New B5.5 Owner - I'm off swimming...

[Anatonic]

Hi all,

Just picked up a 2005 plate Passat Estate - so far so good, with only 90k on it and an immaculate service history (owned by an older gentleman)

Did quite a bit of research before buying and managed to get the price down to £2k as there was some evidence of damp on the passenger footwell. So I braced for the worst and put my trunks on...

So far, sort of good I guess... I've checked the plenum and found the drain holes blocked despite no water so sorted that, also removed a ton of crud around the pollen filter housing but at some stage I'll look to take it out and re-seal it to be safe. I've then pulled the carpet up and the underlay is what I'd say is 'damp' to the touch - certainly no water pooled, and even squeezing it nothing comes out.

I've therefore had it airing and drying for the last 48 hours and it's finally dry! Also been chucking a ton of water over the car and can't see anything else coming in as I watch where it routes, but will definitely hold my judgement on that for a while yet until I'm certain all is fixed.

The only two bits I'm unsure on is the alarm itself - although I've only had it a couple of days, I'm certain I've heard the alarm go off twice of its own accord, for around 10-15 seconds, then it stops. Every time I've run to see if it is my car the alarm has stopped before I get there, so I'm not sure! Would the alarm only stop if I used the keys to stop it? Could this be simply the sounder near the battery playing up due to corrosion from a previous backlog of water?

Secondly, when I lock the car with the keys, it does so absolutely fine, and the driver side LED near the lock flashes awayt to show the alarm is active, but the indicators don't flash. They do however, flash twice when I unlock the car. Is this a sign of something dodgy or is that normal?

I've seen the pics of the gunked up connectors on the loom behind the passenger kick plate and I think that will be my next port of call to make sure they're fine or need stripping and crimping again. Question here - I can take the connectors holder off the bodywork but how in the heck do you guys access it freely like in the pictures? It feels to me like there is no slack in the loom that goes up behind the dash and so I can hardly move it away from the body and into the footwell to remove the connections.

Looking forward to getting more involved in the community!

Cheers

Matt