Hello,

My 01 A8L when it is washed or sits in the rain allows water to enter the front passenger floor area. I know it is not the condensation drain and only shows up when washed or in the rain. I removed the floor mat and the carpet insert and you can see where the water had been running down and wet the fiberboard cover against the front firewall.

When i looked under the hood and removed some of the plastic covers that hide the wiper motors and other stuff i found standing water in some of the cavities. Is there not a drain in there for the rain water to drain out?

I have the shop manual for the car and can find tyhe sunroof drains but it shows notheing for water drainage from under the hood.

Any ideas?

Stephen Ellis

 

Hi Stephen
I have had the same experience with a used 2000 A8 I just bought ... In heavy rain, or through the car wash, the water would come into the passenger compartment, and could be heard sloshing around in the bulkhead and air vents. The catchment area below the windshield is designed to drain water, and there are drains about a foot in from the hood edges (very hard to find from under the hood). I've found some of the drains (two), but not sure I've got them all. Mine were gunked up solid with all sorts of stuff, no wonder they would not drain.

You can find the drains by removing the rear plastic front wheel-well shrouds, and you'll see the drains hanging from the bottom of the bulkhead, one on each side. No need to jack up the car, or remove the wheels. As I said, I am sure there are more, but I have not found them yet. I also have not fully tested the drains to see if my water issues are gone completely, but I do know that things have improved some.

I did find a tech reference recently, but never bookmarked it! If I come across it again, I'll pass it on to you.
All the best
Quinton

 

Thanks,

I did have my mechanic (who took care of my 93 Acura Legend since 97 (that car I put over 360,000 miles on it!) and he did state he thought the underhood drains where located inside the front wheel wells.

Cool, I'll check that out

stephen

 

http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articl...tordrains.html

 

Thanks for the Link.

 

I had the same issue. There are 4 drains in the engine compartment, two over the tranny and one over each wheel well. They are easily clogged. I ended up using compressed air to unclog them. Prior to that I had all sorts of electrical problems from the water corroding connections and sitting in the ECM/TCU compartment. I had to blow them out 4-5 times before the drains would work regularly.

There are also two "orange" plugs in the main compartment, drainage for the A/C unit. They also clog but I don't think that is your problem.

Follow the link on audipages, there is a procedure to fix this at the bottom of the page. It's my car that Paul is working on! Good luck.

 

Audi should better engineer the drainage ports so that they will not be so sensitive to debris and heavy rain.

 

Water leak update!!! Audi has to replace my carpet which is on back order and they have to deodorize my car mildew smell. This is my Audi pictured below 2003 Audi A8L 4.2L Quattro w/ 225 R17 Pirelli's I just got her a month and a half ago.

[IMG]local://upfiles/19296/24C010A244444B5BAD7EFAD7E7840054.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/19296/0661107E8DD24E51BEF7CB471CE66D5E.jpg[/IMG]

 

I have a 2002 A8L and first had my ac vents flood in October 2005. Had a pool underneath my console and flooded my back floor through the rear ac vents. Audi charged me $450 because this was not a warantee item and was due to outside influences- leaves! the cowel flooded again last week and they refuse to cover it. The service manager admitted that this is a design flaw, but Audi has no interest in correcting the problem. Audi did admit that the car was meant to be driven outside where there are trees with leaves though! I now have a burnt out heater pump due to having sat in a puddle of water, and have learned that there are four major drains to be kept clean- one inside of each front wheel well and two beneath the fresh air intake. I found a local mechanic who has worked on these cars for many years and will clear the two beneath the air intake with each oil change. Great car with a few gremlins, but the company,and the people that work there, is by far the worst that I have ever dealt with. The posts listed here are very helpful in finding the drains. Good luck!

 

Will Audi molded mudflaps help retard the clogging process? Has anyone had issue with snow or ice regarding drainage?