Ok, so over the weekend I noticed a little puddle under the car as I was pulling away. Figured it was from the Ac no big deal right? Today at work I pulled the car out and noticed the puddle again. However this time I haven't used the Ac in a few days. So I toss it up on the jack and notice that the water is dripping off of the transmission directly next to the axle on the drivers side. After further investigation under the rest of the car I noticed that each of the joints on the exhaust are wet and dripping a little bit? Now I haven't had any smoke from the exhaust or any funny smells or anything? I tried searching on here and can't really find anything related to water besides people being paranoid about ac condensation... Anyone have any ideas for me?

2001.5 1.8T FWD M AWM

 

Forgive me if I'm oversimplifying, but condensation IS one of the by-products of internal combustion, could this be attributed to that? How much water are we talkin about? Are you sure its water?

 

We are talking about a decent amount of water, enough coming off the tranny to have a constant drip, and enough off of most of the joints to have drips build but not enough for them to drop, except the rear most one (before the muffler)which seems to be dripping quite a bit almost consistent. Also this is something I've never ever seen out of my car before.

And yes I'm sure it's water, it doesn't leave any marks on the pavement after it drys. I've had a coolant leak before and g12 tends to leave either dark or redish stain depending on what it drops on. And no it's not the flange it's on the drivers side and not the area where the old flange leaked (6 or so months ago)

One other thing I should mention is that I did do a resonator delete when I put on my exhaust six months or so ago, but I wouldn't think this would lead to these problems so early on in the exhaust system..

 

If you have the air on at all the ac is usually involved. Unless you press the econ button.

 

what does the econ button do?

 

I had absolutely nothing on in means of air... just rolling with the windows down.

 

Gotcha. Wasn't tryin to be condescending, just had to ask lol. Ok so now this is interesting. Where else can water come from in a car?

 

It turns off the AC, giving you slightly better gas mileage (thus "econ," short for economy).

OP- a little water in the exhaust is not a big deal, it happens. What I would worry about is why it's leaking out of the joints...

 

I though the AC turns off,when i press the - button on my temp buttons,until it goes off? That's the way i always turn it off and on,i never use the econ button.

 

Yeah, that's why I'm a bit confused. the only thing I can think of is a blown head gasket, but it is exhibiting no other symptoms at all not to mention that it seems to be a rarity on our cars..

Also the other thing that everyone is failing to address is the fact that it's dripping off of the tranny as well on the drivers side... So that's the one that's really throwing me for a loop. I hope that I"m just over analyzing the situation but I had three other guys who know their way around turbo cars very well take a look at it and they are at a loss as well.

The leaking out of the joints isn't what scares me the most, its the only point in the system that makes sense, it's the leaking off the tranny that scares me most.

I guess I'll have to call my buddy over at AE and see if he can take a look at it..

I'll post up when I figure this thing out. And God hope that I'm just being paranoid but it just seems like a lot of water....