Footwell leak through heater housing / pollen filter from windscreen seal

[Rusty]

Hi all, been having issues with the coupe leaking into the passenger side footell for most of my ownership (7+ years!) and had removed the carpet after the sound deadening went bad and resigned myself to having to mop up the mess after every rain shower... anyway, having been convinced that the door seal was to blame I'd planned on taking a weekend next year and trying to finally sort it as best I could...

Anyway, I recently had a squeaking fan and so decided to take the pollen filter out and see what I could see... upon inspection from outside and inside, it became obvious that water was getting into the car through the pollen filter and then was dripping down, through the recirculation flap (AC car) and into the footwell. This was confirmed after a cleaning session the other week.

After refitting the pollen filter, I was refitting the scuttle pannel cover and noticed that it just wasn't sat correctly, so I had a closer look. I had always thought that the seal at the base of the windscreen was a tube that sealed the cover in but it turns out it's a flap and can be gently prised out with a hook or screwdriver and made to properly seal against the scuttle cover - the cover sits in a groove at the base of the screen.

That was 2 weeks ago and despite some proper rain, I've not had to take a towel to the car once - it's remained bone dry! I'm sure that having written this, it'll now turn out that it's like a goldfish bowl but hey, fingers crossed.

Not got any pictures at the mo but maybe I'll get some later on... when I check the moisture situation.

[s2driveruk]

know where you mean..its a shame that lip is not slightly bigger given its importance to avoiding a pond forming

[Rusty]

With the seal fitted properly, the lip does very little compared to when it was all incorrectly fitted...

[Rusty]

Bonus. No water in the passenger foot well... Shame about the dribble from the driver's side but I think that's the bonnet cable or fusebox seal.

[newsh]

Bonus. No water in the passenger foot well... Shame about the dribble from the driver's side but I think that's the bonnet cable or fusebox seal.

Check also for a tiny crack in the corner of the scuttle where the 2 panels meet, both my cars had this. Hard to see on the fusebox side, you need to take the lid off. Pics in the other thread.

[Rusty]

Cheers John. Going to leave it for now, as there's very little water for the amount of rain we've had and I've cleared up most of it... Will do some more on this when it's not cold, wet and blowing a gale!

Fingers crossed for continued drynes... that'll mean I can put the carpet back in But the carpet is heavy

[fourringsrus]

I had exactly the same issue on my previous '95 coupe a couple of years back and solved the mystery in exactly the same way.The car is still dry to this day, sold it last week actually.

[mcandmar]

Worth noting where the plastic cover connects to the windscreen there should be a length of sticky string to seal it, its usually stuck down the bottom of ridge preventing the cover from seating properly.

[Rusty]

Come back to the car today, after a fair bit of rain and it's starting to look rather good. Just a small seep at the rear of the passenger side door to deal with. I had a bit of a play with the bonnet cable grommet and seem to have stopped it seeping too but will get a new one soon.

Now to turn the car around and let the slope put the water on the driver's side and see what happens.

Overall though, happy that it's starting to dry up in the footwells; just the boot to have a look at now, as there's a small seep there too. Doubt I'll ever get it totally sealed but it's worth minimising the flow!

[Kieron20V]

You got a pic of this andy? Ive got the dash out on mine atm and Ive had the heater box out so should make sure while everythings out the way,

[Rusty]

It's all visible from ouside the car; it's the seal that acts against the scuttle pannel plastic cover. Can't take any pisc just now... it's raining

Look at the base of the windscreen, where the plastic cover meets the base. There's a rubber seal. Start at one end and gently pise the base of the seal (bonnet end) up and over the plastic lip. Gently work your way along. One way of doing this could be to put some string or cord in before you fit the plastic cover and then remove the cord, thus pulling the seal into the right place, just like fitting old window seals.

[ShadowofBob]

Just bumping this post up since I am having this same issue. I can see what you are talking about with the scuttle seal, but in my Bentley manual in the windshield install section they have this (1) sitting down bent slightly under the plastic scuttle. I've attached a pic of how they show the bottom lip of the windscreen.


1 - Trim Strip
2 - Windscreen/windshield
3 - spacer
4 - adhesive


So is there no drip tray that sits above the pollen filter like on a B5 A4? This would seem like a better solution to preventing any leaks. Perhaps the A4 piece could be installed on a Coupe.

[Rusty]

Not sure I understand you as that's a different seal shown in the diagram and the plastic trim I referred to isn't shown there.

[ShadowofBob]

The seal that you talk about lifting over the plastic scuttle cover is part 1. The piece that 3 and 4 sit on is the metal frame of the car. And then at the edge of the seal (1) you can see the scuttle pannel(The furthest left bit) meeting it where the metal makes a 90* bend.

[fourringsrus]

I've just remembered that on a '95 coupe I had a couple of years ago I had an issue with the above mentioned rubber seal at the bottom of the screen.
It had lifted or distorted around the plastic trim and as said above it was allowing rain/water ingress into the the pollen filter housing which turned the filter into a manky spongey mess and the water then ran down into the fan motor causing the motor/fan assembly to squeal like a pig , but also allowing water to continue on its' way into the vents/ducting etc thus a wet passenger footwell and a constant cause of damp inside the car.
After a bit of fiddling about repositioning the distorted rubber seal all was well.
BUT,BUT,BUT..........I still think if your screen was fine before the refit and now has an issue, possibly the issue we are currently discussing , then it is down the glass fitters to sort out.
Good luck

Stuart