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NEW Volkswagen/Audi Water Ingress Class Action Settlement Reached
By Sarah Pierce
UPDATE: A federal court approved the new Volkswagen/Audi Leaky Sunroof Class Action Lawsuit Settlement on December 14.
Good news for Volkswagen and Audi owners who suffered leaky sunroofs and missed the deadline to file a Claim Form (or were not allowed to participate) in the Volkswagen/Audi water ingress class action lawsuit settlement — an amended class action settlement has been reached that will provide equal benefits to all Class Members and allow additional vehicle owners to participate. The new deadline to file a claim for the Volkswagen/Audi water ingress settlement has been extended to November 26, 2012.
If you’re not familiar with the case, here’s a little background:
On August 3, 2010, a federal court approved a class action lawsuit settlement that would provide benefits to millions of owners and lessees of 1997 to 2009 model year Volkswagen and Audi vehicles that had defective sunroofs that allowed rainwater to leak inside when they were clogged with plant debris and pollen. Vehicles covered by the original Volkswagen/Audi water ingress class action lawsuit settlement included the Volkswagen Golf, Jetta, New Beetle, Passat and Touareg, and the Audi A4, A6 and A8.
On May 31, 2012, an appeals court rejected the Volkswagen/Audi leaky sunroof class action settlement and certification, ruling that the settlement agreement was not fair to all Class Members or to vehicle owners who were left out of the Class certification. As a result, an amended class action lawsuit settlement was reached that now offers certain Class Members who were previously not allowed to file a claim for reimbursement an opportunity to claim reimbursement for certain water related expenses.
Under the amended water ingress settlement agreement, you may now seek reimbursement for cleaning, drying or replacement of carpeting, including padding, and/or repair and replacement of any component of the sunroof drain system and/or plenum drain system, caused by water ingress into the passenger compartment due to the sunroof or plenum, drain system, paid by you or on your behalf at any time prior to May 7, 2010.
Owners of 1998 VW Passat B5 Vehicles can also seek reimbursement for repair or replacement of the TCM and/or its attached TCM harness, VW parts numbers 4B1-971-769-A LEITG. SATZ, 4B1-971-769-B LEITG. SATZ.
So how do you know if you’re covered under the VW/Audi water ingress class action lawsuit settlement? If you owned or leased any of the following vehicles listed below as of March 24, 2010, you can file a claim to receive reimbursement and other benefits from the class action settlement:
VW Settlement Vehicles:
** 1998 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT B5 VEHICLES
** 1998 – 2000 AND 2007-2009 VOLKSWAGEN NEW BEETLE (VIN 3VW—1C-7M514779 OR HIGHER) VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH SUNROOF
** 1997 VOLKWAGEN JETTA A3 (VIN WITH “1H” IN POSITION 7 AND 8), 1997-1999 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA A3 (VIN WITH “1W” IN POSITION 7 AND 8), 1999 – 2000 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA A4 (VIN WITH “9M” IN POSITION 7 AND 8) AND 2008 – 2009 VOLKSWAAGEN JETTA A5 VEHICLES (VIN WITH “1K” IN POSITION 7 AND 8) EQUIPPED WITH SUNROOF
** 1997 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF/GTI A3 (VIN WITH “1H” IN POSITION 7 AND 8), 1997 – 1999 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF/GTI A3 (VIN WITH “1W” IN POSITION 7 AND 8), 1999 – 2000 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF/GTI A4 (VIN WITH “1J” IN POSITION 7 AND 8) AND 2008 – 2009 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF/GTI A5 VEHICLES (VIN WITH “1K” IN POSITION 7 AND 8) EQUIPPED WITH SUNROOF
** 1997 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT B4 AND 2006 – 2009 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT B6 VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH SUNROOF
** 2004 – 2009 VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG VEHICLES
Audi Settlement Vehicles:
** 2005 – 2008 AUDI A4 B7 PLATFORM VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH SUNROOF (VINS IN MY 2005 WITH “8E” IN POSITION 7 AND 8 AND ALSO “A” OR ”D” OR ”K” OR ”G” IN POSITION 4) (INCLUDING S AND RS VERSIONS)
** 1997 AUDI A6 C4 VEHICLES
** 2005 – 2009 AUDI A6 C6 VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH SUNROOF ( VINS WITH “4A” OR “4F” IN POSITION 7 AND 9) (INCLUDING S AND RS VERSIONS)
** 1997 – 2009 AUDI A8 VEHICLES (INCLUDING S VERSIONS)
The ONLY way to receive benefits from the Audi/Volkswagen leaky sunroof class action settlement is to submit a Claim Form by the deadline of November 26, 2012. A Final Fairness Hearing will be held on November 9, 2012.
Claim Forms and more information on your rights in the Audi/Volkswagen Water Ingress Class Action Lawsuit Settlement can be found at www.WaterIngressSettlement2.com.
