# TT Coupe Internal Water leak Drivers side



## Jay-225 (Mar 7, 2012)

OK so over the past 3 months the car has been suffering with an internal water leak when it rains or i wash it , i 1st noticed a few hours after washing it one day when i went to get in the car and the drivers side floor mat was soaked .. at the time i thought i had left the window open when washing it but nothing else was wet.. any way dried that out then about a week later it rained really heavy which is when i noticed the carpet and mat to be wet again 
I wasn't sure what was happening but dried it out best i could again until it rained again and you bet it got soaked but seemed to be getting worse with the carpet sounding very squidgy :roll: i was convinced i had a leak and started looking :evil: 
The 1st place i obviously checked was under the scuttle but this was very clean with both drain holes clear and the bonnet cable bung in place and tight, i then spoke to WAK at this point who said to check the relay box under scuttle but this was also clear and secure in place but added some sealant to be sure. Then checked door seal which from visual inspection seemed fine , removed wheel arch lining and had a look under there to see if anything is missing but it all seems in place . nothing apart from the carpet felt wet after it had rained and had no idea how it was getting it so decided the best course of action was to remove the carpet to find the source and dry the carpet as at this point it was soaking wet with and started to smell damp in the car :roll: 
I set about removing the carpet and was lucky i did as once i actually lifted it there was a a good 15- 20 liters of water in the drivers foot well and about another 20 liters in the carpet which had soaked up as much as at could at this point [smiley=bigcry.gif] , I pulled all the interior out and dried up all the water and the carpet ( 4 days in the sun ) ... had a look around but couldn't see anything out of place so waited till it rained again and eventually found where its getting in the foot well but not actually how its getting to that point :roll: the water is coming out from a hole in the floor that runs along the sill but is coming from somewhere above as am able to feel water with my fingers when poking one of the holes ( check pics ) what i want to know is any idea how the water is getting into the car and making its way to this point as i really am stuck with this one [smiley=bigcry.gif] [smiley=bigcry.gif] [smiley=bigcry.gif]

How the car is at the min..



Water is leaking fron the black arrow but can feel it when putting my hand through where the blue arrow points behind the bonnet release ...



Under the scuttle all clean and clear...





and water getting into the car ..





Any ideas where to look :roll:


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## Delta4 (Jun 19, 2015)

Two man job, some one outside with a hose pipe and you on the inside keeping watch you'll soon find it.


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## Jay-225 (Mar 7, 2012)

Sorry forgot to put but have already had a hose used on the outside while i was sat in the car and vice versa but all i could tell was its getting in from the front somewhere as when the hose was on the windscreen the water would eventually make its way down to the drivers footwell and start streaming in... have also gone a bit extreme and left the hose running in the scuttle area but the water wasn't getting in from here as remained dry after a good 5 mins soaking.., banging my head against a wall with this [smiley=furious3.gif]


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## ady117 (Aug 28, 2013)

Hire or buy a smoke machine from a Lighting hire company put in car and fill it with smoke.


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## SPECSMAN (Oct 11, 2016)

The TT has a design flaw; in that the doors deposit rainwater on the cills. Could this be the issue, the water finding its way to your black arrow point?

Also, is there some kind of drain, under the cill? My thinking is that it may designed to flow rainwater through the inner cill box section; blocked drain overflows at the black arrow point. :?: :?:

Mystery this one :?

Please post the result, when you discover it. Too many don't bother.

Regards,

Specsman. 8)

Edit: is the entry point over the wings? where do these drain? Try spraying with the bonnet up.


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## Jay-225 (Mar 7, 2012)

ady117 said:


> Hire or buy a smoke machine from a Lighting hire company put in car and fill it with smoke.


Could be an option... can you direct the smoke to where you want it to go ( i.e in small holes ) or just literally let the car fill up with smoke and see where it is coming out from kinda like a chimney :lol:



SPECSMAN said:


> The TT has a design flaw; in that the doors deposit rainwater on the cills. Could this be the issue, the water finding its way to your black arrow point?
> 
> Also, is there some kind of drain, under the cill? My thinking is that it may designed to flow rainwater through the inner cill box section; blocked drain overflows at the black arrow point. :?: :?:
> 
> ...


i know the issue you are on about but am pretty sure its not that as again when testing with the hose i sat the hose on the sill and pretty much flooded the thing , had water coming out of all sorts of places but none inside the car ... have done the same test with the bonnet open and along the top of the wing ... again no water inside car :roll: btw the sill cover has drain holes all along it and none of mine are blocked as water pours out of them as they should . The wings drain into the wheel arches . Will 100% post up when i finally find what it is as its been driving me mad for a few months now and thought i would of had this sorted by now :x


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## SPECSMAN (Oct 11, 2016)

Jay-225 said:


> ady117 said:
> 
> 
> > Hire or buy a smoke machine from a Lighting hire company put in car and fill it with smoke.
> ...


It wouldn't be the first time I punched a hole in the floor to let the water back out again!

Bloody old motors [smiley=bigcry.gif]

8)


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## ady117 (Aug 28, 2013)

Just fill car up with smoke.. where are you based ? ... just another thought i had it once in another car and it was my windscreen the bonding had come away about 2" and it was leakng in down the pillar and onto the carpet... you couldnt tell the bonding had gone until windscreen was taken out and resealed.


