Where on Earth does it all come from!
 

I thought I was on top of my various drains issues, having had a fair few I know what signs to look for etc. and how to deal with them.

My last trip out in the S8 (before today) was to Goodwood for the V-power breakfast meet last Sunday. Now that was a ridiculously wet day, but using the car for a couple of local journeys in the afternoon in the sun all seemed OK.

Since then it's been parked (outside) unused and there has been a fair bit of rain.............
(But I hadn't noticed any significant telltale signs of condensation on the glass)

Got in this morning and reversed out, rear end downhill and SLOOSH! :eek:
The NSR footwell had a good inch of water above the carpet, and the rear centre vents were spraying water everywhere, mostly from the nearside one.
Didn't have time to do anything, so just had to live with huge sloshes of water coming out over our feet at every corner, though I did go round a few fairly aggressively to get out as much as I could.

Cleared out as best I could at our destination (100 miles away) and am now home drying out what I can. I have checked the scuttle drains and they're totally clear and dry when I looked - pour water in and it comes straight though under the car.

So it's apparently blocked aircon condenser drains (again!) so I'll clear those out ASAP on a fine day.
But I'm mystified as to how so much water could have got into them in just a week when the car is parked so no condensate from the aircon.
The wooden footboard over the electrics panel is wet from the bottom up, so it's presumably not water getting in through Botangs hole.

Any thoughts people?

I had similar trouble. I can't remember where exactly but there was a crack in the intake for the aircon if I remember correctly. Rain water was entering in directly through it. I'm sorry to say it took a large amount of work to correct.

I guess I'll clear the drains and then put tubes/bottles on the outlets from the condenser tray, hose the windscreen and see what happens.

Funny thing is, in recent weeks I've had more occasions of small seeds (look like birch) coming out of the vents at times.
http://www.wildyorkshire.co.uk/natur.../birchseed.jpg
Not from anywhere I've been so maybe a legacy that are slowly working through the HVAC and ending up blocking the drains.

These type of seeds are a real problem for me too. They get everywhere in the car. I have a Silver Birch, two huge Lime trees and a Copper Beech in the garden/road next to the house and every autumn is a battle. Big leaves are not a problem but these little blighters get into everthing. :(

The nearest tree to where I park is an Oak. No acorns have been found anywhere in the car. :ROFL: There is a silver birch in the area, but it's between 2 back gardens at least 50 yards away and my house is in between it and the car.

As the sun is out I'm letting a combination of car greenhouse effect and solar sunroof ventilation do the drying work for now. I'll have a look at the drains a bit later.

Interesting. I took the nearside drain out - easier to get at and as my drive has a slight slope it's the "downhill" one.
A good 700ml of slightly-coloured water came out of the condenser tray.

I then took the orange drain pipe indoors to inspect. It looked ok at first glance, but was definitely blocked.
The exit tip was clear, I'd trimmed it back a bit previously so the slots were open about 3mm anyway. I think the blockage was in the "horizontal" pipe section, it blew out very easily.

I collected the bits. It was plant debris, all quite small only 1mm or 2mm along/across. About half was unidentifiable black woody/seedy material and the rest was those blasted seeds!

It obviously settles in the tubes as water dribbles through and slowly builds up until blocked. I can't think of any obvious way to stop that so I guess it will just have to be a regular maintenance job.

Still need to work out how the excess water/debris arrives there though. :Confused:

Having had a look under the bonnet and taken the access panels off in the scuttle/wiper area I think it's just a legacy of earlier owners.
There are (were ;) ) little lumps of debris, including those seeds, absolutely everywhere so there's probably a fair number inside the HVAC system as well.
I might look at putting some finer mesh on the grille over the main air intake in case the filters are somehow being bypassed.

I'll clear out the drivers side drain at some future date; I need to go in there soon anyway to finish off my various RNS add-ons.

I find that a wet VAX machine is the right tool for clearing all that crud out. +++ I have done this fairly regularly due to the local conditions here (i.e. raining frequently and HUGE amounts of leaf / seed debris and (tempting fate here :o ) I havent had a problem since the first time I had a wet carpet problem about 2 years ago.

