Water pooling in nearside rear passenger footwell

[mikeybutch]

I telephoned my local Audi dealer in Leicester and in Derby to try to find out if a cover was missing. Both their answers were the same, "Book the car in to our service deopartment and we will have a look". The VW dealer in Leicester was much more helpful, he emailed the page from the spares maual and from that I could see that there is no separate cover for the pollen filter. It did however show that the water deflector that fits to the bottom of the windscreen ( No 32 in drawing) is held in place by three clips (No 35 in drawing). The clips were missing from my car and there was a 2-3mm gap between in and the windscreen. I assume that the water deflector had worked loose over time because there was nothing to hold it down. Water was getting behind the water deflector and dripping straight onto the pollen filter. This problem had clearly existed for some time and made worse every time I washed the car with a hose pipe.
My thanks to all who have commented on my problem and to the Forum for inspiration to find the answer.
Attachment 15268

Glad you have got an answer what a pain!!!

[Sceptre]

I've got the same issue with a 2001 A3 where water from the windscreen drips via a drain channel into the Pollen filter. There seems to be a drain channel for the windscreen right over the pollen filter housing. Since a certain amount of water will always get down there, it seems the only solution is a cover for the pollen filter but this car does not have one. Seems to be a poor design all right.

[mikeybutch]

I've got the same issue with a 2001 A3 where water from the windscreen drips via a drain channel into the Pollen filter. There seems to be a drain channel for the windscreen right over the pollen filter housing. Since a certain amount of water will always get down there, it seems the only solution is a cover for the pollen filter but this car does not have one. Seems to be a poor design all right.

My son has an S3 an hasnt got a problem so I will have alook to see what that has

[Chris1573]

Just to add to this, I had a similar problem and initially it turned out to be the rear washer hose disconnected in the front footwell just in front of the passenger door a-pillar. However I then started to have more issues when we had the really wet December weather. I found the battery compartment was blocked up with leaf waste so cleaned that out allowing the water to drain. Then I STILL had issues with water getting into the passenger footwell. It was then that I realised that I was not locating the trim panel that goes across the bulkhead / battery compartment correctly when putting it all back together, it needed to slide into the grove fully and mine was sitting on top. So after a brief spell of swearing I put it together properly and no problems since.

One Very red face here ;-)))

[WhiteyAR]

Just to also add to this thread, I thought I had resolved all my water leaks about 18 months ago, I had removed both plenum drains and bought a new pollen filter housing which I fitted with silicon around it and thought I had fixed any leaks. Unfortunately what I had not done was fitted the wiper scuttle trim panel (part 32 above) that clips into the groove at the base of the windscreen correctly. As this was not fitted tightly water had been running underneath this. This is not an issue (from a leaking point of view) apart from where the water runs onto the top of the actual pollen filter, soaks through and runs into the fan housing then down into the car and nicely underneath the carpet. Hence I did not spot this until I recently lifted up the rubber mat in the passenger footwell and it was wet underneath.

So I pulled everything apart, luckily not too much water under the carpet, and did a water test to see the water running under the scuttle straight onto the pollen filter and eventually into the car. This would only occur in very heavy rain and as I always park the car sloping downwards, it seems I have been lucky and not too much water has got in.

Anyway, after much googling and attempting to refit the wiper scuttle panel, I could not get it to seat correctly in the groove. I gave up and popped over to my friendly local Audi specialist. They told me what I already knew apart from the fact they said you need to clean out the actual groove on the bottom of the windscreen the trim panel clips into.

So this morning I cleaned the gunk out of the groove and the trim panel clipped nicely into the groove and the problem is now solved.

Someone mentioned there is a risk of breaking the windscreen when doing this, well I would say you would need to be pretty ham fisted to do that!

Anyway, I thought I would update this thread with this, as I could not find anything about it on the net and I imagine there are plenty that are not clipped in correctly and it must be very easy to dislodge this panel when removing the larger scuttle cover (over the battery etc) that clips into it.

cheers
Whitey

[micheal balbrig]

The scuttle may be a little easier to fit if warmed a small bit,especially in this cold weather
And if not fitted correctly it does cause problems with water entry as you have discovered.

Thanks for sharing.