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Wet Carpet


Botang
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  • 2 weeks later...
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I jetwashed the car the other day (that time of year again...) and got to wondering if there was a link between that, and the severity of the wet carpet problem...

Its been tough to stomach how Audi could make such a huge oversight with the whole leak problem as identified by Botang, especially given the (presumably) relitively slow flow of normal rain water.

Watching the torrent of water gushing down the windscreen the other day though made me wonder if we owners, keen not to use the drive through, resort to Jetwashing and end up stuffing a load of water down there that it cant cope with...

If there were anything behind this, then the frequent jetwashers would have the soggy carpets, and the bucket and sponge washers would be pretty dry? (Apart from Mike who stops at most motorway services for a quick scrub up lol)

Just opening up for debate really, It'd be interesting to see how most owners wash their car... ?

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I've never put the Audi through an automatic scratch washer NONO3.GIF and I only use a regular hand car wash place when its too cold or I'm too lazy to wash it myself, as they know how fussy I am so are that much more careful.

I'm described as "Anal" when washing my car smashfreakB.gif;Using the two bucket method and wash mitts rather than a sponge and I do use a karcher pressure washer but am aware of the crappy seal the cars black box has so tend to direct water away from the bottom of the windscreen on the passengers side. After the wash I poke a srew driver up the drains in the wheel well to make sure the water drains off.

I get a tell tale sign if the drains in the bell housing are blocking up; my windows start misting up but for now my cars carpets are dry 169144-ok.gif

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another wet carpet here smashfreakB.gif

noticed the passenger carpet was soaking last week, took it into work on saturday & had a look under the bonnet.

the scuttle was about 3 inches deep so after using a big workshop sized syringe/sucker a few times i got some brake pipe & started jabbing away under the heaterbox as shown on audipages. after a while there was some splashing & a steady stream of water came from beneath the car so hopefully i'll be OK as another check showed all the water had now gone 169144-ok.gif

i'm guessing i'm not suffering from a leak from the hole behind the gubbins as i would never have accumulated the depth of water i had if there was a surefire easy route for it into the car.

of course sods law says i'll be attending to that sometime soon ROLLEY~14.GIF

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[ QUOTE ]

I can put some stats on the commonality for this problem - we've had only 1 pre facelift car in so far with a dry carpet, and I was suspicious that it had been fixed by the previous owner. Every other car was at least wet, some soaking. The worst one was so wet that I didnt even have to wring it out - The water was just pouring out of the foam onto the floor unaided !

It does seem to be mainly the passenger sides that are wet, which backs up Botangs work identifying the hole in that side of the bulkhead...

[/ QUOTE ]

I must say, I feel somewhat vindicated now I've read this thread. I've been plagued with the old Wet Carpet & Steamy Windows Syndrome for ages now. I thought I'd cracked it when I found the Evap Drains Unblocking Procedure mentioned above.

The other day, though, after some torrential rain I booted off up the road and to my dismay heard the all-too-familiar sound of a bubbling brook, glanced into the back and saw a huge flow of water coming out of the central rear air vents.

So then, out with all the carpets again and another fortnight or so driving around in a plastic-floored S8, while the foam takes eons to dry out.

I've had it out with the service desk at the dealers and they just replied with a blank look and the mantra "well, I'm sure I don't know, we've never had that problem mentioned before". Yeah, right - pull the other one! I can just imagine the Head Office memo going round to all the dealers - "whatever you do, don't admit there's a problem with the drains - admit nothing and deny everything!"

I think I'll print out some of the instructions and pics from above and get my local indie to find the hole and block it up once and for all.

Thanks, by the way.

P.S.: Incidentally, for my own contribution - I note from above that some people have been struggling to unblock the drains and have tried screwdrivers, coat hangers and water hoses. I found the best thing is a can of compressed air from your local computer supplies shop. The one I got comes with a thin nozzle extension, which seems to do the job very well providing you pinch the end of the drain round the nozzle to force the air through.

