A big “thank you” from Texas! Unbelievable that VW would flood the interiors of cars on the tiny chance that a fat spider would somehow get stuck in a tube. Crazy.

Wow, I can’t thank you enough. I was feeling so stressed about a potential big bill from a garage to sort this ‘mystery’ leak out and now I have sorted it in 10mins, brilliant video and just feel very thankful.

I couldn't believe it when water started raining down from my rear view mirror during a sleety snow storm . I quickly realised the drains were blocked and managed to rod the front drains but couldn't figure how to do the rear. I was forced to take action when we noticed the carpets were sodden and I decided to check KZfaq out as to the reason and solution. Thanks so much for putting up this video , it saved me hours of investigative work.

Thank you - such a simple fix and we've already been hit with water coming through the centre console on the roof - straight onto the screen going around a corner! Quite a shock, and the water is foul, so now the car stinks! Wet carpets as well as the water has leaked into the door pillars and down - VW should own this issue.

Thanks for this video, had the same issue. Fabulous that there’s people like you out there who take the time and effort 👍 Much appreciated.

Absolutely fantastic video. People like you are a good send. Thank you so much for helping solve the mystery puddle on the floor.

Had all the same symptoms , water build up in spare tyre well and wet headliner - after watching your video was able to remove the spider catcher caps and one was completely blocked with silt and then water gushed out and it’s fixed the issue - great video saved me an expensive trip to the garage thank you !

We found the front carpets of our 2017 Tiguan saturated after a fierce thunderstorm. I was scratching my head looking for the source and assuming the door seals were to blame. However, I came across your video via Google and I went straight to the pano roof, where the drain channel was full of water. I removed the spider traps from the front drain tubes then pushed a length of flexible plastic-covered curtain rod through them. This is readily available and sold for net curtains. It was possible to push the rod all the way through. The sight of it emerging from the end of the pipe under the bonnet is extremely satisfying. A small amount of mud came through, but I doubt it takes much to block the pipe. The rear driver’s side spider trap is a pain to find, having to grope around the Adblue tank. But I eventually pulled it off. I’m drying the carpets now and hoping that the problem has been solved. Many thanks for posting this video. You’ve saved a lot of people a lot of money.

Thanks for putting this video on KZfaq, it’s been very helpful.

I've just added the sunroof to my order. This will be the very first thing i'm going to do, when the car will hopefully arrive. Remove those caps. I'm grateful that I came across your video.

Thank you so much for this video, it saved me time, money and peace of mind for not having to spend a fortune to fix this issue. Bloody spider valves!!

Saviour. Bless you for sharing this. 🎉 I feel sure it has solved my leak into nearside footwell. Now I’ve lifted the carpet and trying to use towels to dry it out. And fan heater. Take care on the front panels I cut my arm.

Super video. Thanks for sharing! I’ve booked our Tiguan into the garage after trying to resolve the sunroof leak a few weeks back but going to try this tomorrow morning 🤞

Thank you for this. Just done my 2017 Passat estate. It uses these “spider traps” upfront. The driver’s side was there. But the passenger side was gone. The difference in wetness was night & day. The driver’s side was almost bone dry. I had the leak behind the driver’s sun visor back in October. Followed by a starting issue the same week. I think this problem might have contributed towards the starting problem. Hopefully all sorted now. Thanks again 👍

Well done mate great quick and easy way to keep your car safe.

Thank you for your video. I helped me alot as in my car the water was coming in the trunk. And with the help of your video We saved some money. Thanks once again😄

Thanks for the video! It completely solved the problem of the flooded driver footwell in my 2018 Tiguan Allspace. Although I had an extended full warranty, dealer wouldn't fix it for free. They wanted $100USD for diagnosis and an extra amount for any repair. I was mad and started to look into KZfaq for a solution. In my case the only issue was this annoying spider trap. There was no need to clean the pipe with the risk of tearing some rubber bit of it! A VW buyer for decades but quite disappointed with this design flaw. It is incredible how a little red cover can do a lot of damage, mine was having some electrical issues already with the blind sport monitoring system.

