# TT roadster condensation problems



## Guest (Jan 18, 2007)

Hi all , right i have a bit of a problem with my roadster and to be honest its really starting to p*** me off ,had the car almost 3 years now and i dread these winter months. For some reason i get really bad condensation inside the car,its so bad that when you get in and slam the door shut you get rained on from the condensation on the inside of the roof,i also get really bad condensation on all the insides of the windows, i dont do much milage in the car so its parked up a lot and its always parked out on the road through the night in the cold, i have tried leaving a window open a bit and it seems ok then, the roof does not leak at all in the rain so its not a leak in anyway,i dont want to fork out for a hard top ,any ideas?? cheers Martyn


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## thebears (Jan 14, 2006)

Do you have wet floor under the carpet mats, check all around as for that much condensation you must have a leak somewhere.

Also with short journeys and little use it may not be drying out sufficently, lots of stop/starts warming and cooling the inside will also cause condensation issues.


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## jutty (Aug 28, 2006)

lift your mats up and push hard on the carpets, see if you have water in the car :!: :!: :!:

its not unusal in the roadster to leak..a few of us here have had it...

the sound proffing under the carpet is so thick that it absorbs the water and the carpet, to be honest doesnt get that wet, but beleive me, lift the carpet up and there is a hell of alot of water there, was on mine :!: :!:

that caused more than condensation than normaly suffered from in my car :!:

worth a look....my cars leak free now and the condensation is nowhere near as bad...20 secs of the windscreen demister and its gone


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2007)

Im pretty sure i have no leaks , the cars a 53 plate so its not that old really , i thought its probably cause i dont use it enough


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2007)

So where was the water coming into your car from , i`ll check my carpets cheers


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## jutty (Aug 28, 2006)

i thought my car was to good to have any leaks too, but it did and mine was not the only one....have a look at this thread and see what i had to do to get over the problem...honestly mate if you have that much condensation in your car but no water leak, then i would worry and ask Audi whats going on...i sorted mine out myself with abit of help from the old man and left it to dry for a week or so....read it see what you think

hope this helps

http://www.********.co.uk/ttforumbbs/vi ... hp?t=78839


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2007)

Thanks mate ,sounds like i have the same problem then , i will have a look at the weekend


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## rob40 (Sep 3, 2004)

Mine does get wet now and again inside the driver foot well , when it realy lashes down and have put it down to the drivers door needs to be adjusted in a little will push the glass tighter against the door seal , it has been done and is a lot better, also does this more with the hard top on as the hardtop edge does not have the lip or seam like the soft top has which does slightly go over the the edge of the door glass, and with the hardtop water seems to get through the seal some how , like i said i think the door is the prob as the roof has been aligned , I put news paper under the floor mat and leave the heaters on and its sorted . No where near as bad as the TvR i had , that had a river running through it :wink:


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2007)

Jutty , your right mate i have got a leak! pulled up my floor mats today and yes the carpets are wet but behind the drivers seat i have a flippin pond,think it must be half inch deep.Been drying it out all day and have now covered the roof so i dont get anymore water in,gonna walk round it tomorrow with a watering can to see if i can see where its coming in but i think its behind the drivers seat. the cars only just 3 years old,what a load of crap!! :x


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## rob40 (Sep 3, 2004)

Like i said with mine , might be worth checking the door alignments, the doors should be flush with the rear quarters, if they stick out slghtly then the glass is not pushing tight against the seal , which will cause water to find a way through which will run down the inside of the door and under the carpet, if its not coming through there then it's coming through the floor , but my bets are on the window seal. If the seal is tight and when its wet you wil seal a mist patch at the very top of the glass where water is trying to get through . I had my door adjusted , on the striker plate on the inner panel the plate has adjuster marks , it can go up down left and right , this is secured by security bolts , the plate only has to be moved inwards very slight , best to witness mark the plate first before adjusting , thats if it needs to be moved . Like i say worked on mine 
and have noticed my driver door has had paint so guessing the door has had a knock and has been messed around with in the past, shame the AA inspector didnt spot this for his Â£200 fee B4 i bought the car :?


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## jutty (Aug 28, 2006)

if you put your hood down, have a look at the corner near the seat belts, what happened to mine the water from the hood runs all the way round in like a trough thing you'll be able to make it out, then it all falls down into black plastic square trays, use a torch to shine down like where all the hood mechanism folds down, i could tell on mine it wasnt all landing in the plastic trays, and ending up in the car behind the bleedy seats!!!!!!soaked throuh they were!!!!

best bet is seats out and carpet up mate, the carpet wont fully come out but it will come up off the footwells and peel it out from the rear speaker covers so you can see the floor, a little convector heater helped dry mine out it is worth it!!!mine was supported with hammers and anything i could get my hands on to keep it off the floor!!getting in the car with someone drenching it with the hose is worth it as im sure you will end up seeing water trickling in, may only be drips, like mine but regular drips over long period means little pond!!!!

i left it like that for a week so every time it rained i checked to see if the repair had worked, and hey presto it sure did!!!

hope you get it sorted as i know what your going through!!!!


