Thread: water in passenger side front footwell d4

Originally Posted by Arapiles

Hi

My 2014 D4 HSE has had a musty smell for the last week or so. I just had a look then when my passenger said that the side of their seat was wet, and the carpet in the front passenger footwell is soaked with water. Oddly, not the firewall carpet, so the water must be running directly into the carpet from somewhere but at the floorpan level. Obviously not dripping from around the glove box because it'd've been caught by the rubber mats that I have on top of the carpet. And we haven't had much rain for the last week either.

The car has the triple sunroofs - where are the drain holes to check for blockage? Do I need to open the sunroof to access it?

Update:

I got the LHS passenger footwell carpet dry (crystalline kitty litter proved to be pretty effective). We then had heavy rain last night - when I opened the front LHS door this morning a heap of water fell out from the door sill itself and the carpets were sopping wet again.

I pulled off the LHS air intake cover and noticed that in the indent in the body panels below where the rubber tube exits there was a pile of what was basically mulch - fine dirt and leaves. I cleaned that out. I then pushed some 1.6mm wire up the drain tube from there (since I couldn't locate or access the entry at the roof level). Nothing came out and there didn't appear to be any obstructions. I then poured some water into the channel in the front of the sunroof (with the sunroof open) and water ran freely out the tube, into the indent and then out the now clean bodywork onto the ground. So that looks to be OK. The issue was evidently muck in the body indent that was somehow directing water into the car.

So, the issue can also be blockages in the body where the drainage tube exits, rather than with the drainage tube itself, which in my case was actually clear of obstructions.

Water in the body pressings

I pulled up the carpets on the front LHS footwell and found a lot of water in the channel that runs along the side of the car and which has a heap of wiring in it. I started mopping it up with rags and paper towel and made no dent on it in 10 minutes and half a bucket of paper towels. The channel was evidently quite long - it turns out that it goes to the back of the second row seats - and there was a lot of water in it. I decided it was a good time to invest in a wet/dry vacuum. Once I had my new wet/dry vac in hand I got all the water out, but there was litres of it. While the carpet on the firewall felt dry the liner behind that is a type of foam and it was also full of water, which I squeezed out. I pulled all the carpet back as much as possible, stuffed clean rags in there to soak up any water and have directed a cordless fan onto it. The carpets immediately next to the rear LHS door were also wet - from the channel presumably - but the carpets further in seemed to be dry. I'll see how dry it all is tomorrow morning.

You still have a leak somewhere and it can be anyone of the drain elbows where they exit the body, the leaf litter you describe wont cause the water to come in unless the elbow has come away form the body. You also want to check the rear drains which run down the C pillar and exit near where the seat belt mounts are, its easy to pull the trim out enough to check and clear them without removing the trim.
Also check the A pillar and the hole where the clips sit as these are a known entry point.

Originally Posted by loanrangie

You still have a leak somewhere and it can be anyone of the drain elbows where they exit the body, the leaf litter you describe wont cause the water to come in unless the elbow has come away form the body. You also want to check the rear drains which run down the C pillar and exit near where the seat belt mounts are, its easy to pull the trim out enough to check and clear them without removing the trim.
Also check the A pillar and the hole where the clips sit as these are a known entry point.

It doesn't appear to be the drain tube itself - since a pile of water went down it - but it does seem odd that the mulch would cause the issue: it's raining again tonight so I'll see if there's water in the car tomorrow. If there's still a problem I'll probably have to take it to the mechanics to sort out because I think pulling the A-pillar apart is out of my skill set.