@sophie
Welcome to the Touareg forums
Sorry to hear of the issues you are having
I presume that you are not taking your Touareg swimming, just enduring wet weather and maybe parking outdoors on un-level ground?
Fortunately I have not had this issue yet (My car is garaged mostly) but others have.

Refer similar posts and possible DIY fix
This is a design issue but not acknowledged by VW or fix offered.

Maybe the following will help
Warning - Check your airbox drain valves | Club Touareg
ForumWet air filter - 150TDI Oz. | Club Touareg Forum

Although I suspect that on reading your post again you probably already know most of the above.
No recall in Australia that I know of or offers of VW fix

 

Known issue, follow the threads for a fix. Interesting though, not everyone, inc myself had this issue despite parking in pouring rains many times....
The adventure does have different headlights, but I don't know if the taper is allowing for more of water running down to be channelled towards the intake....

 

I noticed some have removed the drain (bleeder valve) at the bottom of the air box. Whilst I have not disassembled mine to that extent I wonder if this does not introduce yet another issue. Eg the bleed valve is at the lowest point of the intake and I think on the engine side of the filter. Thus opening a convenient place to suck in water at an lower point than the existing intake opening. (You would probably need to be up to the hubs in water for that to be an issue though)

As you said Singh the problem seems to be that some Touaregs seem to have this issue
I guess this might suggest a slight difference in trim fitting/ adjustment/ design

 

Yes. You compromise the fording ability of the vehicle if you remove a check valve and put in an open hole in it's place. It can pull water, exactly as you describe.

What we need to do
1. find a high quality check valve that is dependable
2. put that high quality valve into the T3 Touareg, replacing the crap often non-working and undependable VW T3 valve.

In a better world, VW would have replaced the bad valves and fixed this problem for the T3 owners.

Last word. Funny the T1 (that uses valves) still does not have a report of a wet air filter.

 

t1 owner here. i concur with nickyt; no water in air filter ever experienced in t1's. such a strange phenomenon for the t3s tho. i'd hope vw would have fixed this by now, but..well...we know they are unresponsive unless legally forced to fix something.

 

this is a massive issue - My T3 has a blown turbo, a ****ed intercooler and probably water in the engine as well.....the car has only been used as a city school drop off SUV and has been serviced at VW and filter has been replaced within scheduled service intervals. Massive damage on a 4 year old, $80,000 car with only 80,000 k's on the clock. VW needs to do a recall on this as consequences are catastrophic to the vehicle. To top it all of the event almost caused a collision whilst turning into traffic. Speaking to my lawyer about breaches of Australian consumer laws and other remedies

 

this is a massive issue - My T3 has a blown turbo, a ****ed intercooler and probably water in the engine as well.....the car has only been used as a city school drop off SUV and has been serviced at VW and filter has been replaced within scheduled service intervals. Massive damage on a 4 year old, $80,000 car with only 80,000 k's on the clock. VW needs to do a recall on this as consequences are catastrophic to the vehicle. To top it all of the event almost caused a collision whilst turning into traffic. Speaking to my lawyer about breaches of Australian consumer laws and other remedies

Same with me
Did you get anywhere ?

 

If you have a T3, check your air filter box urgently. The filter collapses when wet and gets sucked through the turbo

 

Just got one of VW's 2016 Touareg TDI from VW's inventory they have released in the US with. 300 miles. Off truck and the engine light came on immediately. Supposedly not on at the dealership. Had dealer check it, engine air box full of water. Dealer says has seen it several times before. Another dealer says its $400 dollars to fix. Never mentioned this is a very common problem. with all the collateral problems it causes, turbo engine etc. Is there a fix for this from VW that anyone knows. See this has been a problem for years in the posts that I have read on this site.
Dont want to fight with VW on engine replacement etc.

