Solution for water in the passenger side footwell

[insert_php] if ( function_exists(‘yoast_breadcrumb’) ) {yoast_breadcrumb(‘ ‘,’ ‘); } [/insert_php]
By: rs4-380

After heavy rains we were seeing water in the passenger footwell. I cleaned out the drains in the cowl (which desperately needed it) but that didn’t solve it. I pulled the glovebox to do a little digging and found that the source of the water was the HVAC cutout on the firewall. Their is ducting in the cowl that is supposed to prevent water from entering, but the seal had either lost it’s seal or the piece had warped enough to no longer seal. I temporarily fixed the problem by adding some RTV where the seal mates, but went ahead and ordered a new duct as it was only 20 bucks from online OEM retailers. Turns out there is a TSB for this, I was unable to actually locate the contents and determine whether the fix was replacement or adding something like RTV.

Its the black plastic piece that needs to be replaced, part number 8K1819904A . 5 minute job to do. The seal along the top was no longer sealing, and in heavy rain water made it’s way underneath the wiper panel and hit that seal, the dripping down into the blower motor and making it’s way to the footwell. You can tell if yours will have an issue by placing a garden hose as seen in the picture. If you get water dripping down onto the blower motor you have an issue, it should just divert down the outer sides of the housing and into the rain tray/cowl.