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## rob40 (Sep 3, 2004)

So what was the repair :?


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## jutty (Aug 28, 2006)

rob40 said:


> So what was the repair :?


with the hood down i could see that the water would not run down the black plastic channels like water shutes!! and into the trays, so what i done was got a strip of black rubber only like 1-2mm thick and glued it in so that the water would run in the plastic channels and into the trays...

its hard to explain, but if you do what i did and get the carpet up yoo will see where the water gets in then its trial and error and you have to use your initative to get over it..

but seats out and carpet up is the only way....you have to see the water coming in before you can go ahead and rectify the situation..i think!!!

after all the carpet has to be dried properly underneath on the sound insulation, otherwise condensation will never go!!!


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## john biffo (Jan 15, 2007)

Following on from my last post:

http://www.********.co.uk/ttforumbbs/vi ... hp?t=78839

Jutty made me paranoid about the carpets not really being dry. After all the jumping up and down on them and drying off with dehumidifier and heater I decided to take his advice and have a look. Not being proficient in this sort of thing I only took up a corner (footwell â€" front left hand side near door) this only meant taking off one piece of plastic. Turns out that is was still soaked underneath.

Bottom line is that, as Jutty says, the carpets need to come up as there are many recesses in the floor and the carpet is too thick for any heat to permeate and dry out without being lifted.

So my problem now is how do I get the carpet up. The DIY option looks daunting and Auid, god bless them, quoted me 5 hours work. There is a relatively good garage (non-audi) close by but I donâ€™t know how specialised a job it is and how much skill would be involved. Can anyone, especially Jutty, please advise.

I have also been soaking the car today to see if any more water was getting in. It looks ok. There is no more water coming into the area of carpet I lifted at the front and the carpet behind the seat remained dry. However I would really like to check this with the rear carpet up so I can be sure. There is no point in drying the carpet out without resolving the problem.

It does look like there are many of us suffering with this and I would be surprised that each of us are suffering different types of leaks. So I spent a lot of time looking at the water flowing into the drain cups (a mirror helps to do this) but it really looks good. Jutty, can you please advise a little more on your fix and could you tell without the carpets up that the water was not going into the cups. Also adding a bit of rubber suggests that you are fixing something that was broken. Do you know what had changed between when the water used to drain ok and not. I know the extra rubber was your fix but what was broken/not working.

Sorry about the long post but I think it would be good to get to the bottom of this.


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## Guest (Jan 21, 2007)

I`ve had a look at mine with the roof down and im sure my leak is coming in from where jutty has said cause if i shine a torch down i can see the water at the bottom, gonna have to rip the seats out and lift the carpets up tomorrow and thumb a lift to work for the week :? , roll on the summer :wink:


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## john biffo (Jan 15, 2007)

Then in all probability mine is doing the same. Will try and have a look tonight. Could you please let me know how difficult it is to take the seat and carpet up.


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## jutty (Aug 28, 2006)

the water was running in the corner between the hood and the seal and instead of running down the black plastic shutes that fall into the drip trays it was making its way down the inside of the rear wing i believe and into the car behind the seat near the rear speaker cover...all you have to do is make sure the water has to end up running down the black plastic shutes and into the drip tray, it you can tell it isn't improvise and make something up ( i used 1-2mm black plastic rubber to bridge a gap so water would flow down the shutes into the tray...the torch idea is the same method i used :wink: 
leaving the seats out and carpet up is a must really because you want to keep an eye on it to make sure the problem is rectified before putting it all back together...really soak the car with the hose for about 5-10 minutes then leave it for about 45 minutes and see if any water has made its way in..
also i noticed that the passenger footwell water was gathering on the top rubber seal just where the silver TT sill plates are and then dropping into the car under the plastic trim and down under the carpet, wasnt a great deal but after time mine was wet..read next post!!!!


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## jutty (Aug 28, 2006)

i repaired this situation by you know where the door hinge is the seals meet up and are meant to butt up against each other, well on mine water was getting in between the joint and then running down the seal and gathering on the top until it dropped over the side and into my car...at the point the seals met i have super glued them together so the join is virtually invisible and water can now not gather on the top...i done both sides as the drivers side had the same problem but not as bad...it has worked for me i left the car for over a week with seats out and carpet up, kept watering it everyday to make sure and all was good not a drop of water 

i do hope that you guys can sort your problems out because the TT is to good and still to new to suffer faults like this, i expect it from my escort work van :lol:

im sure that other people have the same problem but don't quite know yet, because that sound insulation doesn't half hold some water before reaching the surface of the carpet :twisted:


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## bobdabuilda (May 19, 2003)

Further to my previous post regardingt the condensation in my car....just discovered that the rear parcel shelf is soaking wet yet the floors are dry as is the roof when I touch it.......I have not yet had a good look in daylight but can anyone suggest what may be the problem? Is it a blocked drainage tube perhaps??


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## bobdabuilda (May 19, 2003)

http://www.********.co.uk/ttforumbbs/vi ... highlight=


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## bobdabuilda (May 19, 2003)

had a good look earlier this evening and it appears that the run off from the black plastic 'U' channel that runs around the base of the hood was back-tracking a little and running into the little dents by the inspection ports in the parcel shelf. Evident by the 4" diameter soaking patches in this area.

