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Water Dripping Into Passenger Footwell

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66K views 25 replies 17 participants last post by  mpsquires15  
#1 ·
I have a 2013 VW Touareg TDI and water is dripping (more like someone is taking a piss) into my passenger footwell from above and behind the glove box. It is not raining here. It is happening when accelerating so maybe water is stuck somewhere above? I have read it can happen after the car is washed. But, the car was washed almost a week ago.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
#4 ·
Check your cabin air filter is still dry too.
 
#8 ·
TDI2013VW
This is a known fault on all Treg’s.
Every major service it should be checked. The drains from the sunroof should also be checked. There are 4 drains in the corners of the sunroof. Don’t blow compressed air into the drains unless the pressure is very very low. The tubes might come off in the A pillar and is very difficult to put back. The front tubes drains into the plenum firewall area.
The later Treg’s have no rubber check valve seal to drain from the plenum area. It is also a physically larger hole compared to earlier Treg’s.
I’ll post some pictures which I took when I checked mine earlier this year
 
#12 ·
TDI2013VW

Did you ever resolve this issue?

I have a 2014 TDI and just experienced this exact same issue this past weekend - water dripping into the passenger footwell during acceleration and braking. I removed the front right wheel and found a rubber drain line - I poked at it with my finger and about a pint of water came out. I didn't notice any debris so I'm not sure what was preventing it from draining. Before I do anything more invasive (accessing the plenum chamber), I'm curious if you did anything in particular.

Thanks!
 
#14 ·
Yes guys it is the AC drains they get clogged. See above comments that is the fix, it's not the sunroof.

Both of mine did it, I removed the panel under the glove box for the cabin filter and just pushing on the rubber lines was enough to free the clog. You will see water drain out from under the car.

It's a good idea to replace the cabin filter after as they get soaked.
 
#18 ·
2016 TDI here. Fix depends on the water source. If its sunroof drain plugs, then the wheel well fix is the answer. If its the AC, I have done it two ways, one was hard and the other easy. Hard way is interior through lower dash. Other is simply waiting for vehicle to cool all the way to ambient temp, then on level flat ground, slide under passenger side, reach up and squeeze the rubber valve. I can try to get a video if there is enough demand. I will also mention that for the toolless top down fix targeting the other drain ports, I couldnt find passenger side access on the TDI. However to access from wheel well took turning wheel toward opposite side of car, a T20 torx and removal of 5 screws. No need to remove wheel.
 
#20 ·
you can access the passenger side AC drain without taking off the shroud?
yes the drain goes through the firewall on the passenger side. There are threads on this which have pictures showing the condensate drain pipe.

what do you mean here? thanks for any assistance, mine just started leaking cold water today.
Cold water or condensate from the A/C?
 
#22 ·
What year Treg do you have? I don't see it listed under your avatar.
I know on 2011 and newer you don't need to take the wheel well liner off as that's not where the AC condensate drain is.
 
#26 ·
I've just resolved this issue in my MY14.5 right-hand drive vehicle. The problem was a blocked aircon condensate drain soaking the passenger footwell, as well as passenger's feet, especially when accelerating or turning corners. There's the easy way, the harder way, and the hard but futile way. I've done all three (in reverse order).

First, the hard but futile way is to remove the wheel liner. On my vehicle, there is, as far as I could see, no drain in behind the wheel arch liner. So apart from cleaning out more crud than I expected to find, that was futile.

Next, the harder way, I removed the cover plate (3 Torx screws) and aircon duct in the footwell. There is a rubber duct at the bottom of the plenum chamber that appeared to pass through the firewall to the engine bay. Squeezing this didn't achieve much.

Finally, the easy way. With a cold engine, execution time- less than a minute. The outlet of the duct is way back and low on the firewall in the engine bay. The hardest part is finding it, as it's quite hard to see unless you know what and where to look for, but it's actually fairly easy to reach once found. In my case I simply had to lift up the rubber flap that covers the outlet (which is like a scupper valve for any nautical people). The flap must have stuck closed, and the second I lifted it with my finger, a gush of fresh water escaped. So satisfying.

I still reverted back to the "harder" method above and replaced the cabin air filter, which had been saturated, so exploration in that area wasn't wasted.

Photos of the outlet and flap in the engine bay are below. I'm pointing to it with a piece of yellow plastic in the second photo. Hope this helps.
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