water leak at the driver's side

[bobo d]

Hi everybody, On A8L 2003 (D2) I have a large amount of water leaking at the driver's side floor just behind the pedals. When I did a water test the water started leaking inside when I was watering around the wiper blades area. There is no leak from the sunroof area. I am wondering if anybody has experienced a similar problem and help me with solving it. Thanks. JD

[silverd2]

Have you checked to see if there is any standing water in your fresh air plenum under the hood. There's a hidden rain drain, under the center fan intake, that is prone to clogging with leaves etc.
Also, could the water be coming from the side of the center console, next to the driver's right foot and not actually behind the pedals? If so, AC drain could be clogged....sometimes a combo of this and clogged rain drain can allow outside water to actually drain into the AC evap and if it's drain is clogged, it will come out in the front floor.

This link deals with that and the rain drain(bottom of page):
http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articl...tordrains.html

[CoreyDL]

Just a note - this is a very common problem. I received a "maintenance update" from Audi in the mail, with basically every car from 98-05 they made listed. It said that the cars need a drain cleaning maintenance every 40K miles, or water problems can occur.

I think this is one step above denial, and one step under a recall.

Ha!

[silverd2]

Originally Posted by CoreyDL

I think this is one step above denial, and one step under a recall.

Ha!

^^ Very well put. ^^

Yep, I've accepted drain maintenance as a regular part of D2 care. Before I ever cleared my inside AC drains (not very difficult at all), the last straw was turning a corner one day, in mid-summer, and my shoe filled with icy-cold water before I realized what was happening.

The sunroof drains are a whole nother issue. The fronts are easy to clear and less prone to clogging...the rears always clog eventually, are tougher to clear (but do-able) AND tend to go unnoticed, since the front drains take up some of the load. I realized I had a problem when hitting the brakes hard shortly after being parked in heavy rain for a while...all the water from the rear comes rushing forward, the front drains can't handle it, it overflows the sunroof gutters and comes pouring down out of the headliner. You will rarely find an older A8 that does NOT have water stains on the headliner and/or around the windshield pillars, because of this.

[CoreyDL]

Mine doesn't have any stains

[silverd2]

I envy you...mine already had them when I bought the car with just 35K miles on the clock

[CoreyDL]

Originally Posted by silverd2

I envy you...mine already had them when I bought the car with just 35K miles on the clock

That makes me think that yours was not garaged and was parked under a tree or some such.