 

Simple fix is to remove the one way drain valve out of the bottom of the pipe that runs from the bottom of the air filter box, but don't go driving through any deep water after you do that. VW should have manufactured a replacement and installed it as a service item, but clearly they really couldn't give a **** about after-service and preventing this problem from occurring. I'd also be very careful about taking the dealers word for it being a $400 fix. If the engine light is on, there could very likely be turbo / intercooler and engine damage. I suspect there is now a few of these vehicles driving around with damaged turbo's with their owners completely unaware. From experience, my level of trust from volkswagen or their dealerships is zero !

 

I see on the Touareg FB page this morning that VWoA (US) are offering a mod to remove the drain valve from the air box.
This is of course a work around and not really a fix for the poor design of the air intake.

FB page: /groups/259517294240336/permalink/1749523825239668/

 

I see on the Touareg FB page this morning that VWoA (US) are offering a mod to remove the drain valve from the air box.
This is of course a work around and not really a fix for the poor design of the air intake.


View attachment 246538 lve from the air box

Thanks for posting this. I'd love to get a full copy that shows the letterhead as well. I'm intending to continue to engage with VW Australia about doing a full service recall

 

I think it is important to remember that whilst removing the valve will resolve the issue of water not draining due to the valve being blocked. This does NOT resolve the issue of the intake swallowing water draining off the bonnet into the inlet in normal wet weather.
Furthermore removing the valve likely compromises the fording ability of the car creating an ingress point to the air box for which the valve was intended as protection

 

there is also a problem with the valve in the air filter housing

 

its a valve that's at the end of a small pipe that drains the air filter box

 

There are two valves on the air intake - at least on my 2013 V8 TDI which has two air intakes ( one for each turbo) making actually 4 drain valves, compared to one intake and two drain valves for the V6.

One drain valve is in the low point in the intake pipe from the grill to the filter and the other in the low point in the filter housing itself. These rubber drain valves are common to many cars. My Landcrusier had a similar valve on its intake system in the filter housing

The problem with the Touareg ones is that they are inaccessibly located so its hard to check they are clean and draining any water .... so no one ever does ,

Crud can build up in the valve preventing water draining out and if water gets into the inlet then that can soak the air filter leading to its collapse and it then getting sucked into the turbo and doing major damage.

The T4 ( facelifted 7P) tregs appear to be especially susceptible to this due to the hood and grill design around the air intake allowing water to get in during rain in certain circumstances though it happens on other Treg versions also but it appears not as often.

Pulling the valve out will solve the blocking problem or just cleaning it regularly. In China as i understand it there was a recall for the T4's to fit deflector shields on the intake behind the grill to reduce the chance of water getting into the intake but this does not seem to have been adopted by VW in the settlement of the class action in the USA which made the lawyers a fortune but did not do much for the owners

cheers
Rohan

 

The problem with the Touareg ones is that they are inaccessibly located so its hard to check they are clean and draining any water .... so no one ever does ,

While everything you say is correct, the real problem is that you should not have to check the valves.

The T1 and the T2 did NOT do this. The airbox and the hoses are very very similar.

This is similar to the SWS (steering wheel shake) problem that VW created for itself. The T1 and the T2 had a small centering lip that added a few ounces of metal to the vehicle. For some insane reason, VW deleted this ounce of metal and created nothing but a nightmare for both itself and for the owners.

For some reason, VW has also made a another small change in the Touareg that has resulted in the airbox full of water issue.

And just like the "Adblue is not part of the Emission System Warranty" scandal, VW does not want to stand up to fix this issue.

Except in China, where the government officials held VW accountable. Crazy stuff.

 

Does anyone know how to order the Chinese deflector thing?
Google isn't helping me.

 

I were only looking into this again myself, I was surprised there hasn't been enough interest to find a reliable source to supply the part.

I reached out to a few sellers on Aliexpress to see if they could source the part from a local VW dealer in China. One of them so far has confirmed and just added the 7P6805762 to their store.

For any of the Australian owners or possibly more Perth owners that are keen on doing this. Let me know and I'll reach out to the seller again. Maybe we can do a group buy to save some costs, particularly on freight.

