Wet Weather Drama !!!

[42TT]

Had a last few days of heavy rain and went to the car today to find that the passenger side rear footwell was full of water (right hand drive car).

Now the central locking wont work and the blinkers randomly come on and stay on without flashing while the car isnt running.

I have already disconnected the battery and started drying the rear footwell out but i cant seem to open the doors that are locked with the battery connected or disconnected any ideas?????

Also wat control modules if any are located under the rear passenger side footwell?

And any ideas on how the hell the car got in as no other parts of the interior are wet except for the floor so i can see how the water got in

Thanks
42TT

[jonas21]

ouch that sucks.
as far as i know there are no modules under the rear footwell(s).
they are on the driver and passanger front footwells.

i would suppose that some type of seal/waterproofing on the door has a problem, likely it was already back dry when you saw it. maybe some broken elastic band....they get harder and harder from time to time and then break.

[got boost]

maybe check your sunroof drains. I had one come disconnected in a VW Golf and the floor was wet after rains. I couldnt figure it out for a while because no water marks showed on the headliner or down the pillars. Ended up being water coming down inside the A-pillar and emptying to the floor (like you said, nothing else was wet). I ended up removing/replacing the whole carpet to avoid mold.

[skiwi]

sunroof drains...

[42TT]

Skiwi - What is the best way to check the drains? Also what could have the water penetrated that would cause the central locking to fail and the blinkers/hazard lights stay on while the car is left parked

42TT

[grizz]

42tt ,
I think the central locking control box is under the passenger front seat , when it gets wet it plays up ..
To check the sun roof drains, open the roof, if you look at the front corners of the recess you can see a small hole on either side .
These should be clear , if you are careful you can pour water in to the sunroof surround and it should run away.
I think it comes out behind the wing liner at the bottom of the A post .

[skiwi]

drains can be cleaned. there are 2 forward and 2 rear. the forward ones you should see in the roof at the base of the sunroof. thse exit down the a-pillar and down through the door jam.

you need to clean these by pushing something down them - use the appropriate flexible swg stainless cable - ships chandlers have this sort of thing. the rear drains iirc are not visible from the sunroof, but drain to the rear under the rear bumper cover.

wrt your blinkers - from what you describe, your immobiliser might have triggered and got a little confused. disconnect the battery and leave for a while, reconnect and check for codes/reset and try again...

have you removed & dried the central locking control module? it is in a plastic case under the lhs seat...

[scottmandu]

Check the A/C airbox plenum. Same thing happened to my car (LHD) and i got water in the pass side. The convinence module is located under the carpet on the left side of the car, that probably got soaked and you will need another one, and have to reporgram your keyless entry remotes.

[george h]

I JUST brought my RS6 in for service on this sort of symptom today (water behind driver's seat, sound system not functioning properly, ON Star light not green), and they said it was that the plenum was clogged, and that it's not covered by the warranty!!! What a lot of rot! (right?)

1300 dollars they said. No way...:(

[ilovegt100]

Be aware. All of the a6/rs6/allroad cars have a design defect in the front windshield cowling. If the drains underneath it become clogged- most commonly beneath the battery and between the fluid resevoir, then water builds up and spills into your cabin filter and then onto all the precious electrical bits... then onto the floor and dash inside your car. Ask me how I know this :( Easy fix is to periodically clean the drains and/or remove the rubber grommets at the drain sites to make them bigger. If your cabin filter is nasty then you know why and how you got water inside. Hope this helps.

[gjg]

Be aware. All of the a6/rs6/allroad cars have a design defect in the front windshield cowling. If the drains underneath it become clogged- most commonly beneath the battery and between the fluid resevoir, then water builds up and spills into your cabin filter and then onto all the precious electrical bits... then onto the floor and dash inside your car. Ask me how I know this :( Easy fix is to periodically clean the drains and/or remove the rubber grommets at the drain sites to make them bigger. If your cabin filter is nasty then you know why and how you got water inside. Hope this helps.

this problem existed already on S4/S6 AAN models in 90's ......

[george h]

well, now they admit it is covered under the warranty. at least that!
anyway, I know what to guard against now. Thanks all!

[ThrillHouse]

Be aware. All of the a6/rs6/allroad cars have a design defect in the front windshield cowling. If the drains underneath it become clogged- most commonly beneath the battery and between the fluid resevoir, then water builds up and spills into your cabin filter and then onto all the precious electrical bits... then onto the floor and dash inside your car. Ask me how I know this :( Easy fix is to periodically clean the drains and/or remove the rubber grommets at the drain sites to make them bigger. If your cabin filter is nasty then you know why and how you got water inside. Hope this helps.

