Hi
Thought I'd post an update on my efforts to try and rectify a occasional rain/water leak in my A4 2007 Cab which drips from the area at the top front of the front side windows, very close to the complex seal arrangement where the roof meets the top of the windscreen. The leak manifests its self as a load of drips on both seats / door armrests etc... seems to be only in torrential downpours and could happen either side. Parking downhill may make it worse.. not sure..
It seems to me the seal arrangement is getting 'overloaded' with large volumes of water.
Searching this and other forums I suspect I am not alone here so this summary may help others.
Firstly open the roof and you will see 4 front drain holes which you will need to check are clear and not blocked with dirt etc.... I used an airline with fine nozzle attachment to get the tip of the nozzle into the drain holes. However (sadly), mine were 100% clear hence my earlier post here. For reference I attach two images (with 2 skewers showing the drain hole locations at the top, and me pointing to the drain exits with the doors open).
I am 100% sure both channels are clear but am now paranoid there every time it rains I'll wake to find another load of drips on both seats / door armrests etc...
My action plan right now (after trawling the web / forums etc) are:
1) Bought AutoGlym roof cleaner & treatment today from Halfords which is drying on the car as we speak
2) Next step will buy seal lubricant to oil all the seals to see if that re-juvinates them (Krytox GPL 105 - see
How To Krytox Purchasing Details - UK .... not sure if there is an Audi equivalent). If the seals are dry (not lubricated), they will be quite hard, not pliable and will not tightly conform to the window / roof edge when the window is rolled up / roof closed. To lubricate seals, put the lubricant on your finger, then rub it in. If a seal looks deformed, rub lots of lubricant on it, and keep rubbing the seal until it ‘rehydrates’.
If my forum-searching is correct this should be done as general maintenance to keep the seals supple... if this does work I shall be doing mine at least once a year, or sooner if the seals appear to harden again.
3) If it still leaks will replace front seal and (probably) get Audi to adjust roof / front catches to spec. The seal between the roof and the windscreen needs to sit flush apparently (mine is 2-3mm tighter on one side than the other). There is an adjustment procedure on the workshop manual but I have attached the procedure and copied info from another source here:
"Finally got round to doing this after another small drip incident over the xmas holidays. I was nervous about removing the rubber seal but it wasn't difficult to do once all the screws holding the black metal retaining plate were loosened.
Instructions attached do not explain how to loosen the plastic trim that hides the "gubbins" which is held on by 4 typically audi super strength clips which need a lot of force to loosen.
Once the mechanism was exposed, it seemed clear to me that I shouldn't touch the adjustable rods that control the latches as these are clearly marked with red paint to show correct adjustment. I was trying to get the roof to sit further forward on the driver's side when shut, so I loosened the allen key bolts holding the black latch plate to the rest of the roof and pushed the plate backwards on its slots relative to the front edge of the roof.
Re-assembly was straight forward except for the fact that while doing a a minor re-adjustment of the replaced rubber something I did something with the roof that caused the whole electric mechanism to stop working (along with the central locking to the boot). Luckily it was just a roof sensor that I was able to re-set thanks to the excellent Matthew Brenengen instructions here- How to Manually Operate 2005 B6 Audi S4 Convertible Top - YouTube"
Hope this helps and pulls various bits of info together in one place.
Would appreciate any comments on this topic (specifically regarding the top front seal rather than other leak issues) and more advice!!! (I write this during the wettest winter in 130-ish years so with a bit of luck the sun may be out soon!)
Cheers
James