To everyone who lives where there is snow and ice: Be careful

[zerogt86]

...about opening your doors!

I'm at school now in Rochester NY and for the past few months there has consistantly been snow, ice, and generally cold weather. Sometimes when I have been getting into my car, I have noticed ice in the door jams mostly freezing over the hindges of the doors. Yesterday i opened my door and there was alot of ice; so much ice that it bent the body work at the bottom of the door! I took it to the dealer today and they took pictures of the door (and ice sitting in the door jam) and are emailing a regional representative about getting it warrentied. Needless to say this is pretty annoying, so if you live where there is snow and ice please take your time opening the doors and if you see any ice on the inside try and break it off and get it out of the way of the door so nothing pushes out the body pannels.

 

[Stephen_uk]

thanks for the tip -let us know how it goes. :thumbsup:

 

[clutch fool]

thank god i left rochester. theres only been like 2 inches of snow so far here in jersey this winter but i spent $700 on winter wheels cause im used to the upstate winters. at least your not in oswego, they got over 7 feet so far this week and no sign of it stopping anytime soon. hope your damage is covered buddy. good luck.

 

[rickyC]

post pics if you can.

 

[zerogt86]

post pics if you can.

ill try and take a pic tommarow afternoon, then i just need to find somewhere to host it...

 

[bennylenny88]

www.photobucket.com dude

 

[GTI lover all over again]

hey Zero,

looks like I have an answer for you, same thing happened to me, and I did some sleuthing.

BTW my dealer repaired my door under warranty, and will be replacing the ice damn at the bottom of the windshield in two weeks, followed by the weather stripping around the windshield.

see pictures!

Seems VW is already aware, as the new GTI's have a redesigned Ice damn and weather strippong around the windshield.

Check your vehicles dudes, here is the root of the problem, the early GTI's had a gap where the weather stripping from the side of the windshield meets the ice damn at the bottom of the windshield, what happens is the snow melts!, and the water runs down, but doesn't get to the bottom, it misses the bottom and runs between the gap into the hinge area of your door, and builds up.

This happened to me last november, and I immediately took it into the dealer, he took some of the pictures, I took more with white plastic to show the gap and path of the melting snow!

VW agreed immediately to repair under warranty.

I had the door repaired last month, and saw the dealer again, and we compared cars on the lot, where he realized, that a new GTI had a different, weather stripping on the side of the windshield, and a different ice damn at the bottom, the top tab overlaps the bottom significantly preventing melting snow from draining into the door hinge area!

 

[my07blkgti]

damn that sucks...thanks for the tip, keep us updated on what the dealer is doing with your warranty claim

 

[GTI lover all over again]

here's a better explanation from my letter to Volkswagen

It's in PDF form, but it has a better description

:eyebulge:

 

[zerogt86]

Thanks so much GTI lover all over again! Hopefully they will warrenty mine, and i will ask them to change out my weather striping to the new style. My door is much more messed up than yours tho :thumbdown: , you'll see when i eventually post a pic. Hopefully I'll get a call tomorrow saying to drop the car off so they can start fixing the car!!

 

[C7ZZ]

A similar issue I discovered at the rear hatch. When the snow melts during the day and re-freezes over night it can fill the small gap under the hatch at the roof line. I opened the hatch one morning to drop some things in the back and crushed the ice, which dented the roofline under the hatch. Fortunately, it can not be seen with the hatch closed. I told the dealer and the result is they are not sure what to do about it. I'll take a pic and post it when the sun comes up.

 

[nc-gti]

...about opening your doors!

I have noticed ice in the door jams mostly freezing over the hindges of the doors. Yesterday i opened my door and there was alot of ice; so much ice that it bent the body work at the bottom of the door!

So, when this happened on your other cars, you where not concerned? I have owned cars for over 40 years, and ice in the door jam is not a new thing and certainly nothing VW could prevent.

 

[zerogt86]

So, when this happened on your other cars, you where not concerned? I have owned cars for over 40 years, and ice in the door jam is not a new thing and certainly nothing VW could prevent.

This never happened on my old car, and ive never heard of it happeneing to anyone elses car. Also this was clearly a problem with the weather striping, look at GTI lover all over again's pdf.

 

[spud35]

Same thing happened to my front passenger door. It was loaded with ice while the driver side had nothing. I'm going to take it to the dealership and see what they say.

 

[zerogt86]

Here are some pics to give you all an idea of the damage

btw i know my car is really dirty, stupid winter.