# [2001 roadster] water ingress



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Hello guys,

Hopefully someone can give me a bit more info about what is going on.

Description of the problem(s):
1) Driver foot well is humid, I can see three wet spots on the floor from where the water is coming from.
2) The well behind the passenger seat gets humid and sometimes wet.
3) Pouring water into the drain cups won't drain through the holes behind the rear wheel arcs (didn't check those yet). The water seems to drain from under the middle of the car. I suspect the drain pipes are disconnected or ruptured and the water is accumulating under the floor.

I was going to remove the coils from the drain pipes to clean them up but I'm afraid of making it worse.
Questions:
A) Does anyone have the part numbers (or the inner diameter) of the drain pipes? I would like to order replacements.
B) Does anyone know the easiest way to access the drain cup connector to fit a new replacement pipe? From some pictures I found on the internet, it seems there is a small rectangle window from behind the rear trim that might allow maneuvering some pliers, can anyone confirm? This is for the driver side, for the passenger side I have no clue how to access it. Ideas?

I suspect my Bose amp (or the subwoofer) died due to water ingress. If I don't fix this soon I suspect more electrical problems are to come.


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Below is rear drain hole from passenger side, 100% dry after pouring some water into the drain cup... bad news:










Below, inside of rear drain hole (passenger side) - the coil seems to be missing:









Below, inside of rear drain hole (driver side).









Both sides are 100% dry after pouring water into the drain cups. The tube seems to be too straight in the pictures, wasn't it supposed to start bending upwards right away?
When I pour water into the drain cup at the driver's side, this is where the water comes from (the tire in the photo is the front driver wheel) : /









I read that there are two types of tubes, the old model (condom style) and a more robust one. From the pictures would you say I have the more recent one?
I hope this pictures can help other people, I didn't find any pics from inside the tubes on the internet.


----------



## richardkhill (Jul 20, 2015)

The bit sticking out of the wheel arch is just a rubber gromit that attaches to the drain hose. Even with those good pictures, it's hard to tell what type of pipe is in there .

I tackled my blocked pipes with a length of tube & a large syringe, like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Large-Plastic-S ... B00JERHCO2

I found I could reach round from the door and 'feel' the drain hole enough to push the tube in without having to drop the roof (You do need to be fairly flexible!!) Then fill the syringe with warm water from a bucket and attach to the loose end of the tube. Gentle push the plunger whilst checking the drain hole for any water blow-back. If necessary, push the tube up & down to try and loosen the blockage. Repeat the process until water starts to come out by the wheel arch. Then do a couple of 'high pressure' blasts of water to push the lose debris through. It would also be a good idea to back flush from the drain exit. I don't know where water would exit if the pipes were broken though.

Also have a look in from the boot. At the back of the boot, you'll see a letterbox shaped parcel self. This is held in by two clips across the top. Remove the clips and pull out the shelf so you can see into the void. Using some kitchen roll or towel, mop up and water that may have pooled in there (you will need to climb into the boot!).

There has been stacks of posts on here about both the rear drain pipes and wet footwells (sometimes from the pollen filter housing).

Richard


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Yeah, I did find a lot of good information around here. Unfortunately (or fortunately) most people are just having pipe blockage problems and end up fixing the issue with a solution like yours.
My case seems to be not so simple, because when I pour the water into the drain cup (no drain cup overfill) it is drained immediately from under the car (not from the drain holes). I really think my pipes are disconnected... 
Anyone knows what is the best way to access the drain cup connector (to reattach the pipes)?
Thank you


----------



## Jez xbx (Oct 24, 2014)

Does this help?

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=294272


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Jez xbx said:


> Does this help?
> 
> viewtopic.php?f=2&t=294272


Holly cr*p that thread (and the one linked from within) are wonderful, thank you so much!


----------



## Jez xbx (Oct 24, 2014)

Take some pics of how you get on and add to this fantastic forum


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Today I removed the drain pipe from the passenger side. The pipe was indeed already disconnected from the top, no wonder the water was not flowing in the pipe:



















The good news is that this is not the first model "condom type" pipe. However it seems there is something missing from the top-end of the pipe (probably left stuck to the bottom of the drain cup)?

