Water is leaking into the boot of my A3 Cabriolet and I have no idea where from - PLEASE HELP

thank you for this post!
I got parking sensors fitted so time ago and was hoping to check this vent out back then thinking theyd take the bumper off. They didnt so i have just ignored it until i had the time, tools and better weather to do it but im glad youve said this before i attempted to remove the bumper!
I will, at some stage, have a look into this wheel arch and sort it out.
When i do get round to it i will post here to say what happened.
once again thank you for letting me know about this

Hi there, we have a 2012 Golf Cabriolet (Same Car) we have heard water sloshing around in the back for a few months during the winter, looked in the boot after finding this post this morning and found water in the left hand side like yours. The air vent is stated like yours but the right hand drivers side is fine so is a common fault.

I took out the rubber bungs and drilled four small holes in them to let any future water out, im not taking the number off unless i need to as it has park assist and reverse sensors all over it.

See my photos of the same problem and the holes i drilled in the rubber caps, if it becomes a problem having holes drilled in the caps i will report back to this post.

There was a small puddle in the left handsome which has now drained out, if you zoom in to the picture of the plastic cap you will see the small holes.

The water sloshing around was really bad about 2 months ago in January 2018 but now its stopped so this must have been the problem.

The spare wheel was also wet and a bit rusty so hopefully this problem has now been resolved. They don't make the cars like they used to, our car was brand new and has done less than 30000 from new and has had a few faults, juddering DSG gearbox (Not Resolved), brake servo hose split, ABS rear right wheel sensor broke, now the flood.

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Originally Posted by Malik1

Hi guys

So I brought an A3 cabriolet S Line beginning of August, haven’t had many problems with it, until the weather changed… I normally keep all my footwear in my boot all in their shoe boxes, after a long weekend of rain, Monday morning came and I needed the extra boot space so I moved all the shoe boxes into my house. To my surprise all the shoe boxes at the bottom were destroyed, completely soggy and flimsy and not in use, luckily the trainers are ok however the car is not. It is leaking from somewhere and I have no idea where.

This did happen some time ago and I just kept some of the shoe boxes inside my house and waited for a heavy raining day so I can work out where the leak is coming from. All the times it rained the floor of the boot was damp but wasn’t evident as to where it came from.

Until yesterday, when it snowed, the floor was soaked, see pictures below. The bottom left and right corner seems to be where its coming from, left side being wetter and even possibly the top right corner where the back seats are.

I did run my hand around the walls of the boot to see if they were wet, they weren't. however, the bottom left corner, up at the top (see the last picture for reference) was wet and it could possibly be coming from here.


Attachment 32385Attachment 32386Attachment 32387this last picture is a bit hard to work out but it is the top left-hand side of the boot opening, it's not visible in this picture but it did appear to be wet here.Attachment 32388
I have seen online it could be the backlight fitting not secure, just from looking them seem fine. If any of you could give advice on how to check this that would be great.

I have limited mechanical knowledge but regardless I have no idea where or how the water is getting, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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It is not really the answer to drill holes to let water out it should not be there in the first place I have tried to get access to panel with USB camera to find the leak but very difficult as the hood motor is blocking access I have taken the wheel arch liner off and looked at the drain tube I did post some photographs but they seem to have disappeared, I still have the issue if I only partly close the hood and run water down the hood drain channel I get no water in so the channel is taking the water no leak there, but this was when the wheel arch liner was removed, at that time when running water over the hood no leak into the rear NS corner this was after cleaning out the drain tube so I thought that this had resolved the issue, but it appeared again after replacing the wheel arch cover, there are about 10 screws holding the liner on each having a plastic plug into the body panel so my thoughts are that the water might be coming in through one of these or that the sealing of the drain tube is not quite right so I will start the process over again to try and get it resolved. My local Audi wanted £700 to strip the back of the car out just to tell me how much it would cot to repair.
It's a difficult problem there are only a few post with this issue, so no real definitive fix and know one seems to finish off posts on a positive note, I keep the car covered now in some respects it keeps it clean and our local cats do not sit on the soft top any more so it's a fine day car lucky we have. I will readdress the issue and intend to seal all drain tubes and plastic fixing plugs which take the screws of the wheel arch liner and hope that cures the issue.

Hi Westo,

Did you ever fix this? Exact same problem as you on a 2012 Mk6 convertible.

Had the wheel arch liner out, checked for blockages, removed sill bungs, tightened the roof channel/drain gutter and sealed the gaps to the body with sealant.

But water still collects in rear left of boot near roof motor, absolutely stumped now...

Get a torch get in the boot and have someone spray a hose over it.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Hi,

Done that, running down the top of the wheel arch as the sound deadening gets wet before pooling in the rear quarter.

Suggests escaping from the NS drain gutter somehow, however have liberally sealed and cannot see obvious point it's escaping from.

Direct access to the gutter/drain is poor without removing fabric roof.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mpprogers

Hi,

Done that, running down the top of the wheel arch as the sound deadening gets wet before pooling in the rear quarter.

Suggests escaping from the NS drain gutter somehow, however have liberally sealed and cannot see obvious point it's escaping from.

Direct access to the gutter/drain is poor without removing fabric roof.

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Read my post above had the same problem A3 Cabriolet is the same car as Golf convertible

Read my post above it cured the problem

Thanks Steve, it sounds like you drilled holes in the bung to allow the water to drain away, assume its still leaking in from somewhere though?

Or are you saying it was coming in through the rear vent visible inside the rear quarter?

I have just noticed dampness on the left side on my boot on my 2013 S Line A3. I have only just noticed it so this is a new fault, I quickly lifted the boot liner and while it's not Saturated, is is damp under there. It's been too wet to have a thorough look but I plan to today. There's I really do look after my car and in particular the hood and regularly clean and proof so I'll see what I find today.

There's always something with cars, last year there was a faulty wire in the door panel so the hood wouldn't open, it too the autoelectrition 2 days to find it.