More water leaks

[newsh]

With all the rain lately both coupe and avant have been getting a lot of water inside, enough for the water to show above the carpet in both cars. Recent cleaning of the scuttle drain area on the passenger side of the avant seemed to slow down the ingress but not cure it. The coupe was getting wet on the driver's side.
As it was not actually raining this morning I decided to have a better look at the avant as its my current driver and the water in the footwell and condensation on the windows has been hissing me off, the car is coming together in so many ways but is ruined by this stupid water issue, Audi have really messed up on this IMHO, its very frustrating..

To start with I pulled the carpet away from under the glove box and had a look roud the heater fan box,there were a few drops of water under the wiring loom and it really seemed as though it must be leaking past the seal under the pollen filter. I used a bucket and sponge and ran water down the screen, nothing came through to start with but ahfter a couple of minutes there were a few new drops and a small rivulet coming from higher up under the dash. I took the glove box out and had a peer around with a torch and a mirror. Up in the corner where the firewall, scuttle and inner wing join there was a small dirty patch with a dribble of water still coming from it.



Looking back under the bonnet there was still a small pool of water near the scuttle drain hole,



I decided to take out the pollen filter holder to have a better look and make sure the seal was ok.



The seal was dry so I knew it wasnt getting in that way so I started to clean around where the small puddle was with an old tooth brush. In this pic you can just about see that there is a crack in the mastic seal between the panels.



I had a good dig with a screwdriver and cleaned up with scotchbrite pad and brake cleaner and sealed the area with a good layer of Betafill black sealant trying to level the area so it doesn't puddle in future.



Having done that and with all the kit out I decided to have a look at the coupe too. After a bit of digging around the fusbox area and removing some old mastic and muck and cleaning the area up I'd uncovered a pretty large crack.



More brake cleaner, airline and heat gun to dry it out and some more black stuff..



Another view



Whether I've cured it all now or not I dont know but I'm pretty sure there'll be an improvement

I'm now officially knackerd!

[Greg_S]

Interesting to see it was the mastic that had gone. Where did you get the sealant from?

[Nuvo]

Thanks for documenting your attempts to stem the tide, let's hope you have succeeded.

What is the dark black rectangle in the picture below? It looks like an opening in the firewall that shouldn't be there. I can't recall ever seeing this at any rate.

[Error404]

its the water drain - where all tge water that runs off the screen drains to

Interesting find with this, quite a few cars develop cracks around the base of the a-pillars, its a high stress area I guess.
Looks like the flex in the chassis panels has degraded the seam sealer and let the water in

[Nuvo]

Thanks Alex, It's odd that I've never noticed this before.

[newsh]

We use the sealant at work but its an automotive product (Dow Corning I think) used for sticking panels together, its like windscreen sealant but not as thick.

The rectangle is a hole through the firewall into back of the wheel arch which is where the water drains away from the scuttle area.

Here's another pic, on the Avant the cracks were not that obvious..

[newsh]

Feels like a bit of a breakthrough These seams were never very well sealed IMO, in the first pic from the inside of the car you can see there's not much metal overlap right in the corner, there's a bit of mastic showing through, it can only be a couple of mm thick at the most and mastic tends to dry out shrink over time. This stuff is 19 years old before the modern more flexible types were invented.

[newsh]

Here's the coupe one.

[newsh]

You can't actually see this view by eye (so to speak) I got this by getting the torch and the iPhone camera lens round the corner and looking on the screen. Lucky that the iPhone has the lens right in the corner At the point where you see the bit of white mastic the scuttle panel changes from being bent downwards at the side of the car and upwards where it meets the firewall, there is no metal contact at the point where it changes and the amount of mastic used is thin, a poor job and probably been leaking for years.

[Christophski]

Hopefully your leak is fixed then. I guess at least you aren't still getting wet seats. My avant is still lovelly and dry after you told me about the sunroof drip tray and then me refixing it

[newsh]

Glad your's is dry inside now!

The Avant has been a bit of a saga, really hoping its cured now. I do get an occasional few drips on the driver's seat still if there's a proper downpour, I need to replace the sunroof seal as its really gappy. I just went out and had a look at it as its been raining a bit and I'd left the glovebox out and carpet pulled back. I sponged half bucket of water over the windscreen for good measure and had a look and a feel under the dash, its definitely not leaking there any more

As for the coupe, I'm just going to wait and see if it starts to dry out, in fact I just remembered I have a new (second hand) driver's door seal to try out on it..

[QuattroFever]

This is top notch info newsh.
Yesterday went out to find the drivers footwell damp and the drivers side rear footwell soggy of water its actually made it through the mat too!!
Pulled the carpet back in the front for the first time ever and it was only damp on the surface of the carpet but underneath was soaked through.
Never had any leaks before now but it looks like its either been leaking a while or ive got one helluva leak all of a sudden. One thing i cant handle is chasing leaks!
Alot of people probably have water getting in and dont even know it.

[newsh]

I think the floor is a bit lower in the back which means you can actually get a puddle there when the front only looks damp.

First place to check is the bonnet pull grommet and the areas I've just done above

My coupe has had problems near the fuse box for years, first noticed when the wires to the central locking pump rotted through under the carpet on the driver's side and the courtesy lights stopped working, in fact that took me about 4 yrs to find

[andy10v]

Cheers mate, great info. I will be investigating this on my coupe.

[QuattroFever]

Been out and had a look. There's a puddle in the fuse box area like you had. Looks like the front most hole they pressed in to the metal almost has an upwards curving lip that stops the water getting out until it puddles or you brake...or works past the bonnet cable grommet.

Looks like water has been running down the leading edge of the drivers window and dropping down onto the top hinge in the door shut which is conveniently pointing at the inner edge of the door seal which runs down the inside of the seal then pi***s on the floor under the carpet. Sneaky b*st**d!