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Showtime it sounds like you have fixed your problem but make sure the drians into the wheels arches are clear they are very easy to clear its just a case of pinching them and the water will start flowing again. I sorted Figure11's out for him at ADI which could have saved the cost of a new ECU smirk.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

Showtime it sounds like you have fixed your problem but make sure the drians into the wheels arches are clear they are very easy to clear its just a case of pinching them and the water will start flowing again. I sorted Figure11's out for him at ADI which could have saved the cost of a new ECU smirk.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

He did u know and since then I have cut off the ends of the pipes and have had no problems since. I also check the drains every week during its wash and blow dry! wink.gif

Mike

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  • 1 month later...

i think,hope no pray that i've sorted my leak so after months of having the interior stripped down i can finally put it all back together smile.gif yesterday i decided that the only way to suss the problem was to get the headlining down and see where the water was coming in from beneath. After a hell of a lot of stripping down my efforts eventually revealed that the problem was where the left hand sunroof drive mechanism enters the sunroof tray, from there the water traveled above the headlining to the overlapping A pillar trim and then behind the dash into the foot well. Sealed it up with some chemical metal and silicon.

oh i also found a nice audi touch while stripping it all down. If your sunroof drive motor ever gives up and your stuck with the sunrood open and no way to close it.

If you take the sunroof switch/interior light cluster down from the headlining attached to the back of it is a allen key winder tool to manually wind the sun roof shut laugh.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

oh i also found a nice audi touch while stripping it all down. If your sunroof drive motor ever gives up and your stuck with the sunrood open and no way to close it.

If you take the sunroof switch/interior light cluster down from the headlining attached to the back of it is a allen key winder tool to manually wind the sun roof shut laugh.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Its in the manual as well. Glad you've sorted it 169144-ok.gif

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  • 2 months later...

Nothing like raising an old thread.

Stripping out the passenger side trim to run the pc cables from the boot to the dash TFT I thought I'll just check! :(

Bugger! The passenger side rear foot well is soaked. :(

So I go straight to the new TSN and pull up the threads after a search and read through. Back to the car. I didn't think it would be the AC evap drains as they get checked when I detail the engine. Sure enough a watering can just flushes through and onto the drive. I then went looking for Botang's hole. :/ Very fortunately I did not find it! Don't know what I would have done if I had??? Probably shoved a huge bolt in and sealed it for life Fnarrr Fnarrr.

Also had a look at the vents that run alongside the tunnel. No indication of wetness. These photos are the ones I looked at....

DSCF0057.jpg

Took the duct off and looked inside. The valve is covered with foam and is closed as the rear vents are always shut. It was dry which further indicates not water ingress that way. Could it be the Sunroof? How can I check without stripping out the head linning like Ska ? Any ideas?

Mike

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mike, my leak was the sunroof. i've watched the water dripping in when the headlining was down. If you take the passenger sprung handle out and the passenger sunvisor you can pull the headling down enough to see that n/s of the sunroof tray. Fill the tray a little, wait and see what happens.

ant

Ps why are you running cat5 cables to the boot, only asking as i've got a cat5 patchlead that i ran back to my boot for futureproofing of digi air management.

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Ps why are you running cat5 cables to the boot, only asking as i've got a cat5 patchlead that i ran back to my boot for futureproofing of digi air management.

Not cat 5E but USB, sound and VGA cabling from the PC ion the boot to the motorized TFT in the front. Was an absolute mare and didn't work! :( Gonna try mounting it in the Glove box next. Lot less trouble.

Mike

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So now I have a wet carpet, I have checked the usual suspects and nada. It's time to take down the headlining and have a look see. Before that I think I'll whip out the carpet for drying. Firstly you can't whip out the carpet; you can only take it out laboriously! :(

Secondly when you go to take out the passengers front seat you look underneath to locate the fixings and find an empty 1 litre water bottle (Still) with a hole in it!!!!!

Hmmmmm had the children (25, 24, 22) in the back last week.......

Anyway, stuck a fan heater in it instead as it is only the passenger side rear foot well and overnight it seams to have reduced the wetness quite a bit. Make sure if you use this method you leave a window open a few millimeters. After chatting to the A8 expert (IT_S8) the aircon should remove the rest of the moisture.

Note to self, sell children for 30 camels. :)

Mike

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Mike the hole wasn't immediately obvious it was under some sealer, I'd be surprised if its not there.

I installed my carPC in the glove box, it seemed to make sense to put it there and route the pwoer from the buzz board in the passenger footwell.

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I'll offer you 20 camels!

Glad you got it sorted Mike

Cheers Ska, but I will monitor it closely. Have the camels got 2 humps or 3? :roflmao:

Mike the hole wasn't immediately obvious it was under some sealer, I'd be surprised if its not there.

I installed my carPC in the glove box, it seemed to make sense to put it there and route the pwoer from the buzz board in the passenger footwell.

Will have a look when I take out the glove box. Should have been my first choice but I was being a skin flint and using an old ATX board from a desktop PC :ffs:. I've ordered up a Mini ATX now. +++

Mike

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