Bringing this back up as I am experiencing this now. We did a full exterior detail with paint correction where needed (24 man hours on Saturday split between 3 of us - I'll post a link to the writeup when its complete) and my cabin filter was *soaked* when we cleaned out the engine bay from the initial wash.

How do you clean the drains? Where are they?

[4everRS]

You may need to get a new cowl seal. You can easily inspect this part by pouring water slowly on the windshield and seeing if it enters the cabin filter area. If so, re adjust he cowl seal, but chances are you'll need a new one. There are not really "drains" to worry about here. Just make sure the plastic cowl seal is working.

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab210/crocodile64/Picture001.jpg

[ThrillHouse]

You may need to get a new cowl seal. You can easily inspect this part by pouring water slowly on the windshield and seeing if it enters the cabin filter area. If so, re adjust he cowl seal, but chances are you'll need a new one. There are not really "drains" to worry about here. Just make sure the plastic cowl seal is working.


Yea, the seal looks ok on the windshield. I ordered a new cowl from ECS. Without question, its coming in from there and not sealed properly
http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Rain_Cover/ES373493/

I did find coolant on the ground though. Adding that to the 95k service (first since getting the car 3 weeks ago) I need to schedule.

[ben916]

greg,

http://www.audiusaparts.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=searchCatalogOEM&siteid=215820

[4everRS]

Link doesn't work for me ben, but entered part# to show about 56 bucks, nice find

[ben916]

Link doesn't work for me ben, but entered part# to show about 56 bucks, nice find

The only difference between this site and genuine is sales tax...

[ThrillHouse]

The only difference between this site and genuine is sales tax...

Thanks for the link! Too late now but will certainly help in the future. Getting back into the Audi world since '08 and finding where to source parts again!

[ThrillHouse]

Got the new cowl in along with another new cabin air filter.

Smartly I did buy a wiper arm removal tool (~$15 on ebay). As it was, the driver side needed some alone time with penetrating grease. The cowl that came off literally had nothing to snap into the gasket/seal at the bottom of the windshield. There was a spot at the bottom where that gasket wasn't pressed up/into the windshield too. Pressed that into the windshield and got the new cowl snapped right in. I did find a sensor (had 4 holes on the 'end' that were white) that looks like its suppose to be clipped onto something but it isn't. I took a picture and wrote down the part number and I'll post on that if needed.

That should have cured the soaked HVAC filter issue though, thanks!!

I was thinking that a clogged cabin air filter would help with an annoyance I've had but it hasn't. Granted it was hot today and yesterday but when I put it on ECON, its putting out *real* warm air even when set to 'LO' or lowest at 64*. Noticeably warmer than the outside air. It stays the same if I put it on ECON and Recirculate too. I was thinking that clogged filter would force it to take its air in from the engine instead of actual 'outside'. Its almost as if the inside air temp sensor or outside air temp sensor are sending the wrong signals. I have the HVAC troubleshooting .pdf though so I'll have to go through that after I get a VAG-COM.

Or is that just how the RS6 is? haha

[V8weight]

Sounds like you have a blender door hanging open...You'll know for sure once you get your VCDS cable. Any issues with the HVAC will throw codes in the climate control module.

[ThrillHouse]

Sounds like you have a blender door hanging open...You'll know for sure once you get your VCDS cable. Any issues with the HVAC will throw codes in the climate control module.

Thanks for the direction - I'll have to check that out. I did make sure that the heat is fine and the AC does blow good and cold. Just the ECON that gives me trouble. Is there an easy way to check the actuation of the doors?

I did find info on the mystery sensor. Its the G238 Air Quality sensor but its just kind of laying there. I need to check out the cabin air filter box and see where it mounts to. It looked like the clip snapped off so I hope to get it close to where its suppose to be

[ThrillHouse]

The new cowl and making sure it was sealed up properly to the windshield fixed the issue! We finally had some rain - HVAC filter was bond dry!

No faults found in the HVAC module but it is still blowing warmer than outside air in:

Address 08: Auto HVAC Control Module Part Number: 4B0 820 043 AM Component and/or Version: A6-Klimavollautomat 0105 Software Coding: 00010 Work Shop Code: WSC 00000 No fault code found.


New thread time?
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