Audi A3 Water leak

Hi everyone,

I've got a 3-door 2004 A3 2.0 FSI, which I absolutely love, so it really sucks that I've noticed over the last few days a sort of water leak, which manifests as water pooling in the right hand side rear passenger footwell. Its not a few drops - we are talking about a cupfull or so.

Since I have a sunroof, I automatically assumed this was now the problem as the two times it has happened were both after rain (but not heavy rain), but I felt around the perimeter of sunroof on the inside of the car and it's bone dry. In both cases, I was parked on an incline (I have now parked on a decline to see if it stops). Finally, where I am currently at is VERY moist and condensation off things like aircons etc is pretty hectic.

There doesn't seem to sort be a water 'trail' or anything - its as if the stuff appears at the footwell (so it might be flowing under the carpet?) What could cause those drain holes?

Anyway - did some research on the net and think it might be one of the following (still need to investigate them myself):

1) The window seal on the right hand door might have failed causing water to enter the door itself then run into the car.
2) A thread on the A6 forum meantioned a heater core or heater matrix failing (Anyone have any idea what the heck that is???)
3) The drain hole allowing condensed water from the aircon might be blocked and the water might be rerouted inside.
4) Some under-bonnet compartments (like the battery) might be flooded with water because of blocked drain holes. Water then flows under the carpet from the front of the car to pool at rear footwell on incline parking.
5) The trim at the bottom of the windscreen might be degraded, water pools in rear footwell for same reason as above.

I'm going to see if I can investigate each of these a little further, but I would really appreciate it if someone could either give me some more suggestions or eliminate some wrong ones for me. Or perhaps someone else has seen the same problem?

I'm sure some Audi techs also read this forum from time to time, so PLEASE guys! Help! I love Audi cars, particularly mine, and I really don't want to have to deal with water damage. I would take the car into a dealership to fix, but as luck would have it, I'm sitting miles from the nearest dealer on holiday at the coast - with no undercover parking!

Go figure.

i have just been getting bother with the very same problem recently on my 1997 a4 avant. we've had some real heavy rain lately and the rear passenger footwell is absolutely satturated. its actually inches deep now and starting to smell. i've checked under the battery and the drain channels are clear. my car doesnt even have air con but ive ripped up the carpet in the front and there is no sign of any water coming in from there. ive had it up on a ramp as well and everything looks ok underneath. there's absolutely no visible signs of anything obvious at all. sunroof also looks ok nothing seems to be coming in there. i think it must be the windscreen or the doorseals thats have perished but the door seals look fine.

i might just chuck a gold fish into the footwell and be done with it.

does anyone have any other suggestions???

thanks in advance.

Hey russel,

thanks a lot for registering. Haha, yep, the gold fish might be a good idea :P. Do you hear any strange sounds when driving faster?

Is the liquid really water, or something else?

Oh and if you like, you can upload some pictures of your A4 here in your album: http://www.go-audi.com/album.php - other members can then see them randomly on our home page. If you do not want them to be seen, you can just make the album private

Hendrik

hey,

thanks for the input there. as a matter of fact i am starting to hear some strange sounds as well now, its a noise that sounds as if one of my wheel bearings is away or something? i cant trace that either tho!!

the liquid does seem like water. there is no residue or anything when i put my fingers in it.



.... yeah this is a cool site btw. i'll defo get some pics uploaded soon enough!!

Hmm, I am not sure. Please let us know if you have any updates/ found a solution. Sorry . Hendrik

Hey Fhm

I had a similar thing happen on my C5 A6, and it turned out to be the plastic shrowd that covers the battery etc. It has a "wedged clip" that actually clips onto the windshield (at the bottom), effectively stopping water running down into the area below the windshield. Anyway... mine had a broken section which allwed water to run down the air vent into the cabin. The shrowd was very expensive, and seeing that the Audi techs probably broke it, I refused to pay for a new one and used a soldering iron to "weld" the cracked part back on. Then I added some epoxy around the weld for support. Worked like a charm.

Another culprit could be your sunroof drains that got glogged. On my old GTI this caused a huge mess and I never had any wetness around the sunroof itself. This is for the C5, but hopefully will give you an better idea... should also be covered by the warrantee...
http://www.vaglinks.com/Docs/Audi/C5...n_cleaning.pdf

Hope that helps

Cheers
Massboykie

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1998 VW Jetta GLX, QChip, custom 3" K&N intake & 2.5" Magnaflow
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thanks for the help =)

ok i have my car turned upside down right now. i think it might be coming from the sunroof after all. not 100% sure though. i poured water down my sun roof and water escaped underneath the car next to the back wheel where it should, but there was also water coming inside the car just after the "jesus handles" and running down the back pillar under the rear seat and perhaps onto the floor from there!

so if my sunroof channels are blocked, how do i un-block them??
... it looks like a nightmare to get into!!!

thanks

Hey russelj,

I am not exactly sure about how to unblock the sunroof channels . Sorry for that. Please let us know if you managed to and with news about your flooded footwell.

Hi peeps. I have a Audi a3 2006. I discovered around a year ago that there is water leaking into the spare tyre well. I took it into audi and they rectified this problem, since then it has been in 3 other times, and it has gone back in again last week, in fact, it is still at audi as i went to pick it up, they said the problem is sorted AGAIN, but i looked and found water in there AGAIN! It also has other problems such as losing power when reving at 2-3rpm, it dips then comes back. also has electrical problem with rear brake light.
I am really frustrated with this, and I have got to the stage where i feel hard done by Audi. I paid £22000 for the car in good faith thinking i have bought a reliable car.
I am now thinking of taking legal action against audi, does anyone know of any laws which i could take legal action in an appropriate manor. A car of audis status and pedigree.
Has anyone else experienced such problems and can anyone please help me in what i should do?