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## SPECSMAN (Oct 11, 2016)

ady117 said:


> Just fill car up with smoke.. where are you based ? ... just another thought i had it once in another car and it was my windscreen the bonding had come away about 2" and it was leakng in down the pillar and onto the carpet... you couldnt tell the bonding had gone until windscreen was taken out and resealed.


I have never tried smoke in a car; (despite owning a smoke machine in the eighties, yes Specsman used to be a Mobile Jocksdicky.)

I would imagine that smoke would billow from every orifice, making a diagnosis impossible.

I will stand corrected, if anyone has found this method to be useful.

Specsman 8)


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## ady117 (Aug 28, 2013)

SPECSMAN said:


> ady117 said:
> 
> 
> > Just fill car up with smoke.. where are you based ? ... just another thought i had it once in another car and it was my windscreen the bonding had come away about 2" and it was leakng in down the pillar and onto the carpet... you couldnt tell the bonding had gone until windscreen was taken out and resealed.
> ...


Thats the idea


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## SPECSMAN (Oct 11, 2016)

ady117 said:


> SPECSMAN said:
> 
> 
> > ady117 said:
> ...


What? something impossible to diagnose! :lol:

8)


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## SPECSMAN (Oct 11, 2016)

Have you tried spraying the car from the lowest point first? (on a bone-dry car)

My theory is that if you spray from the top the water trickles down and finds the ingress point.

Working slowly from low to high, you should find the problem. water doesn't easily go uphill!

Could be the windscreen as mentioned by Disco Stu, but wet that bit last!

Hope you sort it.

Specsman 8)


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## MrQaud (Jun 5, 2013)

One option is to mix some food dye with your water into a water can and pour this so you can see the water coming in easier.

I had almost the exact same symptoms you are describing except it was coming in to the passenger side footwell. It took me 2 days to find it which included removing the whole dash and everything behind it. In the end it was coming from a horizontal metal joining weld between two panels on the wheel arch just up behind the edge of the dash. Not sure if there is one on the drivers side but suspect there might be. I think what caused it was the car being jacked up too high on that corner the week before when I was doing some work. The car would probably have flexed enough to pop the seam weld for a couple of millimeters letting a tiny trickle of water in when the car got wet. The trickle was so slight it was almost impossible to spot the water coming in even with the dye in the test water.

To fix, I had to lie on my back with my head looking up behind the edge of the rear of the dash (I had replaced the dash by this point). The seam runs horizontally along the top of the wheel arch. I couldn't actually get my mastic gun to it due to the limited space so what I did was squirt some mastic onto a long knife and ease that up onto the seam and smeared it across. No more leak after that.

Fingers crossed this works for you...


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## Jay-225 (Mar 7, 2012)

SPECSMAN said:


> Have you tried spraying the car from the lowest point first? (on a bone-dry car)
> 
> My theory is that if you spray from the top the water trickles down and finds the ingress point.
> 
> ...


No ive not tried from lower to higher, normally start at the roof and let the water trickle down the screen etc to simulate it raining pretty heavy.. but will give that way a try .

I have my suspicions about the screen but cant see anything out of place or any cracks or water behind it but then the dash is in the way :roll:



MrQaud said:


> One option is to mix some food dye with your water into a water can and pour this so you can see the water coming in easier.
> 
> I had almost the exact same symptoms you are describing except it was coming in to the passenger side footwell. It took me 2 days to find it which included removing the whole dash and everything behind it. In the end it was coming from a horizontal metal joining weld between two panels on the wheel arch just up behind the edge of the dash. Not sure if there is one on the drivers side but suspect there might be. I think what caused it was the car being jacked up too high on that corner the week before when I was doing some work. The car would probably have flexed enough to pop the seam weld for a couple of millimeters letting a tiny trickle of water in when the car got wet. The trickle was so slight it was almost impossible to spot the water coming in even with the dye in the test water.
> 
> ...


Very Interesting! will try get my hands up behind the dash and have a feel ... i really really really don't want to take the dash out as i done it on my last TT and not a job i enjoyed doing :lol: I Will say i have also jacked the car up quite a bit when ever i do work on it so may of done the same as yours and popped the seam although it seems i have more than a trickle with the amount of water that ends up in the car :roll:


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## MrQaud (Jun 5, 2013)

Even though I had a tiny trickle of water coming in there was easily half a gallon of water in the foot well and carpet when I noticed it!
If it's the seam that's gone, you don't need to remove the dash - so long as the carpet is out you can get something up the back of the dash on to the arch seam to smear the mastic over it - I used a big flat head screwdriver...


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## Pbriddy (Nov 14, 2018)

Hi jay

Did u have any luck with the leak?

Ive got the exact same problem on the passenger side.


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## Pukmeister (Dec 27, 2017)

A while ago I bought myself an HD quality USB powered endoscope with a wifi transmitter that sent the video to my android tablet. It was another of my cheap but useful Amazon purchases and would be ideal for looking inside the panels where the water is coming in to the floorpan.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WOWGO-Inspecti ... +endoscope


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