Thank you guys for any feedback.


----------



## Jez xbx (Oct 24, 2014)

I'm not so sure it's that good a news for the rest of us!
I suspect most people thought the newer style tubes cured the problems?
But it appears from your experience that they are still prone to failure (albeit a different one!)
:-(


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Indeed, this pipe cannot be the original pipe! I'll take a better picture of the serial number and dates on the pipe, hopefully it can give you a good estimate on the life expectancy of the pipe.


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

So yesterday I took the afternoon off to work on this issue. The owner of the garage where I bring my car for servicing said it was ok for me to bring the car there and do the repair myself - this was very cool of him. I brought all the utils with me anyway to be less of a bother. In fact, all the utils you need is the spanner for removing the wheel bolts (and seatbelts), another spanner for removing the seats (I forgot the type and size) and a torx no 5 to remove the wheel arcs and the rear center trim. Everything else is just clips.

First I removed the driver and passenger seats. If you disconnect the airbag cable under the seat while the battery is connected, be prepared to use the vagcom later on to remove the warning sign from the onboard computer.

After the seats are off (amazing how much crap was under the seats, I must think in cleaning down there more often), I proceeded to remove the rear middle trim. For that you just need to first very very gently remove the subwoofer grid and then remove the few torx screws there. The whole trim will then just unclip itself (you need to apply some considerable force). The photo below is the car without seats and rear middle trim off.
Question: Does anyone know what is that white thingy that looks like a servo motor? I couldn't quite figure out what that is supposed to be moving.










The next step is to loosen the rear top trims (where the roll bars and seat belts go through, see the picture below). You need to loosen this ones or it will be very hard for you to remove the rear side trims. For that, rotate 1/4 turn each of the chrome covers of the roll bars, they will unscrew and allow you to slide them over the roll bar (in the picture I put them on top of the roll bars). Then remove the seatbelt screws and slide the seatbelt assembly down the belt so it won't bother. After this you only have to unclip the top trim (again, some serious force is required). I honestly thought there was some other screw somewhere but there was not!
After the rear top trims are loosen, you are now able to unclip the rear side trims (again, some serious force is required). Some of the plastic holders containing the clips actually unglued themselves from the trim while I was unclipping the trim. This is not a problem, if you have a hot air station you can just melt the glue and reattach the plastic holders in place. Below is photos with the rear top trims loosened and rear side trims removed.










This is all you need to do to have access to the little square window with visibility to the drain cup connector, the window is too small to pass your hand through. Now, don't be mistaken, in the photo below what you see is not the drain cup connector but rather the inner part of the drain tube that had disconnected from the tube. The inner part of the tube remained attached to the drain cup connector while the drain tube had fallen into the car floor. No wonder my TT was getting water inside!










The next step was to remove the rear wheels and unscrewing the lower 2 screws in the wheel arc. You are then able to bend the wheel arc and gain access to the drain hole in the chassis as you can see in the picture (NOTE: In this picture I had already removed the drain tube):










The next step is to pass a string through the drain cup hole all the way down until the drain hole in the chassis, you can use a bit of wire to go search for the string:


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Then the next step was to make the inner part of the drain tube (still attached to the drain cup) fall down along the wire guide (red string) and catch it at the drain hole in the chassis. Here are the dimensions (centimeters) of the inner part of the drain tube in case someone needs them (I do, since I'm going to fully replace the drain tubes again with something more heavy duty - like a washing machine pipe - in a couple of months):


__
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content




























THe picture below if the drain pipe as it came off from the car (the beige top inner part was missing and still attached to the drain cup inside the car), the pipe itself is made of a foam tube (walls are 5mm thick or so) and covered by a really thin duct-tape like layer. The bottom inner part was in good condition.










