Hi Guys,

As above really,

Nothing I do makes any difference to the water leak situation, and the rear of the car is swimming again after rain last night. I had mopped the floor dry last night to check the water ingress and it's still huge.

As such, I haven't got the time or money to start replacing door seals, window seals etc. on a speculative basis in the hope that something might work. I have now decided that the best course of action is to drill some drain holes through the floor, treat them with anti-rust replace the carpets and either: a) Get rid of the car and go back to a Ford or Vauxhall, or b) wait until the spring when hopefully we'll have a bit more cash and fix the leak, then weld up the drain holes.

I think that the floor is double-skinned and so I don't know what's going on between the skins. Does anyone know if there is a safe place to drill through where I won't hit brake lines / cables etc. etc.? I'm thinking about 4x holes at around 6-8mm should be sufficient to drain it, and a darn sight cheaper than having to replace the ECU if it gets wrecked.

Thanks in advance as always.

Stewart

 

Anyone?

 

I've drilled once through the floor of a Pontiac LeMans (supposedly the Amer counterpart of the European Opel Kadett), but I wouldn't know what to tell you concerning the double-skinned Audi.
Beside the already covered potential leaking places, I don't know much about Avant's shell to further hypothesize. That's a real mystery why you get water pooled in that single rear footwell (as opposed to front + rear on the same side, or both rear footwells).
You can exercise your own discretion as far as drilling the floor, but if there's an air pocket in between the metal sheets you may cause a far more troublesome problem, on the long run.
If you can drill slightly larger holes and fit in there some rubber hosing, then doing so may prevent a potential ingress of water/moisture in between the metal sheets (if that's the case). On the other hand, I don't know what that would do to the structural integrity of the metal sheeting in that footwell area (probably nothing with serious consequences).
In any event, weather permitting, you're better off to drill from underneath up, rather than the opposite. That way you can certainly avoid any mishaps.
A sincere good luck in solving the problem.

 

here's a quick way to find the leak. use a wet-vac if you have one, and get all the water out. Finish drying everything you see as thoroughly as possible.

Once it's all dry (use a hair dryer if you have to), spread baby powder over all exposed areas.

Now when the water comes in to pool, it will leave a line in the powder indicating a direction and perhaps even point directly at the leak itself.

You can use things other than baby powder; basically anything that will be washed away from water passing over/through it will work.

Once you find the leak location, you won't be blindly throwing money at it.

Good luck.

 

thanks for the tip matey.

I mopped out half a bucket of water from the rear footwell yesterday, and have also taken the step of smearing the front and rear door seals on the offending side with lots and lots of vaseline. If the car stops getting wet, I will have a pretty good idea that it's the door seals. I tried testing them using air pressure, but it didn't work, so here's hoping with this one.

Thanks again.

Stewart

 

Pull up the carpeting and look for the factory drain plugs. They might be under some asphault sound deadening mats. Drill through one of these as they are the low point in the system. You can get a replacement at any body shop supply place. If you have to chip away at the sound deadening to replace the plug, use DynaMat or the equivelent to provide the sound deadening.

Spray foot powder works well for tracking leaks. The soap idea didn't work, eh?

Bob

 

Cheers Bob,

No, the soap idea didn't show anything at all. The car is still getting water in, even after I went round all the door seals with vaseline, and then practically sealed the doors from outside with it too - by the time I finished with the doors the car looked like it was owned by someone with a serious fetish!

Went out to it today and surprise surprise, there's water in there again! I'm really p1ssed off with it now, especially since it has just passed it's MOT test with flying colours, but I'm still considering getting rid of it because of this issue alone. I think I will drill through the drain plugs - any idea where they are, as I can't see any sign of them apart from what looks like one on the top of the bulge in the floor, but that would be a bit of a daft place to put a drain surely??? I thought the audi didn't have drain plugs?



Thanks again matey.

Stewart

 

They are towards the back of the car right where the flloor pan turns up to clear the gas tank. You can see them best from underneath. Small little things!

Bob

 

Water is likely coming in on the wire bundle, based on what I see in that photo. Only thing that makes sense. Follow that bundle, and I'll bet you find your leak.