I posted this question in the general trouble shooting area, because I wasn't sure where it would be best - seems more of a general questions to me.


Hi All,

I'm hoping you can help shed some light on a disturbing problem.

About a month ago, I noticed after a weekend of heavy rainfall, while driving the couple hundred miles back home, there was a sound like water gurgling behind the dashboard/center of the console and occasional spitting of water out of the A/C vents. Some drips onto the foot on the gas pedal too. I am not sure if the gurgling and occasional drips ever entirely went away, as we were having a lot of rainfall.

Then hurricane Irene came, in the early am on Sunday. Sunday afternoon my boyfriend got into the car and headed for the airport. When he came to a hard stop, he describes a sound as if a wall of water were coming at him (from behind the dash?) - he is hard of hearing and did not hear the sound I heard on the way home from PA, so this must have been loud - then the foot wells of the passenger compartment flooded with water. 3"-4" of water. The car stalled out once and restarted then stalled a second time and would not start.

We each bailed out as much water as we could and used some towels to try to dry the car. When I returned to the car the next day it seemed as though more water had seeped into the car. Still it would not start.

On Tuesday I towed the car back to my house. Water streamed from the car as he pulled it onto the flatbed. I bought an upright Bissel carpet cleaner with a wand and used the hand wand to remove 3 tanks of water. I did not even try to start it anymore.

On Saturday, when he removed the backseat, my boyfriend found standing water and he also found some more water in the footwell of the rear passenger side.

We took out the rubber piece that slides into the groove by the firewall and snaps onto the shroudy thing (if you know what I mean) to see if we could pull out some leaves. There was a chunk of leaves on the passenger side but I could not remove any significant amount of leaves from the drivers side. I have heard that there is some kind of drainage that can be interfered with if it gets clogged with leaves but where is it exactly and how does one tell if it is clogged? And would this account for all this water? I thought there should be drain holes on the floor boards?

The last time the car was to the shop, the guy removed the dashboard to tinker with the CEL - could something not have been replaced properly or what-have-you that could account for the water?

The "gasket" thing thing that goes around the filler tube or the gas tank tore off - is there any way that water could seep in through that?

Nothing was left open - sunroof and doors were all shut tightly. The back-back of the wagon and the tire compartment were free of water and the place with the least amount of water was the front passenger side foot well.

Oh, the car is a 1997 A6 Wagon Quattro. There is a CEL code in the system of P1505 for the idle stabilizer. It's idling even more horribly now that it was flooded.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Sherry

 

What you describe is not a pretty picture. I believe some important electronics sit under the passenger floor and if they get wet, bad things happen. There was a TSB for my A6 pertaining to clogged drains in the sunroof. I can forward it to you if you email me at jjaiven@chartermi.net. If you don't have a sunroof, then ignore this.

 

If its coming from behind the dash initially then id check under your battery there is a drain hole in there where the water should run out of but this sometimes gets filled with leaves and such like and may not be able to drain away and thus find a channel to drain to just a thought.

 

ALSO! Check your drain for the AC condenser thinger (which is right behind the glove box). See more here: http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=1675861

 

Thanks! I do have a sunroof.

 

Do you mean there is a drain hole under the battery under the backseat?

 

There is a drain hole under the battery. There are lots of detailed vids on YouTube that will walk you thru step by step. Until u get that cleaned, do whatever u have to and make sure the front carpets are dry. The moduleS that lies underneath are very expensive!

 

the tcm is a killer . i was thinking of cualking a panel over the area to prevent this very thing from happening

 

Unfortunately, water in these cars is common. I can't really help you the dash issue but I went through the same deal with standing water inside the cabin. It's very likely a substantial portion of the water is entering the cabin through your sunfoof drain tubes which become clogged/cracked over time. There are numerous posts/remedies here in the forum. In my case the two rear drain tubes were completely clogged and I ended up removing all the interior trim and was stunned at the amount of water. It caused a multitude of probblems with the TCM/ECM which was full of water. Thankfully I was able to remove all the water and dry the interior completely and the vehicle is fine now.

Good luck to you, just another in the never-ending list of common Audi "quirks".

 

I had no idea this was a common problem. My other two older (80/84) never had this problem...well now that I think of it, I lived in So Cal then so they never had to deal with substantial rain so I guess I can't say they never had this problem. Yes, they had issues with the sunroof getting stuck open. Pinche sunroof. If I could ever afford to buy a new one I would opt out of the sunroof!!


Thanks for the information on the sunroof drains. I'm pretty convinced this is the problem at least part of the problem. I'm going to have to search to see if I can find directions for unclogging them. Unfortunately, it hasn't stopped raining in a week. We're lucky when it slows down enough to drag the carpet cleaner out there to suck up the puddles. My boyfriend has made good use of the Sham Wows that he had to have! LOL



Yes, I'm wondering why I love my Audi's so much, when they have so many quirks. ...