! They need to be fucken scrapped. I had a MK5 which was fantastic just start it up and go no hassle. FFS's what a nightmare this thing is.

Hold on a minute… there’s a bung! Is that purely for draining the in-auto pond every once in a while!? I have this problem… so happy I found this video.

Crazy to see so many people have the same problem.. this is a manufacturing problem.. and vw should’ve recalled those cars. Noticed this morning in my wife’s car (2019 vw golf sportsvan) that the spare wheel was literally swimming in the back of the car. This video helped so much.. and found my issue.. right rear vent. So thank you for posting this in such a well manner. Btw.. sorry for asking.. but how could you leave your car to the point that mushrooms grew inside it.. and the rear seats turned green.. what the hell 😅

Great vid, really helpful. Am I missing something here? If the side vents that leak have a rubber bung underneath them that lets the water out that has built up. Why not just take the bung out permanently and then any water that leaks in will immediately drain straight back out again??

Did this today, fairly straightforward but there is one more tx25 screw holding the bumper on either side. It's behind the lining and is an absolute pain to get out. Eventually managed with a small allen key. Jacking up the car might help.

You make removing the bumper look easy. Couldn't get ours off without way more force than I was happy with (which tbh was the same for everything else too!) It is *JUST* possible however to seal up the vents without removing the bumper and that's the way I ended up doing it. If you pop them off you can then angle them so they come out, reach through the hole to clean up the face then squirt a healthy fat bead of silicon sealant around the vent. You can then do the same in reverse and pop them back on and squish the bead of silicon against the body. Fingers crossed it works but it's certainly no longer "rattling" around.

Hello mate, mine has water inside for months now, thought is was from the antenna, sealed it with silicon, same on headlights but no luck, still water inside, will try your tips tomorrow I think thank you very much for digging into that :)

Discovered I have water in my boot, pulled out the liner as my seats were getting wet, which stopped it for a bit. But now I have to investigate further which sounds exactly as described as stated in the video. Thanks for the great video, very informative. Glad I found it

Hello, I’m just wondering would the same process work if you have reversing censors on your bumper ? Thanks in advance !

Yes only recently found my mk7 has very soggy carpets in the wheel well. I had noticed condensation was a bit more than you would expect but this is the reason. A friend had the same issue but with standing water! VW charged a lot to fix his. Removing the bung did let our some water but you might get more coming in from spray... Very helpful video though...

oh man, this video was *so* useful! My passenger side floor mat was constantly soaked. It turned out the leak was in the left tail light, exactly as you show! The boot was soaked too and the water had travelled under the rear passenger carpet and onto the front. I would have never guessed! Thank you so much!

Thanks Turner, follow your steps. Found the loose air vents. Siliconed up. Add some sound protection while at it. Sweet, no more pools if water. That water freaked us out. You're a saver!

Thanks a lot for this informative video......

good videos, well done, and this is an issues dating back to mk5 too :D thank you

CHECK OUT if you are not comfortable removing the bumper! Hi Turner, many thanks and great video that you made! and you have put me on the right track to solve the water ingress in the boot of my mk7 Golf. I had already changed the little water drain hose as it was broken but that did not solve the problem fully. I followed your steps until halfway the removal of the rear bumper and was getting concerned about damaging it as it was really hard to release the clips. I had a rethink and based on your work I came up with a variation in the way of working that does NOT require the bumper removal! It is possible to carefully push the ventilation pieces out and subsequently turn them sideways and pull them back and out through the boot. Then apply the silicon as per your advice and then carefully pass them through the insert, turn to the right orientation and pull the carefully in position, maybe using pliers and making sure the 4 clips click into position. Downside is not so good control over the quality of the silicon sealing and to cope with this I used a lot of silicon so it would surely sealed and the excess on the outside can obviously not be nicely removed this way. I also decided to not silicon some centimeters/an inch or so at the lowest point to allow an exit for any water that unexpectedly still passes. Maybe good alternative for those that are also not comfortable to remove the bumper... Take care!

That's an awesome video. Thanks so much for showing us how to fix this problem Olly.

Great video. I had the vents leaking problem with my 2014 Golf. 3 years later though I still have really bad problems with condensation on the windscreen and rear one. I can't identify any more leaks so I'm at my wits end as to why it happens as otherwise it's a great car.

Great video mate thanks for showing all the places water can enter into the back. My mate's car tyre bay is a swimming pool. Keep up the good work .

