Leaking 98 B5 Avant

[audi1664]

Please help guys my audi has a serious water leak and is causing a puddle behind the drivers seat, iv looked at door rubbers and it seems fine, car has no sunroof so????????

I heard somewhere that a blocked battery tray upfront can cause this to leak in the back dont know if i dreamt it or read it?????

Any info is greatful as starting to smell

 

[phoenixv6quattro]

Alright mate. Yeah the battery tray does get blocked. There are drain holes in the battety compartment (scuttle) two I think, with pipes attached to them. These get blocked with all kinds of ******. Best to remove these pipes. It will be evident if they are blocked as your battery compartment will be swimming in it! Remove the scuttle cover/panel to check for this(if you have one, it will if its a facelift model, will not if its a pre facelift). Also check or replace your pollen filter (located nearside under a plastic cover). There only a few quid so worth doing anyway. Water can get in if your filter/seals are ********. It could also be the rear washer pipe. Although I dont know its exact routing through the car so not sure if it would be getting that area wet? The most common place for it to come apart is underneath the glovebox area. Pull the carpet/sound deadening back and you should see it. While you are there even if theres nothing wrong with it put some insulation tape around it to reinforce the connection (prevention always wins through!). Failing the above, and you still cant find the leak check under your car for holes. Seems unlikely but its happened to me in the past (what do you expect with an old Renault 21T!). Lastly, sit in the car and get a mate to hose it down. Any defects in any seals etc should then be apparent.......

 

[aragorn]

Does sound like the scuttle drains.

One is under the battery and the other under the servo.

If you remove the battery and its stand you can get at both.

Some people suggest throwing the grommets away, but i prefer to simply trim them so its a hole rather than the + shaped slit.

The nearside one comes out easily and can be trimmed, the offside one under the servo has the clutch hydraulic line going thru it, so you can only really shimmy it up the pipe and hack away as much as possible. I used some edge cutters to snip away most of the slit then pushed it back into place.

The other place water gets in is the bonnet release cable, its grommet sometimes pops out and that corner seems to hold water, especially if its full of leaves etc, unforutnately cleaning it out properly is quite difficult.

The most difficult part though is trying to dry out the carpet!

 

[tazzy baby]

Mine is the same but the holes are clear. i was going to pull the seats and carpet out and take a look but with the weather says other wise. its soaking behind the drivers seat but dry in the front by the pedals

 

[audi1664]

Thankyou everybody will try on the next dry day, very very helpful, like tazzybaby my leak is purely behind the driver seat, i will let you know how i get on.

Thanks again!
dan

 

[aragorn]

if its wet its the best time to see if its blocked

Just open the bonnet and look in, if its swimming with water thats likely the problem.

 

[tazzy baby]

Mine is dry and clear under the bonnet so continue the search else where any ideas

 

[Geeman]

If it's rear foot wells, it's 99% defintely the scuttle panel that's blocked up.

You taken the scuttle panel off and looked under the battery, etc.?

 

[aragorn]

Ye, i think the water tracks back along the foam, and the foam is thinner in the rear so it appears there first.

 

[tazzy baby]

Cheers guys will go take another look now

 

[tazzy baby]

Ok, well had a bit of time to look at it today started under the car to see if the hole plugs in the floor were the problem but all was fine so i poked one out and my god it was like a water fall so went to look else where, pulled out the seats and centre consoul then got to work on the carpet when i finally got it out it was like a bath, water every where so stuck a hose pipe on it and stuck my had under the dash board only to see water dripping in from the speedo cable where it goes through the bulk head, who would of thought a little drip would cause so much water. For me to get to it i had to pull out the ecu and box seal it up gave it a little clean where all the sh#t builds up and then put the ecu back in after sealing the rubber gasket up. So how long do you think it gunna take to dry the carpet out, and in a way im glad its out coz i can now fit my head rest monitors . Oh and is i just me or are other people having trouble with the smileys on the quick reply

 

[audi1664]

Had a look today where my bonnet release cable comes through the bulk head there looks to be silicone where someone has tried previously to repair, i have replaced the grommit today with a water tight one, hopefully all is sorted, thanks all for the help!

 

[theviking]

I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM IT WAS A HOLE UNDER THE BATTERY IT GETS BLOKED WITH CRAP MY BATTERY WAS NEARLY UNDER WATER UNBLOKED IT AND ALL SORTED