The case is John Dewey, Jacqueline Delguercio, et al v. Volkswagen of America, Inc. et al., Case Nos. 07-CV-2249-FSH-PS and 07-CV-2361-FSH-PS.
Updated December 19th, 2012
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23 thoughts onNEW Volkswagen/Audi Water Ingress Class Action Settlement Reached
I have a 2011 Audi A4 with 102,000 miles on it. About 6 months ago I saw the rear headline starting to drop. About 3 months ago started with leaking above passenger seat onto my leather and also water onto the floor. This should be updated with newer models because the same thing is happening with my girlfriends 2012 Jetta. Who can I contact or can we begin another class action for newer models. Cars 7 years old should not have this issue!
******if you have a sunroof are having the same problems as i did with your carpet and foot wells filling with water when it rains there are a couple of DIY things to help.
#1
if you open the driver and passenger front doors and look at the door hinge area between the upper and lower door hinge of each door there should be a short (about 2inches) rubber nipple like thing sticking out of the car. this nipple will be pointed towards the ground at a slight angle. There is a flat spot at the end of this nipple. this should be connected to the sunroof drain tubes on the inside of the support posts on each side of the windshield. cut just enough of the flat part of the nipple on both the driver and passenger side. the goal is to make a hole in the end of the nipple so the liquid from the sunroof can drain. you may have to unclog the tube from your sunroof down to the nipple if you have never cleaned them before.
***(im NOT talking about the ribbed rubber hose connected from the door to the car that has the wiring in it. dont cut that! )
#2
is a bit more difficult… the drian tubes shrink in length in the years after the car was made. as the drain lines became shorter in lengh the drain lines remained connected to the sunroof guttter and retracted at the end connected to the nipple located near the door hinge. At that point all water sent down the drain line from the sunroof goes into the foot area instead of outside the car. the only way to fix this is to connect the drain line again to the back side of the nipple. i did this by extending the drain line with another small piece of tubing and inserting the other end of the new tube into the back side of the nipple. it is not easy.
quick fix – you can always park you car with the front end uphill so the water only drains out of the two sunroof drains that go to the rear of the car and never let water go down the two drains in the front of the car.
best of luck to you!
I have a vw Jetta 2010 that has leaked an inch of water all coming from the drainage of a sun roof. How can i join the law suit is it too late?
It’s 2016 and this issue is still happening. I was not a part of this suit, my car applies to it though. My poor VW bug will never be the same… Anyone have any advice on how to get VW to own up to it again? I need help :( Never buying VW again…
Have an 2007 Audi Q7 and i have dry water spots on the roof top, took it to a dealer and was told I would have to pay for the repair, I will never own another one again due to the fact that Audi and VW kept this from valued customers which is not fair to use. The sad part about my issue is that I dont think my truck is even covered under this act, what can I do? Its already bad that the dealer ship ripped me off when I got the truck.
found this on another website
February 2014 Update: On February 12, 2014 the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision affirming the district’s courts’ approval of the parties modified settlement agreement which placed all class members on equal footing and which awarded class counsel a little more than $9 million in attorneys fees.
Is there any update on when we will receive our settlement? This is crazy, it has been YEARS!
when will this finally be settled and distribution of settlement checks begin?
When will we receive our settlement checks?
Picked up our new 2008 Q7 8/16/08
One month later noticed wind shield wiper & radio just “going on” at odd times, brought back to the Audi dealer ship and was told there was nothing wrong with the car.
This was repeated numerous times with the same outcome, nothing was wrong with the car.
In May 2011 we had to have road service come to our house to jump start the car because the battery was too low to start the engine. This happened 3 times.
July 2011,the last time this happened, the flat bed brought to you to fix an electrical problem with the battery connection. The car was fixed but we could not pick it up for a day and it was put out in your yard. The next afternoon when my wife came to get it the battery was completely dead. We were charged >$300 for a new battery plus the cost of the “ electrical repair.
Next the MMI system stopped working, we brought it to be repaired and was told it was our fault because we must have spilt something into it. (We had never spilt something into it but didn’t know what to do since we needed the car).
Then we saw water on the inside of the sun roof, brought it to you and were told we must have let the channels on the roof fill up with leaves (we have no trees near our driveway) and were charged with another repair.
Finally when the car hit over 55,000 miles and out of warranty it was discovered the cause of all our electrical problems was the sun roof and it was going to cost over $4,000 to fix it.
All along there was a problem with the 2007 Q7 sun roof resulting in a major class action law suit but each time we brought the car with the same symptom as named in the suit, no one at Audi could come up with this diagnosis till the car was out of warranty?
To add insult to injury, we have learned that the windshield in the car was not an original Audi windshield, the back lift gate had been previously painted how come none of this was disclosed to us, we thought we were buying a brand new car.