This is what I found inside the passenger side drain, I expect a fair bit of it came inside originally when the scuttle drains were blocked:

you might want to look at THIS THREAD and also THIS ONE for how Guy resolved his when it did the same as yours into the rear +++

I'd forgotten about that trick with the bottle and pipe to empty the centre, but having left it open and blowing (spraying!) for a long journey that has dried out now.
It's only the rear carpets that now have any significant dampness and silica gel bags are good for that.

All the drains are checked and clear (except drivers side condenser tray TBD) including the wheel arch and scuttle.
So it's just a matter of finishing drying out now and putting stuff back. Not ideal weather. :(

Drivers side condenser drain came out today, same sort of crud inside with birch seeds predominating. :(
No water ran from the tray so the other side (slightly lower where parked) is working OK. :cool:

It's all pretty dry now, with the help of a couple of 500gram bags of silica gel. It's not obvious how well they are working as the indicator strips with them are difficult to interpret, so I've taken to weighing them on kitchen scales.

This seems to be a good guide not just on how much water they've absorbed, but even more so when they've dried out again sitting on my central heating boiler.

The car seems dry, no condensation and no damp smells, nonetheless the bags soaked up about 25 grams of water overnight sitting in the rear footwells. I'll have them there as much as possible doing their thing from now on.

Good to hear its clearing up. The residual problem is often the damp smell that seems to linger. You now need to:

1. Cut down all the trees.
2. Get Ainar (or someone else good with electronics) to devise a moisture level sensor in the drain/carpet area to bring up an alarm on the DIS.
3. Clear the drains on a regular basis.

+++

Glad to hear its coming good +++

In reverse order, I think ;)

I was wondering if it was possible to rig up some small diameter tubing leading to and pointing into the drains, but not blocking them, that was accessible for squirting from an air duster or similar.

Its not a bad idea, but do you think squirting water down a blocked tube will be enough to clear it.

The other week when I did the sunroof drains on mine it took a fair bit of pumping the killaspray bottle which was sealed on the end of the drain tube to get the crud to clear itself

I was thinking air. ;) And yes, based on the many blockages I've seen a regular preventive squirt will blow out most if not all of what accumulates before it blocks.

These bloody seeds keep appearing inside the car. :angry2:
I can only assume it's a legacy of previous owners lack of attention and they're emerging from various nooks and crannies of the ventilation system/ducts as they slowly dry out.

I had a look under the bonnet today, which all appears bone dry, and noticed some of these seeds on the underside of the mesh grille over the ECU area; cabin air is drawn up through that to the filter in the bonnet.
The filters themselves are fairly clean (quite new) with no seeds visible on them so I guess they're trapped under the perforated cover.
I just blew through the mesh and a whole cloud of the damned things jetted out from the sides of the cover and thankfully blew away in the breeze.
Clearly there are still some hidden away under there; I'm guessing when the scuttle drains were blocked they overflowed into the car and the condenser tray, blocking that in turn.
Come the spring I'm going to get access to an airline and blast them all to hell! :ROFL:

You've got more seeds in that car than Kew Gardens. :ROFL: No Chickens?

The car is absolutely covered in those birch seeds in todays wind! :mad:

I've actually resorted to getting the handheld hoover out to clear them from the wiper area as a precaution!
(Cover is off as I used it yesterday and will be ADI on Saturday)

One potential place they may be getting in is past the foam 'seal' surrounding the HVAC intake on the plenum.
Part number: 4D0820513A
If you've never replaced it, it's probably starting to deteriorate.

Otherwise, the fit and finish on the pollen filter housings isn't perfect (there's an irony if ever I've come across one!). They do get a degree of positive sealing provided by the bonnet closure onto the outer plenum rubber covers, but it's all ageing. You could attempt to investigate that area to improve the gaps perhaps??

It definitely is and I've done a temporary fix with some foam sealing strip I had.
Subsequently bought some strip of the correct material/specification/cross-section to redo it; much cheaper and easier than chasing Audi for the part.

