Potential serious issue with car I have just purchased. Thoughts on rejecting it??

[Tinytimbo]

Can the foam seal around the light be replaced? it appears to be stuck to the light with what I guess is double sided tape.

just about to give the car another wash so we'll see what happens.

[MarkTM]

Call a dealer and check out the price/availability.

I did notice that a previous owner of my prefacelift saloon had applied silicon to the inner vertical edge (where the light cluster meets the bodywork) and as a result I've never had any water ingress in my 34 months of ownership.

Personally I'd not reject the car if that's the only fault and if you got it at a bargain price.

[Sam]

It's quite a common issue too; A6 Avant - water in the boot lid

[B5NUT]

I would just replace the seals around the 2 lower lights (they are around £12 each and the high level light (they are know to fail anyway) and ask the seller to cover the cost. But I would not be getting rid of that car just for that little fault.

[Schmittster]

Rather than do it yourself, take it to the nearest dealership and ask for a quote for replacing the seals on all the lights then ask the previous owner if he is happy to pay. At least you will get audi's guarantee for the parts/workmanship which should give you piece of mind for at least a couple of years.

Edit to add:- While its at the dealership why not ask if there are any software upgrades that need doing (normally free).

[Tinytimbo]

Thanks for all the info guys. I guess although it could be classed as a small issue (as long as I can find and fix the fault) it could turn in to a big issue if I can't ever get to the bottom of it.

I'm going to get to the dealer and get the foam seals around the light clusters replaced.

Does anyone have a guide on how to get to the high level brake light? The two side ones were nice and easy but this one looks harder to get to.

[Tinytimbo]

Quick update. Water is still getting in.

only discovered this after the car had been out in the rain at night.

so I now suspect it isn't getting in through the rear lights.

weird thing is I had blasted the rear of the car with the hose pipe for a good few minutes and no water ingress, but left out all night in the rain and it's got in.

its got me thinking it could be the seal around the rear window along the bottom??? Water does seem to sit there.

i don't think it's the lights as I can't see the pressure of rain causing them an issue especially when they don't let water in when blast at a horizontal angle with a hose pipe. If anything they'd leak when doing that.

any more info of suspect areas to check?

[micheal balbrig]

Maybe a bit radical,but if all else fails you could try a vegetable dye when it is raining and investigate to see where water entry is

[Boris1239]

Could it be the actually boot lid seal letting by?

[Doctle Odd]

My 1st thought when you started this thread was to return the car. Water ingress in the rear can be simple to repair or it can be the result of a rear end collision and be a painful expensive repair.