Mysterious Water Leak Inside Car

[blue28]

So I went to get into my car to drive to work yesterday and noticed a small amount of standing water on the carpet between the drivers seat and door. Then I felt the carpet under the pedals and that was also wet. Then I looked in the back and saw the floor in front of the back drivers side seat had about 3 inches of water pooled up! Some pretty crazy storms came through Friday night as I'm sure some of you experienced so obviously there is a leak somewhere.

My problem is I can't find anything wrong with the weather stripping around the doors. The water was only on the drivers side, passenger side was dry. I've only had the car about 2 months but it's rained plenty of times during that span and I never had a water problem before. Doesn't look like the sun roof is leaking, I have a beige headlinder so I think water damage would be easy to spot but I see nothing.

Are there any areas that commonly fail and let water inside the car that I should take a second look at?

[csosnowski]

sunroof drains, and or the drains under ecu box and battery tray.

clean these areas and you shouldnt have more problems with water ingress.

[Bradbert]

Same thing started to happen to me, and sadly left me some awesome water stains under my drivers side sun visor. It was the sunroof drain :(

[b3rt26]

It's most likely the front cowl drains. They usually get clogged by leaves. Bring the car to the dealer and call the insurance company. They'll either fix it or total the car. This is a flood damage. The harness would have to be repaired or replaced. There are control modules under the carpet that mostly hot damaged.

[blue28]

It's most likely the front cowl drains. They usually get clogged by leaves. Bring the car to the dealer and call the insurance company. They'll either fix it or total the car. This is a flood damage. The harness would have to be repaired or replaced. There are control modules under the carpet that mostly hot damaged.

damn you think its that serious? I popped the hood and there is a pool of water under the battery. I have been driving the car and there's no problems so far. I have the cowl pieces under the windshield off and there doesn't seem to be that many leaves but there definitively are some so I guess thats my problem.

[audi49]

There is a class action lawsuit regarding this issue. Search the web and you'll find info on it. 'water ingress audi'... should find it.

[blue28]

Looks like Im too late to get in on the class action lawsuit. Any idea how much I can expect to pay to have these drains cleared out at a dealer?

Also noticed by brake fluid reservoir has a crack and hole in the back side of it. Not a good day....

[Corrado_Guy]

Looks like Im too late to get in on the class action lawsuit. Any idea how much I can expect to pay to have these drains cleared out at a dealer?

Also noticed by brake fluid reservoir has a crack and hole in the back side of it. Not a good day....

Dude, just clean them out yourself, you don't need a dealer for this. One of mine was plugged as well, I used 5 minutes of my time and a finger to solve the problem. Remove the upper cowling at the base of the windshield and look for standing water. Find the lowest point and you will find a plugged drain, push the crap though and the problem is solved. I don't know why there would be a class action law suite for this because I have seen this on many cars including Audi's.

[blue28]

haha you're right. I saw the word "totaled" and started panicking. I took the battery out and the drain hose under it was clogged with junk so I stuck a screw driver down there and everything drained out. Thing is it all drained out under the engine so how does this effect the water on the floor at the back of the car?

[Corrado_Guy]

It doesn't help with the mess that is already there but it does stop the mess from getting worse. You need to clean the mess up in the car which is a bit harder but gravity has moved most of the water to the floor in the rear seats. The shape of the floor will push most of the water to the rear so just use a rag and soak up all of the excess that you can to begin with. Ideally you want to pull the carpet up get to the rest of the water and then soak up what you can. If the car is allowed to get really warm like under a nice warm sun it will dry up most of it especially if the carpet is pulled up.

[blue28]

I guess that part I'm confused about it how gravity takes pooled up water that is blocked from flowing from the front of the car all the way to the floor of the backseat? It somehow passes the firewall and travels along the floorpan all the way back to where it curves up for the back seats? Crazy

[bmarshall]

I get a wet drivers side floor when it rains heaps. I have removed the rubber gromets from the fire wall well and siliconed around the plastic ecu box but it still gets in somewhere!
I think it seaps in through the body pannel joins in the fire wall well?

[Corrado_Guy]

I guess that part I'm confused about it how gravity takes pooled up water that is blocked from flowing from the front of the car all the way to the floor of the backseat? It somehow passes the firewall and travels along the floorpan all the way back to where it curves up for the back seats? Crazy

Look under the car, all questions about gravity and water making it to the rear will be answered. In other words, the rear floor is lower than the front and water flows downhill.