What a great, informative video, thank you. Had all the symptoms and this I hope has now fixed the problem - thank you.

Thanks for your video. I removed 3 but the one behind the adblue tank I can touch but because I can't get my hand in far enough I can't grip it to remove it. I flicked it to clear it and ran clean water through all 4 as you described. I'll just check that o/s rear one from time to time unless I figure out a way to get hold of it. You have potentially saved me from some heartache in the future. 2018 R-Line. Thanks again.

Really helpful. Just been up to my arms in plastic up front and head on the damp tarmac out back. Hopefully this will prevent the recent footwell leak recurring from the recent torrents.

Many thanks for this video i wondered why just cleaning the drain tubes out didn't really work, after a storm last night the drivers footwell had a puddle in it,so i have taken these spider traps out literally took 10 minutes dead easy and quite a bit of water came out of the front tubes, saved a costly bill again many thanks👍

Thanks mate. Great vid. I had a lot of water backed up behind one of these in the engine bay. No wonder the sunroof was leaking!

Just found this video because i am currently experiencing the dreaded leaky hood release! Went to locate the driver side spider trap and lo' and behold, it let out a shed load of water as soon as i "unstuck" it. Hopefully this resolves my issue! Thank you sir for this video!

Thank you so much, like many others I have been dreading a garage bill. Simple solution easily carried out.

Helped me massively after finding the driver front spider trap got blocked up, caused over £1k of damage to the driver footwell! Safe to say spider traps are now all removed. Having difficulty finding / getting to the one behind Ad blue tank though!

Thanks Steve for the detailed video. I have a 67 SEL Allspace noticed water in the passenger side footwell and water running down side trim under the glove box. Also headlining damp left of the visor. Removed all 4 spider traps in the damn rain but glad I did. Lots of dirt and water came out. Will flush through when its dry enough to open the sunroof. I have extended warranty but dont trust VW to cover this after my passenger side rear LED light cluster had some failed LED's. Would not cover under warranty. My last VW group car after 30 years.

Surely one of the best videos about this stupid VW Tiguan leaking issue. This company has been making cars for decades and they don't even know how to deal with such an easy problem. Boy, they ARE useless!!

Well done Steve, I'm not sure how it could be any clearer now. Poxy things.

You helped us and saved my car. Thank you very much, for this great explanation.

Just had my front drivers side drain leak into the cabin, water being evident around the bonnet release lever and then down onto the sill and into the carpet. Has happened a couple of times, so I flushed the front drains using thin tubing inserted into the sunroof drain holes and a large syringe. Seems to have cleared them for now. As soon as it warms up a little, I will be removing the spider traps. Thanks so much for putting this video up. I dried the carpets out using a wet vac and then a dehumidifier. It also caused some electrical glitches, I had airbag warning lights. Fortunately for me, once everything dried, the faults cleared, but there are so many control modules that could be wrecked in these cars, the repair costs could be horrendous, particularly if you use the VW dealer to rectify, and your no longer in warranty.

Cheers for this, removed mine today after finding the drivers side carpet wet and the airbag error light illuminated. Took the spider traps off and water drained out. Dried carpet and underfloor insulation… just got to extinguish the warning light!!!

Thanks for the video. I have a video on here but I didn't know where the front drains are. I'm going to remove the spider traps . Well described really helpful. Regards Alan Hoskins.

Thanks great vid and easy to follow. Just got back from a week holiday found some water in the footwell on return so sure this will fix it and the funny smell that we had, would like to add I did see a spider walking around in there not any longer 😞 RIP

Hi D&D, recently bought a Tiguan and heard they suffered from blocked drains, using your video I've removed the spider traps, as you said the rear offside is the most difficult but with a few choice words managed it. Thank you.

A big thanks from me too! A super helpful video that has solved the problem; now I just need to get the water out...!

Back seat on the passenger side was wet and smelling bad. Checked all 4 of these and the one in the back on the passenger side was clogged. Thanks, good video

You have saved me a fortune mate....thank you so much

Excellent. My main dealer wanted £130 to do a diagnostic inspection. I can cancel that appointment now.

