Water in spare tire compartment

[markD76]

Found water in my spare tire compartment. Anyone else ever have this? Is there an easy fix or should I take it in for warranty work? 2019 SQ5


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[Audibot]

Sunroof drains being clogged are the likely culprit

[slowbmw]

So, I just went through this exact issue about 1 month ago. I was driving home in a very rainy storm, and during the drive I had all inds of warning lights show up, rear tail lights, rear reverse...etc basically all my taillights and the auto/start/stop system as well.
I pulled the rear cover, found water in the spare tire well, and ultimately ripped all of the panels off in the trunk. This led me to find about 1/2 gallon of water in the driver side rear corner, where the ECM module is. Yes, the ECM module was half underwater and the connectors were corroded. I later found out that this module controls the auto stop/start and all of the lights. Right on par with my issues.
What really SUCKS, is that this little compartment is a perfect "bathtub" for water to collect and if water made it into your wheel well, that means that water is flooding your ECM and then spilling over.

There's a few ways to tell if you don't want to take the trunk panels out, get under the car and look for a rubber gromet in that general vicinity and push/pull that out. There's a good chance you will let a rush of water out. Now...if you havent had all the warning lights, you could be in good shape and you'll want to disassemble the module and clean the contacts, let everything dry out for a day or two and you're probably good. Then bring your car in for the sunroof drain clean out and hopefully this will alleviate any future issues.
If you want to talk more at length over the phone, shoot me with a PM and I can call you/share photos. A lot to type the whole process, but you get the idea.

So I brought into the Audi dealer and 3-4 weeks later they replaced that module and some connectors. This was a known issue when the sunroof drains get clogged and water collects in the rear area.

[JMURiz]

Sunroof drains being clogged are the likely culprit

This! I had the same thing last year and a cleaning of the rear sunroof drains fixed it. Take a 6' length of string trimmer string and push it up through the outlet. Then flush with a waterbottle from the top. I had no luck getting to the drain from the top, but my way seemed to work. If you have air suspension you can go full high and remove the rear wheel well covers w/o having to jack/remove the rear wheels.

Note: Mine is outside parked and all the oak tree catkins and people blowing crap gets dirt back there over time. Wish I had more garage space or more than a single wide driveway.

[markD76]

This! I had the same thing last year and a cleaning of the rear sunroof drains fixed it. Take a 6' length of string trimmer string and push it up through the outlet. Then flush with a waterbottle from the top. I had no luck getting to the drain from the top, but my way seemed to work. If you have air suspension you can go full high and remove the rear wheel well covers w/o having to jack/remove the rear wheels.

Note: Mine is outside parked and all the oak tree catkins and people blowing crap gets dirt back there over time. Wish I had more garage space or more than a single wide driveway.

Awesome! Thanks dude. Do you have a pic of the rear sunroof drain location from the top? I know where the rear one is in the wheel well


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[B6_Dolphin]

Based on the water ingress threads, a few weeks ago I checked the left & right compartments behind the rear wheel wells for water. I found the left side sound deadening was damp, and a little bit of water on the bottom of the compartment.

I figured I had a clogged sunroof drain, but I was also skeptical because my '21 SQ5 Sportback is 100% garaged, and I don't park under trees. My appointment with my local dealer was this week, and it turns out they found one of the body plugs wasn't properly seated, which allowed water to get in. My service advisor mentioned he sees this issue when trailer hitches are installed, and the body plugs weren't properly re-installed.

As for my SQ5 Sportback, I did have the trailer hitch port-installed in Houston when I placed the order for it, so it's likely the body plug had been displaced since I took possession when new back in July '21!

Anyways, I'll be picking up my SQ5 tomorrow from the dealer. Going to be swapping cars, as my '23 RS5 Coupe has an intermittent connection for the SiriusXM antenna, and I have some "soft" codes getting stored for the Emergency SOS communication, so my dealer will be addressing those issues this week.

[markD76]

Based on the water ingress threads, a few weeks ago I checked the left & right compartments behind the rear wheel wells for water. I found the left side sound deadening was damp, and a little bit of water on the bottom of the compartment.

I figured I had a clogged sunroof drain, but I was also skeptical because my '21 SQ5 Sportback is 100% garaged, and I don't park under trees. My appointment with my local dealer was this week, and it turns out they found one of the body plugs wasn't properly seated, which allowed water to get in. My service advisor mentioned he sees this issue when trailer hitches are installed, and the body plugs weren't properly re-installed.

As for my SQ5 Sportback, I did have the trailer hitch port-installed in Houston when I placed the order for it, so it's likely the body plug had been displaced since I took possession when new back in July '21!

Anyways, I'll be picking up my SQ5 tomorrow from the dealer. Going to be swapping cars, as my '23 RS5 Coupe has an intermittent connection for the SiriusXM antenna, and I have some "soft" codes getting stored for the Emergency SOS communication, so my dealer will be addressing those issues this week.

Ohhhh interesting. I did install a hitch on my car. Going to check that out. Thanks for the info dude!


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