Audi A6 Avant Lower Door Mould Rust/Bubbling

[AudiAvantAwx]

IMAG2503[1].jpgIMAG2504[1].jpg

Probably been mentioned or said before
Noticed slight rust/bubbling on leading edge of bottom of both front doors
Removed all lower door mouldings of the 4 doors on my car
Found lots of muck/Crud
Cleaned to find that on all 4 doors the moulding has been rubbing against paint,Caused paint to flake exposing the metal,moisture and water has caused rust bubbling
Clearly a design flaw by audi,Mouldings must have slight movement
Might have caught it early enough to treat

Just warning people to check their own cars

Cheers

1.9tdi Avant Awx 2002 332,000 KMs

[JMR1]

From the pics, I'd say that its a case of insufficient paint thickness on the very edge of the door, and you can see it all along the door edge. Normally, you don't get rust bubbles from a loose moulding, even if there is a lot of crud underneath it, unless the original paint work was poor even before the moulding was fitted...Best to clean it, and put a coat of primer on the exposed paintwork under the mouldings. touch it up with top coat, and replace the mouldings. For the edges, touch up with primer and top coat, and that should stop the rust from spreading any further..Plus there is a coat of hard wearing heavy duty material sprayed on the lower sills, you can check this by rubbing your hand along the sills and feel the roughness, it looks like orange peel finish. In some vehicles, this coating can be found along the lower part of the doors too.
Hope that this helps,
All the Best, Jim.

[zollaf]

15 year old car, design flaw ??? lol, seriously.

[AudiAvantAwx]

Id agree with you there jim,insufficient paint thickness and before i purchased the car it had no mud flaps which would stop road debris taking the edge of door
I am going to do that when the weather picks up a bit
Thanks for the feedback

[AudiAvantAwx]

Exact same on all 4 doors zollaf
4 drains on bottom all full of muck/Crud
Moulding moving and rubbing
Perfect condtions for rust with paint flaking exposing bare metal
Should have used an altenative method of holding mouldings to door
Check your own A6 C5 if you have one

[zollaf]

its a 15 year old car. if the drains are full of crud then clean them out, thats not the fault of the car , is it ? but the car has lasted 15 years, you dont see many other cars that are 15 years olf cos most have been scrapped due to falling apart. if the car was 3 years old then yes, you could call it a design fault, but its not, its 15.

[AudiAvantAwx]

I did clean them out,was like cleaning out an elephants zoo enclosure
I am sure cars that were 3 year old suffered with this problem especially on roads that were heavily salted,You would want to remove mouldings every 6 months to clean them
Its a great car i am not complaining about it
Mechanical side will way outlast the body
Was only letting people know of this problem if they intend on keeping an A6 C5

[ceilidhalfie]

My 2002 Allroad has just had its front two doors replaced. I have two rear breaker replacents in my garage for respray and fitting in August when I get back to UK.
Now I have to say when I First got my Allroad from new, I did notice all the crud getting trapped in the bottom of the door moulds - between rubber seal and the door mould. Now this area is not near the actual metal door - in fact when I replaced the two front doors, I could not see ANY drain holes! The mould fits into holes in the bottom of the door and mould is then 'locked in place' by moving it towards the door hinge.
In my case, I think it is simply condensation over the 15 years I have had the car - down in France over the summer sitting under a wisteria pergola where temp can soar, can rain lots and can be humid.
The annoying thing, it is only removal of two screws to remove the interior door trim and you can then see the full interior bottom of the door. If I had known this it would have been easy to prevent this RUST FROM THE INSIDE happening.
AS YOU SAID, GO CHECK YOUR DOORS NOW!

[AudiAvantAwx]

I am going to treat mine as soon as i can,I will take pictures of the 4 mouldings when they are of the car
Mine are fixed the same way,2 Screws at either end to hold in place,however there is still slight movement,Perhaps a long bead of silicone on the top and bottom would stop the movement
They were a pig to remove because there was so much crud in the drain channel at bottom of the door,took a a few heavy hits with the side of my hand to budge them
Will check mine from the inside also to see if the rust has gone to far
Cheers for the tip

[AudiAvantAwx]

For anyone intrested in this thread,link to show the door blade rust

Lower door doorblade rusting - AudiWorld Forums