Wet rear passenger footwell

[Nanz]

Hi all

I've searched the forums but can't seem to find a relevant answer. In the last couple of months, mostly after heavy rain, I am getting a wet footwell in the back seats of the car on the passenger side. I have a 2006 A3 Sportback 2.0 TFSI.

Ive checked the front passenger and drivers side as well as the rear drivers side footwells and they are all dry.

I lifted up the carpet where the vents are and put my hand in and the foam and carpet are completely soaked. I don't have a sunroof.

I did notice today that the bottom door seals are broken so ill replace those, but does any know how / why this particular footwell is getting wet and what I can possibly do to stop this happening?

 

[NHN]

Check rear light is sealed & check boot side for water.

 

[Nanz]

Check rear light is sealed & check boot side for water.

Thanks NHN, I checked the inner boot, no visible signs of leaking or dampness, ill have another good look at the rear light.

 

[Nanz]

Check rear light is sealed & check boot side for water.

Had loads of rain overnight and I took out the spare wheel in the boot. What do you know, there is a massive puddle of water in it.

How would water be getting into the spare wheel space, via the rear lights?

 

[kudi009]

There are quite a few threads on the forum along the lines of 'water in boot' and most of the time people strip out the boot and find the source like a perished seal or missing clip or something, I'd go down that route. Given the amount of water collecting it should be pretty obvious.

 

[Nanz]

Also noticed that the rear left brake light housing is not sitting in properly, one of the clips inside the housing is broken and the rubber grommet that the clip goes into in the body seems to have deteriorated as well. Looks like I'll have to buy a new housing and find a grommet so that it sits properly.

Managed to get a rug doctor today and pulled up as much water as I could, I was surprised by how much was there, I must of spent an hour, but its still very wet. Got my phone camera under the carpet as best as I could and can see a puddle of water sloshing around under the carpet.

Next thing to do is get the carpet up and dry the excess water.

 

[emerleh]

Also noticed that the rear left brake light housing is not sitting in properly, one of the clips inside the housing is broken and the rubber grommet that the clip goes into in the body seems to have deteriorated as well. Looks like I'll have to buy a new housing and find a grommet so that it sits properly.

Managed to get a rug doctor today and pulled up as much water as I could, I was surprised by how much was there, I must of spent an hour, but its still very wet. Got my phone camera under the carpet as best as I could and can see a puddle of water sloshing around under the carpet.

Next thing to do is get the carpet up and dry the excess water.

Hi Nanz,

I just wondered if you managed to dry the carpet out and if so how? I’ve got an Audi TT and my rear passenger footwell was soaking, took it to a garage and hopefully they’ve fixed the issue but I need to dry the footwell out to see, my thought was the blast the hair dryer on it but not sure if that will work or how long it would take, wondered how and if you managed to dry yours in the end?

 

[Nanz]

Hi Nanz,

I just wondered if you managed to dry the carpet out and if so how? I’ve got an Audi TT and my rear passenger footwell was soaking, took it to a garage and hopefully they’ve fixed the issue but I need to dry the footwell out to see, my thought was the blast the hair dryer on it but not sure if that will work or how long it would take, wondered how and if you managed to dry yours in the end?

Hey Emerleh

I just hired a rug doctor from Tesco with the upholstery attachment and then spent a few hours trying to extract as much water as I could. I reckon I got about 3+ litres out. I tried putting a dehumidifier in there as well but that didn't really work. I've now got some of those car dehumidifier bags (from Amazon) to see if it can extract the rest.

 

[Nanz]

I thought I'd post an update. It works out that the issue was the missing rubber grommet in the rear light housing, this was the entry point of water getting into the car. I've put in a new rear light housing (which has a broken clip) and a put in a new rubber grommet and the leaking has stopped. No more water is getting into spare wheel space and its dry under the passenger footwell after extracting what i could with the wet vac.