Hi. I have commented before about your video. I removed the rear traps yesterday. As you said the one on right side is a struggle getting in by add blue tank. I think that one would cause major problems as it would be overlooked. Thanks again a very helpful video. Regards Alan.

Brilliant!!! Thank you for this helpful video. Mine has been getting a bit of water in the front near side footwell for sometime after rain, but never really enough to be too bothered. That was till the storms the other night, I put the Tiguan on the path facing up, it’s quite steep. I went to put my mum in the back to go to the shops the following day and there must have been about 2” of water in the rear near side footwell. Found a video on cleaning the roof tracks, but yours hit the nail squarely on the head. Got the first little bu&&er off, front nearside and the water poured out for must have been over 5 seconds. Then the front off side, same again.... doing the rears tomorrow then drying the carpets out. Many thanks again.... well chuffed....

a few days back I started with a leaking thru the rear view mirror - and today I noticed a some humidity on the window co-pilot side , thought I left the door open but when I check all the passenger seat carpet was totally wet ( we had heavy rains the pass days) - I have checked the 4 Spider traps and 3 of them seems to be working fairly well except the one on the passenger side, it was stuck and a lot of water came out when I remove it, I hope so that fix the problem ! I will be testing with some water tomorrow morning, crossing fingers :) - I have a Tiguan All Space 2018.

Thanks a bunch!! I had water entering the rear area and was able to find the drain as you showed and it was blocked with dirt. Hopefully fixed the issue but I believe there is a rubber connection on the inside of the car as well behind the panels that can get disconnected due to shrinkage and cause a leak

I got an airbag error light, drivers side footwell wet and water coming out of the rear view mirror! Great video, have cleaned mine out and put boiling water down the holes as well as removing the spider traps. hopefully the airbag light error message goes once it's all dried out..

Thank you very very much sir, this ting helped me fixing the leaking on my VW Tigaun 2017 :)

Thank you for the video. Very useful. I have the same car, and I can't find my right rear tap. Thank you again.

Thanks your a star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐this worked a treat , removed the stupid spider traps cleaned out with tie warp , then poured hot water at sun roof 6 x times on left and right sides of sun roof , all now running freely at front at rear 4 x lovely puddles of drained clean water 😃👍, VW design fault

Thank you so much, work I'd found this pre leak but am amazingly handy video

Brilliant, thank you. As other comments have said, worried about garage bill to sort this but thanks to clear instruction, sorted in 10 minutes. Fab :)

Great thank u Brother much love and Support from Germany

Thanks for this understanding of the problem. I have been able to clear the front drains of my 2017 1.6 tdi touran today. However, using all the knowledge gained from the video, I did not remove the trim, instead I used a phone charger cable (had to cut off the end) to unclog the tube until the water started to go through! Hopefully saving me the unnecessary vw strip down 'further investigation' cost after the initial £60 charge. Do the dealerships really know what they are looking at?

I'm getting this on Saturday, trust me that's the 1st thing I'm removing

I also used some electrical cable, stripped down to one insulated wire, to poke down the front drain holes from the top, in order to clear out any muck.

Thanks buddy going to try on the wife’s Tiguan shortly.

Thanks for the video. Really useful 👍

Well I've gotta say a big thanks for this video. I've sorted the same problem and removed the traps and then given the system a good clean. Fingers crossed its all good to go. I bet VW earn a small fortune sorting this out for the gullible of us in our good old rip off Britain.

You saved me some 1000 euro probably authorized dealer would ask to fix leakage in my car. It's the second time it happened. Please change tags and title on this video with something like Tiguan sunroof leakage because I found it on direct link from a Tiguan forum. KZfaq search would not return this video on my search queries. Thanks again

Very useful video. Many thanks

Cheers for the video, massive help

Thx dude. Helped me a lot.