Also as my car was parked on the drive with the front at the top of the incline it made the back tracking worse and not all of the water could drain down those black plastic reservoirs.

My solution is to buy a length of 10mm plastic tubing and perforate it along its length (every inch or so) in two rows at right angles to each other and then lay this in the 'U' Channel. Thread the ends of the tubing into the black plastic reservoir runoff holes and hopefully that will sort it! (Basically same idea as juttys to direct the water out of the shutes and into the drainage reservoirs. Cannot believe that such an expensive marque would not have a better way of draining the water than this!)

Thankfully there is no water coming in behind the seats and onto the floor!
Still have that issue of the fungal growth in the areas shown on the photos but I think that will be solved by AUdi readjusting the door closure to make the seals tighter- this has only happened since they repaired the window drop issue on the car and had to adjsut the doors cos of wind whistle....grrrrrr

I will update with pics of the tubing solution in due course....its the same principle as used in wound drains that we use in surgery.


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## Hipflyguy (Jun 1, 2006)

Thanks to Jog for pointing me in this direction, I've had the exact same problem...

Phoned the dealer and even with dealer warranty, it does not cover water ingress.

So had a good look for these plactic trays and exit holes... I used a wire coat hanger, un ravelled so at about 3ft in length.

I rounded off the cut end to avoid any snagging of any rubber tubing and fed the wire gently down the channels until I hit chassis...

Water now runs through the exit holes perfectly. Then I took up the carpet on the passengers side yesterday and removed 6 towels worth of water... Insulation is around 1.5 inches thick and holds water like a sponge... Dried out all day with a heater and seems to be all good. Now just to fix the carpet and seat back in place...

Thanks to Jutty and his explanations.. and to Jog for pointing me to this link from Mytreg.com


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## bobdabuilda (May 19, 2003)

did you disconnect the battery before removing the seats??? Still need to know if this is definitely necessary!!??


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## bobdabuilda (May 19, 2003)

Does anyone have a map of the AUDI TTRs drainage holes?? Is there another one at the rear of the hood in addition to the two plastic reservoirs at the front end? Just wondered if that one was causing some peoples boot areas to get wet......


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## Graham Barlow (Nov 12, 2005)

Hi

There are no drain holes at the back. You need the Bentley manual, it has the hood in detail on it. It just shows the drain hoses going straight down fron the collection cups as they call them. However, Audi is right, you need to take the hood off, the only good thing the hood lifts off in one piece. I would post pics. but novice on sending pics.

GB


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## Guest (Feb 20, 2007)

I had a blocked drain pipe and unblocked it with a bit of wire but now for some reason the water drains down the cup and instead of draining in front of the rear wheel it drains out from a hole under the front, directly under the drivers seat,im not sure if this is where it should come out of or not, would be interesting if anyone had a map to show us all where these bloody pipes go so we may well understand it a bit better ,as for removing the seats no you havent got to disconnect the battery just leave the ignition off because if you remove your seats and then put your ignition on your airbag warning light may stay on as mine did :? hope that helps you


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## bobdabuilda (May 19, 2003)

on reflection I think I know what caused my problem.... the car was parked 'nose up' an incline in all that snow recently. Obviously the snow took a while to melt but the volume of it just overwhelmed the drainage cups and the drainage portals(which were probably blocked with ice). Also the holes are at the front of the drainage cups so with the car being on a steep incline the cups just overflowed backwards causing my rear shelf to saturate and flood in the region of the inspection covers. I have checked the drainage pipes and they are clear. 
Still have that mould on the doors though which has been a long term problem since audi adjusted the windows so I think theres some ingress of water at the seals there which may account for the damp driver and passengers floor.


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## Guest (Feb 20, 2007)

Never mind mate , summer will be here soon


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## Hipflyguy (Jun 1, 2006)

Agree with Martyn on the removal of seats, my air bag light came on on replacing, but fortunateley was in for some warraty work yesterday so was fixed then... "It's a known problem sir, sometimes knocking the connector under the seat with a hoover can cause it to show" Oh, okay, I'll look ouy for that..  It's easily reset by the dealer.

No more leaks for me touch wood... will just keep clearing the holes periodically...

And the water on mine also drains out under th car... not over the wheel arches... Map would be useful...


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## Guest (Feb 21, 2007)

Graham Barlow said:


> Hi
> 
> There are no drain holes at the back. You need the Bentley manual, it has the hood in detail on it. It just shows the drain hoses going straight down fron the collection cups as they call them. However, Audi is right, you need to take the hood off, the only good thing the hood lifts off in one piece. I would post pics. but novice on sending pics.
> 
> GB


So is the roof a easy job to take off??


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## Graham Barlow (Nov 12, 2005)

Not that easy looking at the manual. I don't think anyone on the forum has DIY but the early TTR will in the near future. With age there will be more hood problems so someone might have go and let us all know if it is it a 'peace of cake or a nightmare'!

GB


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