Recently I have had water coming into the passenger side of my car. (2005.5 A4 2.0T) I went to a car wash today, pulled out, made a left turn, and I looked down where the plastic meets the carpet and I could see water running in. The carpet is soaked all the way up behind the glovebox area. It looks like its coming through the firewall.

When I got home I pulled out the cover over the air filter. The air filter was also sopping wet. I poured some water onto the windshield and it would run down through the slits that are under the hood and pour over the back end (master cylinder, air filter, battery, etc). It looks to me like there SHOULD be some sort of channel at the bottom to let the water run to the drains at the sides. I had my windshield replaced recently and am wondering if I am somehow missing the part. Does the water really just run over the back end of the engine compartment when it rains? Is there any sort of schematics for the plastic pieces at the bottom of the windshield? I appreciate any thoughts.

 

Can someone post a picture of their engine compartment? I'm fairly confident I am flat out missing a seal or gasket that runs along the windshield side of the compartment. It would be nice to have a visual on what I'm looking for.

 

your weather stripping is defineltly missing when they replaced your windshield auto zone sells weather stripping for pretty cheap and i would also replace your wet air filter, because you are at risk of the turbo sucking in the water from the filter into your engine which is going to be a huge problem, i wish i had a digital camera to show u the engine compartment but im sure u can cruise around car domain and find a few picures of stock b7's

 

it's things like this that make me go to the dealership for everything related to maintenance or replacement.

 

I took it to the dealer this morning. The service tech came out to look at the car with me. Apparently water is supposed to run down the windshield, over the plastic grates, and fall onto/behind the back of the battery, master cylinder, and air filter cover. The tech told me my Cowl drains are clogged which are directly below the master cylinder and battery. He says rain water collects and eventually can get high enough to leak through. The cleaning was covered under warranty. We will see if this fixes the problem.

The design of the water runoff seems a little odd but I suppose that is how its supposed to be. Hopefully once my carpets dry everything will be solid again. This is definitely a DIY fix if its not under warranty.