Can you do mine for me pls my spare wheel is swimming 😂😂

I have just been sorting my Golf Mk7 out. Your guide helped me sort the water in the boot by sealing the vents with silicon. I also replaced the rubber drain pipe on boot handle and also sealed around the light foam fittings. Some extra tips for anyone else with this VW water ingress problem and with water in the car cabin. I also found that where the speakers are riveted in the rear doors there are cracks in the plastic so when sealing also ensure you get them sealed also. Aswell, at the outflow drain at the bottom of the rear door, mine was blocked. When pouring water down the outside of the window nothing came out so there was sitting water in the door causing the water level to raise and pour through the speaker. So top tip to remove the rubber seal at the bottom of the rear doors and ensure its not clogged/blocked. I also found some water ingress in the hinge in the centre of the rear door. I created a small silicon route so it doesn't run down the inside seal. Hope this tidbit helps anyone else with this problem. Both my door speakers were leaking and both my rear vents were also leaking. I sealed my speakers without removing them by scraping out the foam seal and just using silicon around the speakers. Took me a week to dry out the car with an ordinary fan by lifting the carpets, inserting wooden blocks underneath for airflow. Just purchaed a small fan heater from Amazon for £15 to hlep dry out the cabin. VW have so many issues with water ingress its insane!!!

I’ve got the same issue with 2017 Tiguan, is it likely to be the same problem?

Are the mark 7.5 effected? I have a 2020 gti.....no leaks yet

Great video. I didn’t realise there were bungs in the either cavity under the rear lights. As a temp fix I’m going to remove them until I can get the bumper off….

Hi, did you get any water in the passenger side footwells? Mine is soaked and also in the boot just like yours. The seats are fine though. - Audi a3

This video is an amazing resource for boot leaks! Cheers!

How did you pop the plastic rivets out under the bumper? Mine are stuck on 😅

Why put the bungs back? If you don't any water that gets in will drain right out again.

It's ridiculous that this happens to these cars. VW are supposed to be a top manufacturer. Anyway, cheers for a good video.

Great video, confirmed what i was thinking on my lads golf. Exactly the same with 2013 onwards ford focus too!

Amazing thank you so much, i braked really hard as a fox came infront of my car, noticed the next day the back seats had wet patches, checked the boot and spare wheel well found a pond in the boot, had a weird smell coming found that there was mould growing, took the rear seats out and there was more water there, havent found where its leaking from but managed to get the garage to drill a hole in the boot so no more water will sit in the boot, will be checking these recommendations out to find the source of the leak thank you 🙏🏼

Thanks for a very good, well presented video. It was easy to follow as you explained the steps as you went along. (not sure about the mushrooms though).

Same problem, thanks for the video

Amazing. You’ve saved me a fortune mate thanks for the video.

Forgive me for the pretentiousness, but this is another comment to be pinned: SILICA BAG WARNING This should have had a recall, but it scandalously hasn’t. In short, anyone driving one of these Golfs from this period should check their coolant reservoir for a small packet of pink silica granules. They serve no purpose (other than to preserve your coolant; instead just change a bit more regularly) and are a ticking timebomb. You will be served a bill of £1-2,000.00 should that bag split (which it likely will) and therefore those pink granules spread shavoc throughout your system. At least look into it before its too late and then carefully remove. Utter nightmare. Never again shall I buy a VW / VAG vehicle. Absolute set of charlatans.

I watched the very informative video. I CBA to take the back end off. I got under the back of the car, pulled the drainage grommet out on both sides. Water came out. Drilled 2 small holes in the centre of each grommet. Used clear silicone to seal the top of the rear lights (when boot open). Sorted. 10 mins

Great Video. Our car was leaking while under warranty but unfortunately we didn’t realise. VW have since changed the parts as the rubber on the vent s and badge drain was perishing. Poor quality rubber. VW should have sent a recall on this as it’s a known issue. They refused to fix ours. There are significant other issues with the vehicle and I would never buy another VW purely based on their arrogance to take responsibility. VW - Dud Auto

Man great video. I found it today. We were blaming our kids for spilling water on the back seat but much like everyone else once i lifted the boot to reveal the spare wheel it was swimming in water. Going to seal the door vents tomorrow! Fingers crossed. I'm notoriously impatient when it comes to stuff like this! Thanks again

The boot drain tube costs £6 from a VW dealer and you can replace it yourself in about 15 mins. Remember to cut the tube to size and don’t leave a bend/kink in it when it feeds through the hole. Otherwise it will wear away

Exact same issue on my mk7, had to get the vents seal. This whole model has absolutely awful design.

Guys please remove the silicone bag from the coolant tank, mines split and it blocks the heater matrix, garages quoting around £670 to fix

the fifth being from rear door speakers over the door seal into car :(. Good video, was that a regular sanitary silicon or an external door frame one?

I've just found 2" of water in my boot. I suspect the vents but in advance I have bought the light seals (from Deutcheparts) and there is one thing you don't appear to have mentioned, the new seals also comes with 2 little circles also cut in the foam and I've clearly realised from your video at 8:40 that these are for the 2 studs that fit into the rear quarter panel, on the outer edge of the light and these would presumably equally compress and fail like the main seal.

