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I have a 2018 VW Atlas SEL with Tech package. It has a panoramic sun roof.

For the last 8 months after or during rain, water leaks down behind mirror and drips on entertainment center.

Took to dealer and they unplugged the drains first time.
Next 2 times they dropped the headliner and unplugged drains.
Next time unplugged drains and ran hose over sunroof 2 hours.

Deal has thrown hands in air and does not know how to fix.

Filed Case with VW Customer Care. Not willing to buy back or give me a new Atlas.

They gave me a minimal trade in allowance. Since this is a $45000 car im going to loose my shirt if I trade.

Does anyone have any similar problem? Ideas as to how to fix?

Thanks

** I should have stayed with my trusty Subaru OUtback.

 

[nazmania]

David,


I have been having the same issue with my 2018 Atlas SEL V6. I have gone back and forth with the dealer and regional VW Customer Care. I have three other vehicles that live in the exact same environment as the Atlas. They all have sunroofs. None of them leak except the Atlas. This is clarly a drain design issue and we need to keep the pressure on VW for them to address it.


I am also at the end of my rope. Perhaps we need to gather up as many people as possible and threaten a Class Action Lawsuit.

 

[Sfatlasman]

As I wrote before, my 2018 Atlas SEL V6 AWD with sunroof also leaks. Most pronounced when on hill. As I live in San Francisco, I only ever park on a hill, so can’t confirm the flat ground situation. Anyhow, California Lemon law requires them to either fix or refund if can’t fix after 3 times within 3 years. As this is clearly a design flaw, our vehicles are probably going to be discounted be several thousand dollars due to a reputation for uncontrollable leaking. VW has said they will guarantee any damage to the electronics or mold, yet that ignores the decreased residual value of the vehicle due to its flagrant defect (that they knowingly sold it to us with).

If they give me any problem about issuing a full refund, I ABSOLUTELY WILL JOIN IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT.

 

[Sfatlasman]

Huh. California lemon law official website actually only says a minimum of 2 repair requests and up to the entire period of the original mfctr warranty (which in our case is six years) and remedy is either a full refund, or replacing it with a substantially similar vehicle.

 

[brob17va]

well our leak they say is weather stripping

before I we even made our first payment on our 2019 Atlas SE 4 Motion it started leaking from upper console area after heavy storms. It only happened a few times when the car was stationary during the storm. Took it into the shop and its been close to 2 weeks now. we have been told there was a weather stripping issue. They are now replacing all the headliner and the carpeting due to what they said was visible mold. They said the drain plugs were not the issue here.

I am very concerned about mold being present in the car with my young child and pregnant wife.

I am anxious to get it back to see if the weather stripping fixed the issue or if it just leaks again.

 

[NHJohn]

well our leak they say is weather stripping

before I we even made our first payment on our 2019 Atlas SE 4 Motion it started leaking from upper console area after heavy storms. It only happened a few times when the car was stationary during the storm. Took it into the shop and its been close to 2 weeks now. we have been told there was a weather stripping issue. They are now replacing all the headliner and the carpeting due to what they said was visible mold. They said the drain plugs were not the issue here.

I am very concerned about mold being present in the car with my young child and pregnant wife.

I am anxious to get it back to see if the weather stripping fixed the issue or if it just leaks again.

 

[NHJohn]

My 2018 Atlas which is almost two years old and is outside year round suddenly had water wet floor carpet on driver and passenger sides after a heavy rain. Water was not coming from overhead and examination of sunroof showed clogged drain holes in front. Cleaned both out and drains are now free flowing but on talking with dealership they acknowledged this is an issue and informed me there are 4 drain holes in total. Dealership now does sunroof drain cleanout as a service with 20k cheakup(or at a cost of ~$50)

 

[Sfatlasman]

Regarding our ongoing leaky sunroof 2018 VW Atlas V6 SEL, we took it to the VW dealer to have the official recall from December 2, 2019 to supposedly had a fix for the leaky sunroof defect. Well, it still didn’t work. Really tired of this nonsense.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1207454772258697216

 

[Rrs110]

I have a 2018 VW Atlas SEL with Tech package. It has a panoramic sun roof.

For the last 8 months after or during rain, water leaks down behind mirror and drips on entertainment center.

Took to dealer and they unplugged the drains first time.
Next 2 times they dropped the headliner and unplugged drains.
Next time unplugged drains and ran hose over sunroof 2 hours.

Deal has thrown hands in air and does not know how to fix.

Filed Case with VW Customer Care. Not willing to buy back or give me a new Atlas.

They gave me a minimal trade in allowance. Since this is a $45000 car im going to loose my shirt if I trade.

Does anyone have any similar problem? Ideas as to how to fix?

Thanks

** I should have stayed with my trusty Subaru OUtback.

 

[Rrs110]

Had my 2019 Atlas in dealership for problem with low coolant, found out Altas has problem with head gasket sand it needs replaced, and only have 10,000 miles on car. Anyway while they were working on my car the service manager to,d me there was a sun roof drain repair that needed done and ask if I wanted it done at same time. I said yes do I guess there is a recall on the sunroof drain but I never received a notice about it. Might be one of these recalls that is fix as car comes in.

 

[RDR]

My Executiveline SEL Premium VW Atlas. There is Recall for Sun Roof Leak.I have never received any letter but went for changing the fog light to LED.Everything is LED except Fog light.I did my recall there.I have driven to NY did 1,700miles one way .I owned Benz AMG ,Altas is very smooth ride.Did 120 with no issues.Enjoyed!

 

[Jlombwong]

I have a 2018 VW Atlas SEL with Tech package. It has a panoramic sun roof.