Since the pipes were still in a relatively good condition, what I did to repair them was simple. I reattached the inner part to the pipe and used heavy duty black silicone to "glue" it in place. The I covered the whole assemble in heavy duty threaded duct tape to increase the structural integrity of the tube. Here is the end result, it should survive a couple of months until I find a better replacement pipe:


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

The final step was to use the guide wire (red string) to make the repaired drain pipe climb from the hole in the chassis until the connector in the drain cup:










Now this is the really important part and saves a lot of frustration when done correctly (many thanks for the other forum members and threads which proposed this). SPREAD SOME SLIPPERY LIQUID (LIKE GLYCERIN) INSIDE THE INNER TUBE WHERE ITS GOING TO BE CONNECTED TO THE DRAIN CUP. This makes it really easy to make the connection, by moving the tube up little by little by using a screwdriver through the tiny rectangular window in the chassis. When the pipe is fully connected it looks like this:










Many many thanks to the other threads and forum owners that made this repair possible.

PS: While the car was disassembled I discovered that my subwoofer stopped working because the speaker cables had disconnected themselves. Great news! Everything is working again


----------



## droopsnoot (Sep 5, 2002)

Excellent write-up, very clear photos. I hope to never have to use it, but I know how much it extends the job to keep having to stop, clean hands and take photos. Thanks.

When I thought mine were broken I bought some rubber tube - one of the other threads showed someone who had bought the proper "Mk2" pipes but not fitted them, and they kindly measured the inner diameter for me. As the stuff I bought is rated for use in the cooling system I figured it would be up to the job. Fortunately I was able to remove the blockage by rodding it out with some thin but fairly rigid plastic pipe, by feeding it upwards from the rear wheelarch. Good job too, as I've never managed to find the drain cups behind the front seats - even when I had a piece of bright green pipe sticking up, I couldn't see where it was coming out.


----------



## droopsnoot (Sep 5, 2002)

miknix said:


> Question: Does anyone know what is that white thingy that looks like a servo motor? I couldn't quite figure out what that is supposed to be moving.


Is it to lock the storage compartment? That compartment locks with the central locking system.


----------



## GARAGE HERMIT (Mar 7, 2015)

buying a car with a tent on top of it, is alway's asking for trouble,,


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

droopsnoot said:


> miknix said:
> 
> 
> > Question: Does anyone know what is that white thingy that looks like a servo motor? I couldn't quite figure out what that is supposed to be moving.
> ...


Good to know, I didn't even know the storage compartment locked itself!


----------



## basky (May 26, 2009)

Very nice write up matey and congrats on a job well done :wink: [smiley=cheers.gif]


----------



## Jez xbx (Oct 24, 2014)

nice work!
will be following this thread for when you upgrade them
I'm planning on doing that too at some point
Let us know what pipe you use and the sizes


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

GARAGE HERMIT said:


> buying a car with a tent on top of it, is alway's asking for trouble,,


It could be worse! The BMW E36 of someone I know is much worse, he is forced to swap the hardtop all the time!


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Hello guys,

Here is a little update: - After a few weeks of continuous sun and a rainfall I can surely say that I don't have any more water ingress on my TT - HURRAY!  
Though after the rainfall I still found the passenger well (behind the seat) a bit humid (not wet). I tracked the issue down to a dislocated rubber that is just over the water cup and is covering a joint supporting the hood. I wiggled the rubber in place and now, YEAHHH - no more humidity. I've been rechecking that rubber every time and it seems to stay in place, I think I may have dislocated it when repairing the drain pipes, but to increase my confidence Ill probably "glue" the piece in place using silicone.

I also bought two 0.5Kg bags of Silica Gel on amazon and placed them under the seats to absorb any humidity. The car doesn't smell humid anymore, it's great  I might have to recycle the Sillica Gel in the oven every month or so but that's a fair price to pay for owning a nice convertible


----------



## miknix (Jul 26, 2015)

Now there are only two small things left to do regarding proper water isolation:
1) The hood skirt has became loose, there was some kind of nylon string sewed into the skirt that reduced the skirt diameter keeping it in a U shape - if you know what I mean. That string dried up and broke into pieces, now the skirt doesn't hold the U shape anymore and small drops of water fall inside the car. My temporary workaround is to insert part of the skirt under a plastic section in the TT wall which hold the U shape - the only issue with this is that it falls down again when you open the hood, so it must be done everytime..
2) Little drops of water falling from the rubber seal on both passenger and driver's windows (more frequent on passenger). It is really just a couple drops of water during really heavy rains. The water drops slide through the door rim and leave a visible trail even after drying up.


----------