Hi great video, I noticed 2” water in the boot, I changed the tube to the boot handle and thought I had fixed it. Just checked after a few days of heavy rain and it’s full again so will now strip the back of the car off and seal the vents. Are the mushrooms magic. 😊

Just found your video on how to fix this ongoing problem. I initially thought it was a failure of the crap VW foam light seals, so I replaced them with the newer equivalent of Dumdum putty (which VW used to use, before they started to cut corners with cheap materials). Water still gets in, but now I've an idea where else to look for the leak and how to rectify it. Many thanks for your detailed instructions.👍

I've got the same problem with my Mk7 Golf GTD and have already replaced the boot badge pipe with no improvement...clearly its coming in via my rear vents and the light fittings so can u tell me do I need to replace the vents on either side or can I just seal the original ones in?...I'm planning on getting mine done next wknd so any info from you guys would be much appreciated...I'm just glad I'm on top of it and it's only going into the spare tyre well so in the meantime I know I can keep it from not damaging anything in the boot...cheers guys...p.s great video...👍🏻👏🏻🤞🏻

My Vw mk6 golf 09 GtTdi seems to have moisture in the spare wheel well so will check this . Not sure If it has the same vents behind the bumper ?? Found big gaps between the rear doors and the metal plates that hold the window regulator must have been a fault from new as it’s riveted in . It caused a wet carpet in the rear footwells not good ! Used some butyl rubber to fill the gaps around the plates without removing them which is a PITA . Seems to have sorted the problem . Mk5-6-7 all shite never had any of this on my mk4 gtTdi. Other than a few broken wires, worn out coolant pipes , leaky tandem pump end plate for 200k (now sealed) and a broken weld on the clutch pedal at 480k ( re welded ) . Mk6 has had gps module go down, phantom bulb out warning lights that disappear on a restart , Broken springs and worn out shocks at low mileage ( koni street kit fitted in lock down with full front sus refresh ) , and broken wires in the boot causing lock not to activate . The joys of motoring lol great vid mate . 👍

Top video mate really thorough and no corners cut well done

Great video but thanks also to the person that mentioned that there is no need to remove the rear bumper. I removed trim and dried everywhere thoroughly. Removed the vents from the inside, cleaned them thoroughly and then dried. Added some silicone sealant to the rubber seals….. jobs a good un. My local VW store £270 to replace - two day job. My experience 1hr labour and a dab of sealant.

Good video definitely helpful, I couldn’t be arsed doing all that so I just bought the parts off ebay and took it to my mechanic all fixed now

My car boot is full of water… garage have just ordered the new vents to fix 👍… 🙏🚘

Ja sam samo s unutarnje strane iz bunkera skinuo panel za ventilaciju u bunkeru i sve očistio i odmastio i vratio ga nazad i problem s vodom je riješen dok se opet na zamsti. Također sam skinuo i stop svjetlo i sve oćistio. I očistiti otvor u koji dolazi ventilacijski panel. Sve sa može napraviti s unutarne strane bunkera.

Just to add if anyone is doing this, the little torq screws under the bumper are not T10. They are T15's so be careful as they will round off and they're only plastic. I noticed when trying a T10 it had a lot of play so I tried a T15 and it was a much tighter fit.

have exactly this problem looks like I need to get a torx set

Been struggling with this recently trying to find a cause. Followed your video. Thought there’s no harm in sealing it even if that isn’t the cause. Cheers!

Thank you so much for this very informative and detailed video! I had wet seats in the back of my VW mk7. I had tons of condensation in my golf, as well as very damp back seats w/ some mould growth. Cleaned it all up, got some humidity absorbers. Thought I’d remedied the problem. Was checking my car boot the other day purely by chance and lifted everything down to the spare wheel and saw loads of water in a big puddle! We were shocked and trying to figure out where it was coming from as there were no obvious holes anywhere. So glad hubby found your video on this and appalled to hear how common it is and that VW didn’t do a recall because of it.

Those vents should have gaskets and they don't! Someone's idea of a cost saving where customers are paying the price.

Just a warning, I mistook a screw lower down in the arch for one of the 4 screws. I missed 1 of the 2 screws located by the join of the bumper and arch on both sides, and have now broken the bumper. It sits just off from flush and if you weren’t looking for it you probably wouldn’t notice it. But I know it’s there, and because of the damage it’s likely il need a new bumper to fix that issue. Not sure if it’s car specific, I have a mk7 golf R. Best removing all 5 screws just incase 👍🏼

Thanks for this video! Helped me a lot and i did the vents without removing the bumper. Also I did the boot hose replacement. It took me all together like 45 minutes.