AU $70.66 | Car air intake water baffle for Volkswagen touareg 7P6805762

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mq7FMUC

 

Look at Postage costs now .

 

@improve yes interested

 

This Part Number Noise insulation plate 7P6805762 | oemVWshop.com is referred from this post. 2016 Air Intake Water Ingestion Fixed! | Club Touareg Forum

 

The second seller I've spoken to has now added it to their store. 7P6805762 is the only part required on my MY17 touareg, I've had a look and confirmed the 7P6805962C part is already installed.

AU $64.23 40%OFF | 7P6805762 7P6805962C Car air intake water baffle For Volkswagen touareg 2011-2017

42.0US $ 40% OFF|7P6805762 7P6805962C Car air intake water baffle For Volkswagen touareg 2011 2017| | - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

a.aliexpress.com

 

It almost makes one want to invest in a 3D printer and start producing these here for the local market.

 

I feel like Steve may have mentioned once before he was going to look at completing this or knows of someone that has a 3D printer, or at least so he could reverse the deflector design and fit it on the LH airbox for the V8 R line. Unsure where he got to with that though.

 

The vertical Air intake "Horn" is a shocker of design for the Engineering proud Germans. Let alone the problematic dribble valves. One tip - recycling a plastic straw for the hard to reach initial valves. Poke a 2" 50mm length just through it, and tape it there. The straw will close on a strong venturi thus not suck water in from pothole splash, but let water out.

As for the "Horn" - I'm looking at a 4/5" 100-150mm lenght of
Z section of aluminium and tekscrew or 3M tape it above the 2 Horns on my V8s.

 

As for the "Horn" - I'm looking at a 4/5" 100-150mm lenght of
Z section of aluminium and tekscrew or 3M tape it above the 2 Horns on my V8s.

Anyone with a home sheet metal bender (Pan Brake) could bend one up to any custom size out of SS. You could buy one new from about AU$400 and with a few participants it would break even.

 

Before I placed an order on Ali express, I confirmed with my local VW dealer parts department and they confirmed they can order in the 7P6805762.
It has to come direct from Germany at a cost of $82.28. Anyone else interested may as well order from your dealer to at that price.

 

@improve Can you confirm, the idea of a group purchase is gone? You are going it alone?

 

I haven't ordered yet, but It appears at this price from the dealer, it will be more cost effective and cheaper. I'm not sure how much interest there really is besides a few of us so far?
The sellers on Aliexpress dont apply a reasonable discount on this kind of stuff unless it's a bulk order, upwards of 20 plus. I'm sure they would do slightly better pricing if there was 5 of us interested but that may not even break even with the dealer price of $82.28

To order 1x off aliexpress at current pricing
7P6805762 = $76.52
Tax = $11.69
Shipping = $41.44

If I ordered 5x
7P6805762 = $382.58
Tax = $45.88
Shipping = $45.88

 

Fair call just wondering which way we were heading, if the dealer can supply it’s ok.
Deliveries out of China can take 8 - 12 wks at the moment

 

I've spent quite some time over the past 24 hours "chewing the fat" with this matter:
1) examining the images of the Aliexpress (Left Hand Side) fitting, and wincing at every obtrusion, angle etc. I believe that a 3D printing company could replicate the fitting in a reverse pattern.
2) there is quite a number of businesses here in Perth WA who offer such a service, BUT, when you take into account R&D, (potentially) multiple (more than one) print efforts to get it right, I fear the cost may be too much, especially if it turns out to be a low volume production run.
3) @brickwalls suggested a small Z section of aluminium. And I am warming to that solution.

I'm going to talk to someone (who has the equipment and the know-how to do it) on Thursday.

I went around and saw @JET13 and the work he has been doing getting his 2013 V8 R Line back on the road. Fortunately for me, he had the front bumper/grill off, and the open orifice of the air intakes were clear to see:

 

I've asked my Dealer contact for a price as well... Will let you know.