Water in spare tire well

[andybaran]

Whenever it rains I get water in the spare tire well. Thanks to all of the previous posts I've been able to track source of the leak to the one of the air pressure vents (turns out there is one on both sides). I understand that I need to take the rear bumper off to get to them, I've got all the torx bits so that won't be a big deal. However, having never done anything like this before, I'm wondering if anyone has advice on what I'm about to get into. As a complete noob what am I not anticipating? The vents don't appear to be too expensive so my plan is to just get replacements instead of screwing around with silicone. I will post up a DIY with that covers locating the leak and fixing it once I'm done here.

So a few questions before I dive in :

1. Do I need any kind of chemical sealant for the new vents?
2. Am I better off just using silicone and skipping the replacement parts?

 

[drval85]

Pulling the bumper isn’t difficult. This is what I used first time.
https://www.vwvortex.com/features/technical-features/project-turbunnium-part-ii-body-modifications/

FYI, I thought I had same issue, but my leak was from the sunroof drain connection. It would run along the headliner and down the C pillar to the spare wheel area. Had to pull the headliner to fix. You can pull the trim at the top rear of the hatch and flex the headliner down. Then check with a flashlight while you run water over the sunroof to see if it’s leaking.

Tightening the tail lights too much will also cause a bad seal, which will leak into the same spot. And finally some GTIs had a bad weld around the hatch gasket that would also cause leaks into the spare wheel well.

 

[andybaran]

Ugh, sorry for the late reply I had marked to follow this and get updates but they never came through. Yeah so what I did was pull back the trim where those vents sit and spray the rear bumper area with a hose and water was coming out of the vent so hopefully that's it.

So assuming it's that vent that is leaking, do I just put a bunch of silicon around it and hope for the best?