For how long do you fix the problem with the silicon? Do you think it is better to buy original parts? Vents at least? Thanks for the video!

definitely helpful for me, i am currently experiencing the same problem i was even thinking of changing a tailgater rubber seal...on my care definitely is this cause i had accident few months back. thank you alot.

I came across this video because I have the same problem with my MK4. Can't believe they still haven't fixed it for the MK7!

The inner lights on the trunk lid are vulnerable also. Water will get in them and corrode the connectors and bulb holders. Needed a new connector and 2 new bulb holders. Sealed everything up better now👌

Great video and thank you for mapping out the different potential leaks and symptoms, helped me find mine!

My leak into mk7 boot well was solved dead easy,all I did was put a two inch clear silicon bead along the top of rear lights. Lift up boot and just fill that gap between light and the body, water then runs down the Chanel and down onto the bumper and off the car. Been dry ever since. I didn’t take anything apart. Hope this helps someone else reading this.

I don't understand how the badge drain thing can cause water inside/under the boot - It looks like the hole sits outside the seal, and even if the water would end up inside the boot door, how does it end up underneath the boot? (have a Golf Sportsvan and discovered tons of water in the spare tyre compartment!) grateful for an explanation!

Thanks so much for making this video. Saved me heaps of hassle trying to figure out the root cause for the leak on my golf.

Thanks. Did the handle tube a couple of months ago and all fine. Now I have different issue with the rear wash. Seems to be where it goes into the high level light. YT vids (and manual) seem to suggest the HL light pries from the outside, but mine is the other type. Anyway I used your video to help with the tube issue..

This worked well thank you.

Ours is the same, carpets are soaked now, been trying for a while to figure out where it's coming from. I'm no mechanic and could work out how to get the trims off in the boot. Looks rather doable and not expensive at all. Garage wanted to charge me £300. Just bought a £5 tube of silicone ha. Cheers

My mom has a leak in her golf car too in her boot and it travelled into her backseat.

Great video new subscriber

For me on my Mk6 GTD the rear wiper washer hose had split. So everytime used rear washer it emptied into boot floor

Ain’t there 1 on the other side? Thinking, get it done while you’re “in it”.

thank you very much. i have a two door so im not worried about the speakers, but i used this as a tutorial for the rest of them. going to replace the hatch drain now and hopefully i should be good 👍🏾

when removing the bumper were the clips breaking? could you of taken those vents and replaced without taking bumper off?

thanks, bro. I fixed mine without getting someone to do it and then pay for it.

Thanks for your video, I found it very helpful, last year I replaced the boot badge/handle tube and now these two air vents have certainly been leaking so resealed like you did.

Would this fault be covered under an extended dealer warranty?

Thanks for this and the other videos. I have a 2014 mk7 Golf 2.0tdi. If only I had watched these videos before! Found water in the boot and took it to the ever expensive vw workshop. I mounted all 4 bilstein B6 and the ride and the handling are amazing, that was a huge upgrade. Cheers from Florence, Italy.

Great video. I tried this but it did not work. My 2014 mk7 has 2 additional screws which are at an angle in each wheel well that hold the bumper to the trim that goes over the wheel.

You will not get any water going in the boot because the grommet has perished it will go in the boot lid and back out the same hole which is outside the car, mine has been without that grommet for about 5 years now and there’s no water in the boot.

Awesome video, very clear and easy to understand 👌

Or just release rubber stoppers under car and water comes out.. not a problem ever again

very helpful video mate thanks

Thanks Mate, that was very helpful!!

Great guide. Just got this issue on my Golf so i'll be following your guide. Cheers!

Hi I’ve just discovered the rear bench seat is soaked in my 13 plate golf. Thinking it could be from the lights as the foot wells are dry. Going to investigate further tomorrow. Found your video very informative.

Super helpful video. I have this exact problem. I was wondering whether simply removing the rubber bung, in the side wells, would be a solution?

The rubber tailgate stop (It's like a big plastic rivet), fitted just above the back lights was the cause of a prolific leak into the spare wheel well on my car. The central pin that secures it was missing. I popped in a spot of sealant and that stopped it (for 2 years, anyway..... boot full of water again now tho)

I have a 2014 Golf. Do they all have those vents regardless of the engine?

Great video seems I have similar problem but why is there a bung in the recess if that can allow such water to escape? what is the point of the bung otherwise?

Had the saaaaaaame issue 🤦🏻‍♂️ thx for the video 💯

Nice fix there fella,I had a similar issue with water getting in on the rear top quarter vent on my smiley,water was running down the wiring loom & into the light cluster causing a bad earth on the plug to indicator so when driving with the lights on & indicating right the unit would flash really fast when touching the brake pedal 🤬. Sealed the unit properly & fitted a new bulb holder & wiring plug harness,works perfect now but since this fix my heater fan has stopped working FFS. A bloody new unit last year as well, honestly there's always something to fix with an aging motor 😂