Hi D&D, necromancing here, the drawback of removing these is if you enter your Tiguan in the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, you will have points deducted. Also I don't know if you noticed but your steering wheel is somehow on the wrong side, I'm just sayin 😉 Good job on this video showing how to do this without tearing the interior apart, with my trusty really long needle nose pliers I have removed a billion of these, "you know how us yanks like to exagerarte". All The Best Blue Mule NC USA

Cheers very helpful need to get mine off now👍🏻

Thank you so much for the video, really saw the difference in the way the water managed to get under the car before/after I removed those things. Do you by any chance know how to access and isolate the upper part of that drain? I saw a couple of water drops inside of the car after the removal so I think it might need a better isolation where that rubber end meets the tube. Thanks

Thank You .On my way out to remove the spider traps now. VW must have their heads in the sand missing this. All kinds of electronic errors because the drain pipe is blocked.

Thank you so much from France. It solve my issues.

Thanks. We definitely had to have dealership replace all the carpet in a tiguan that was only a year old. They damaged so many of the panels and trim doing so. Never buy a first year body style 🤦‍♂️

You are our hero❤

Thank you, so helpful.

My carpet smells very bad in SE Tiguan 2019, there is an recall on sunroof drainage. Smells moldy like wet bag of garden mulch. I just took it to dealer to fix it.

Hi would this apply to a Skoda yeti as i have very wet carpets

Thanks for the video

nice video! thanks a lot!!

Also, I struggled to get the rear spider trap behind the ad blue, any advice?

Brill video thanks!

Hi. I've removed the traps and checked and cleaned the tubes regularly. Do you know how to get to the rear drains from the Pan roof apart from running water in the track. Thanks.

Ive been looking for a video for so long. By far this is the only video I found that shows u where there are even though this is the newer tig. I have a 2011 r-line. Would their be in same place ?

Merci beaucoup

Is it possible that dealer removed them? 2022 tiguan and i checked and rear driver doesn’t have it

Thanks for this Steve, with these really heavy showers my car footwell has been filling up. I’m not sure if my RLine is different to yours but on the adblue side I could only find a narrow Slim pipe, I’m assuming this is the other drain hole as it had a drip on the end. Will need to try this on the flat as I live on a hill. Many thanks 👍🏻

Hiw about rear drains, you got some guidance for that?

Couldn’t really see the front drain tubes behind the bulkhead cover when you were pulling the spider traps off, or the water draining out afterwards. Perhaps it becomes apparent when you actually do it.

I need to try this as got in my 2018 vw Tiguan yesterday (pouring with rain for about an hour or two) and the drivers side floor is absolutely saturated, I can see the drip marks on the plastic by the boot release and part of the roof liner is wet as well.

Thank you

Has this been resolved? I just bought a 23 tig

I also have 2013 Tiguan with wet carpets i am going to cut off the bug traps and run a derailleur gear cable down them pipes to keep them free of muck

Danke!!!

So removing the spider traps fixed the sunroof leak? Wow I have try this. Have a tiguan of 2016. Have same wet foots as you. Hope that this helps. I m praying.

Thanks it was very helpful. Is it possible that in the front it was taken out by the dealer/manufacturer? I found it at the back but in the front was not any.

Our r line just got damage with this and it got towed as the dash was like a christmas tree so much faults with it. Down the drivers side looks like it got into the electrics 😢

Hi, Can you tell where the rear drainpipes are located from the sunroof? I know where the front ones are located - but dont know about the rear ones? Thanks for the video

Thank you for the video. How is it now with the leaking

sun roof?

We had a first generation tiguan with panoramic leak blew all the electrics and totalled the car. Absolute crap that Vw are still doing today.

do the drains not clog up with traps removed? especially the rear ones? or would it be wise to just clean the traps and pipes on a regular basis

Thanks for the video. Now the question is, how to dry the smelly wet floor?

How many spider traps in total? (4). Two front and two back???

how did the leaves get in there? poor design

Any idea on why i get a leak after its rained or driving off first thing in the morning. Some reason i get water dripping from the rearview mirror column from inside of the car. Maybe the pano seal has gone or blocked.. i have no clue

Does it apply to a 2010 tiguan ? I didn’t find any spider traps on it

VW are supposed to be cleaning the pan roof drains as part of the annual service...

I have some problem. I will remove right now this. Too much water inside. 😢