(Just not done it because I've been messing with my HVAC fan problem which needs access into the same area. Though it seems to be working OK at present. :Confused: )

Interesting, I bought a sealing strip that is 10mm deep, which I thought was more than adequate from what I saw of the OEM seal as I scraped it off.
After fitting the new material, from the marks made by the bonnet cutout, it's clear than it needs to be deeper towards the front of the car. :tuttut:
So I've added a second layer along the front edge and tapered strips at the side - the back (windscreen) edge is nice and tight.

Has anyone still got the Audi version fitted in decent condition to check the depth and if it is uniform all round?

I actually replaced mine - about 4 years ago now!
It was level all around, that much I remember.
I'll measure it when I get the chance...

Yes, I was pretty sure that the seal I removed was the same thickness all round.

The stuff I've replaced it with is a bit like memory foam and shows a clear marking from the bonnet. From that it's obvious that the gap is maybe as small as 5mm or 6mm at the back but probably 12-15mm at the front! :Confused:

The foam on the recirculation flaps in the intake is also quite tatty, but I'm not too bothered about that.

New seal with extra layers!

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1505827988
(The transparent pipe is my pre-installed tube for draining the scuttle ;) )

The sharp-eyed among you may notice that the trim around the wipers is misaligned; I only noticed this recently after having that car for 4 years!

A job for another day, it needs to come off and be refitted properly; I understand there's a tongue that should go into a slot but probably hasn't raising the whole thing be a few mm in the centre. :tuttut:
That also allows more/larger crud from the windscreen to flow down into the scuttle area, adding to the blocked drains issue. :(

Now I've also fixed the scuttle panel seal to the windscreen I think these two items together have been a major contributor to my blocked drain woes.
The way I see it now is:
1. Debris washed down windscreen, bypasses trim with smallish mesh at base as it's very badly fitted. Large (and small) bits end up in scuttle eventually blocking those drains.
2. Degraded foam seal around HVAC intake allows air (and debris) to be drawn in directly from the scuttle area, bypassing the normal route through the pollen filter. Result is lighter/smaller bits, such as those damned birch seeds, gets into the HVAC system eventually blocking the aircon drains.

The new seal I've put around the HVAC intake, as the photo shows, is quite deep now at the front edge and a good tight fit. As is the trim at the base of the windscreen. Combining all that with regular use of car/windscreen covers and I'm optimistic of fewer "sloshing" incidents in future. :cool:
A good test is how many seeds come blasting out of the vents in the car in future. ;)

And the answer (so far) is, NONE WHATSOEVER! +++

There's loads of the little bar stewards floating around at present, all over the car. But none coming in through the air vents any more. :D

:ROFL:
They get in EVERYWHERE, all the time. I vacuumed out SWMBO's Freelander the other day and by the time I finished, having started at the passenger side and worked around via the boot to the drivers side, the little BSs were jostling for space on the passenger seat and just waiting to blow across to the drivers side.

Your blower foam repair inspired me to check the condition of my foam Andrew.

Mine had deteriorated (felt a bit mushy/crumbly) but it was still fairly intact, so I was able to take some measurements. It was approximately 15mm high by 15mm wide.

So, after a bit of searching I found this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEOPRENE-R...K/351276385555
(Be sure to select the 15mm wide stuff).

On my first fitting attempt, copying the original foam, I tried separate lengths with mitred corners. That worked but I decided there was a neater, quicker solution, so I ripped it off and instead used a single piece, joined at the back. The foam goes around the corners easily and, done this way, it's a 5 minute job.

Very tidy job, Mark. +++
The stuff I bought was 19mm wide and 10mm deep, which is why I needed 2 layers in places. My old OEM stuff was in such poor condition I hadn't realised it was thicker than that.

This is the stuff I bought, it's quite firm and gives a very good seal: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262290323770

You made a nice job of that mate, loving the tidy corners +++

Sorry,
Finally got around to this:
Mark's right in the 15mm x 15mm measurement.
It looks to be some sort of high density foam, bit denser than the typical interior panel anti rattle stuff.
Flat bottom, so anything of similar dimension with a self adhesive backing will do the job.
Theres nothing fancy in the material or how it's put together in the genuine factory replacement. Neoprene or some sort of generalised rubber seal might actually be a better product here I think.

Three or so years old:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w...1280/upload_-1
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l...1280/upload_-1