For the last 8 months after or during rain, water leaks down behind mirror and drips on entertainment center.

Took to dealer and they unplugged the drains first time.
Next 2 times they dropped the headliner and unplugged drains.
Next time unplugged drains and ran hose over sunroof 2 hours.

Deal has thrown hands in air and does not know how to fix.

Filed Case with VW Customer Care. Not willing to buy back or give me a new Atlas.

They gave me a minimal trade in allowance. Since this is a $45000 car im going to loose my shirt if I trade.

Does anyone have any similar problem? Ideas as to how to fix?

Thanks

** I should have stayed with my trusty Subaru OUtback.

Hi! I am wondering the outcome from this situation. My 2018 atlas has had the same exact issue!! It seems to leak the most when parked on a slight incline in my driveway. The dealers “cannot replicate the problem.” We have WE customer care involved at this point but do not seem to be making any progress due to the fact that the dealers (two separate ones) cannot replicate the issues.

 

[Jlombwong]

Hi! I am wondering the outcome from this situation. My 2018 atlas has had the same exact issue!! It seems to leak the most when parked on a slight incline in my driveway. The dealers “cannot replicate the problem.” We have WE customer care involved at this point but do not seem to be making any progress due to the fact that the dealers (two separate ones) cannot replicate the issues.

 

[Rrs110]

I have a 2018 VW Atlas SEL with Tech package. It has a panoramic sun roof.

For the last 8 months after or during rain, water leaks down behind mirror and drips on entertainment center.

Took to dealer and they unplugged the drains first time.
Next 2 times they dropped the headliner and unplugged drains.
Next time unplugged drains and ran hose over sunroof 2 hours.

Deal has thrown hands in air and does not know how to fix.

Filed Case with VW Customer Care. Not willing to buy back or give me a new Atlas.

They gave me a minimal trade in allowance. Since this is a $45000 car im going to loose my shirt if I trade.

Does anyone have any similar problem? Ideas as to how to fix?

Thanks

** I should have stayed with my trusty Subaru OUtback.

There is a recall on leaks dealing with the sun roofs, had mine done no issues afterwards

 

[Eric 20124]

Hi! I am wondering the outcome from this situation. My 2018 atlas has had the same exact issue!! It seems to leak the most when parked on a slight incline in my driveway. The dealers “cannot replicate the problem.” We have WE customer care involved at this point but do not seem to be making any progress due to the fact that the dealers (two separate ones) cannot replicate the issues.

I'm having the same problem. I park my 2018 Atlas on a slight incline and it leaks every time it rains. The headliner and driver side floor get soaked, and you can see it dripping from behind the dash and down onto the hood release handle. The recall service has been done. That is when the leak started. The dealer cannot replicate it and VW won't buy it back or exchange it. It appears they don't believe it leaks. I am at a loss. It is worth less than half what I paid for it.

 

[tylerltr450]

I'm having the same problem. I park my 2018 Atlas on a slight incline and it leaks every time it rains. The headliner and driver side floor get soaked, and you can see it dripping from behind the dash and down onto the hood release handle. The recall service has been done. That is when the leak started. The dealer cannot replicate it and VW won't buy it back or exchange it. It appears they don't believe it leaks. I am at a loss. It is worth less than half what I paid for it.

Did you get the recal done? Also did you check to see if VW Dealer would clean the drains for the roof?

 

[Eric 20124]

Did you get the recal done? Also did you check to see if VW Dealer would clean the drains for the roof?

Yes. In fact the leak started after the recall repair. And they've cleaned the drains and basically glued them so they can't leak. But it keeps leaking.

 

[abrookb711]

well our leak they say is weather stripping

before I we even made our first payment on our 2019 Atlas SE 4 Motion it started leaking from upper console area after heavy storms. It only happened a few times when the car was stationary during the storm. Took it into the shop and its been close to 2 weeks now. we have been told there was a weather stripping issue. They are now replacing all the headliner and the carpeting due to what they said was visible mold. They said the drain plugs were not the issue here.

I am very concerned about mold being present in the car with my young child and pregnant wife.

I am anxious to get it back to see if the weather stripping fixed the issue or if it just leaks again.

My 2019 SEL Atlas is in the shop right now for the leaking sunroof issue. They replaced the sunroof gasket and that didn't solve it, so now they are ordering an entire new sunroof cassette (not sure what that means) that will supposedly fix the issue. Does anyone know was the recall for 2018 or 2019 or both? It has been in the shop for a week and a half, and will probably be there a total of two weeks by the time they're done.

 

[abrookb711]

I'm having the same problem. I park my 2018 Atlas on a slight incline and it leaks every time it rains. The headliner and driver side floor get soaked, and you can see it dripping from behind the dash and down onto the hood release handle. The recall service has been done. That is when the leak started. The dealer cannot replicate it and VW won't buy it back or exchange it. It appears they don't believe it leaks. I am at a loss. It is worth less than half what I paid for it.

I had the same problem with my 2019 SEL. It went in THREE times and came back each time with the dealership saying they couldn't replicate the problem. The fourth time, finally, it leaked when they did their testing. I don't know if it helped or not but on the last time i used the sunroof right before i gave it to them, like closed it when i pulled into their shop.

 

[Jlombwong]

I find it highly unbelievable that we all have had the same issue, many many dealers have not been able to replicate the issue and VW will do nothing for us!! In fact they seem to act like we have such an isolated issue that they have never heard of before They will not buy back my 2018 SEL Atlas but instead offered us 15% off of a new VW which I am very very apprehensive to purchase especially seeing that other year models have had the same exact issue. I even sent our customer service rep at corporate VW this thread and NO ONE there seems to care!