Water flooding into the rear seat (driver side) through floor vents.

[funkymillah]

For the past two days, it has been raining like theres no tomorrow in New Jersey. It finally started to settle down this afternoon.

So I am leaving for an afternoon class, I get in the car and my driver side carpet is completely drenched. I have no idea how this happen, but since I am already running late, I ignore it and start driving. As soon as I pull out of my driveway, I hear water splashing behind me. I look back and theres a whole pool of water sitting on the rear seat (driver side). So I skip school, park my car and start draining the water out of my car using a cup :( I must have drained about a gallon or so of water but the water just keeps on coming.

I am absolutely sure no windows were open. My doors seal perfectly. My sunroof has no cracks or leaks and THIS HAS NEVER happened before (and I've sit through much worse rain storms). And my car had been sitting in the driveway for the last 48 hours so I am sure its not from the A/C or something.

I took the car to Audi and they said I have to set up an appointment to EVEN GET THIS checked out and its gonna run somewhere between $120-$180 to just diagnose the problem.

I have attached some pictures:

I did a small test to see exactly where the water was coming from so I taped a plastic bag on the 2 vents in the pictures below. Drove the car around for a bit. Came back to find the bag filled with water. So I am pretty certain that the water is seeping into the rear floor from the 2 vents under the driver seat.

Also, if I do some sudden acceleration or braking, I can hear a lot (and I mean like a whole pool) of water swishing under the seat, just running back and forth during acceleration and braking.

I also checked the drain under the battery and it looks clean.Can someone tell me what the problem might be? I am getting desperate here.

[old guy]

There is another plenum drain besides the one underneath the battery. Be sure to check the one located underneath the ECU box/brake booster area. Clicky click

[Greedo]

What about the sunroof drain plugs? I haven't a clue where those dump their water too, but I know they can be an issue.

[old guy]

What about the sunroof drain plugs? I haven't a clue where those dump their water too, but I know they can be an issue.

Sunroof drains are also covered in the link provided.

[Greedo]

Sunroof drains are also covered in the link provided.

Next time I should check the link!

[funkymillah]

Thanks for the link. I will do everything in that thread tomorrow and report back. Appreciate it.

[A4Dit]

I had the same issue you are describing. The water is coming in from one of those plenums, your first priority should be to diagnose which one it is. Getting rid of the water under the carpet will do you no good if you cant stop it from coming in. Secondly, you must pull up the carpet in the driver side floorboard. The swishing water you are hearing is actually a pool of water like you were thinking, your floorboard is recessed like a bowl and once water is in there it can not come out, the swishing around causes it to get soaked into the carpet. You can dry them as many times as you want and it will not do anything, I learned that the hard way. When I pulled up my carpet I found maybe 2 gallons of water underneath my floor. Once I removed the water with a shop vac I propped the carpet up and stuck a heavy duty shop fan towards it and turned it one. It dried the carpet and padding in about 4 hours. Hope this helps.

[funkymillah]

I had the same issue you are describing. The water is coming in from one of those plenums, your first priority should be to diagnose which one it is. Getting rid of the water under the carpet will do you no good if you cant stop it from coming in. Secondly, you must pull up the carpet in the driver side floorboard. The swishing water you are hearing is actually a pool of water like you were thinking, your floorboard is recessed like a bowl and once water is in there it can not come out, the swishing around causes it to get soaked into the carpet. You can dry them as many times as you want and it will not do anything, I learned that the hard way. When I pulled up my carpet I found maybe 2 gallons of water underneath my floor. Once I removed the water with a shop vac I propped the carpet up and stuck a heavy duty shop fan towards it and turned it one. It dried the carpet and padding in about 4 hours. Hope this helps.

Thank you for this. Its definately coming from the pair of plenums under the driver seat. Are you suggesting I should check to see which one (of the two) its coming from? Are they linked to different sources? I can definately tell that there is a lot of water down below the carpet. How can I take this carpet off? Is it possible to remove it without ripping it off?

Finally if there is anything you can tell me about how / what could've caused this? I will run all the water tests suggested earlier by old guy in this thread. Just wondering what caused it to happen with yours.

Once again I really appreciate all the responses in this thread. I love the Audizine community.

[old guy]

The plenums A4Dit are referring to are the ones located in the firewall area of the engine bay. You stated that you already checked the plenum drain underneath the battery. The other one is located underneath the brake booster / ECU box area. I suspect that is the one causing your problem.

[funkymillah]

Ok. First off. Thank to everyone who responded in this thread - Old guy, Greedo. I ran all the tests in the DIY link and the sun roof drains were working perfectly fine. Then I proceeded to do the engine bay and "under the battery" test and the water was barely dripping under the car so I figured it was time remove the battery and clean it up.

Earlier when I said I checked under the battery, I used a small pipe camera I have and assumed everything was fine (I couldnt really see much tbh).

So I removed the battery and the battey holding plate and I saw a whole bunch of leaves and other stuff. I cleaned it out. The drain under the brake booster assembly was also clogged, but I was able to clear that using my hand without having to remove it. Now the water is flowing through the drains freely :) and I guess we'll just have to wait and watch. If I missed something, please feel free to point it out.

Now for the really hard part. Theres still a huge water pool under my rear seat carpet. I managed to lift the carpet a little bit (it was completely drenched underneath and plenty of water) by removing the plastic on the driver side door but it seems like the seat will have to come off for the carpet to be full removed. Also I am pretty certain that most of the water pool is contained to the rear seat (behind the driver). Does anyone know of a DIY on this?

Here an image of the cleaned drain plenum. Cheers. Thanks again.
PS The arrow indicates the location of the other drain

[old guy]

Pick up a Stanley Blower fan from Lowes for around $40. Sop up what you can with a shop vac and then use the fan. Aim it at the carpet overnight (windows open). It should do the trick.

[diagnosticator]

If there is water in the rear seat floor under the carpet, there is also a lot of water forward of the driver's seat under the carpet. The pooled water must be removed completely or the car won't dry out for a long time, and mold and mildew can start growing that is hard to cleanup.