Q7 water traps

[Steve Q]

Hello all, 

I've seen this interesting article from car throttle that shows the serious water traps within the bodyshell/chassis of the Q7, vw Touareg and Porsche cayenne. It includes videos of the affected areas. 

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/watch-gallons-of-trapped-water-drain-out-of-early-vw-group-suvs/

Here are the videos: 

Hope it's useful

Cheers :) 

Steve

[Mungo2007]

I had an awful problem with water flooding the passenger footwell of a 2007 Q7 a bit of research online and there is a bung plug that gets clogged up, simple to fix wheel off remove some of the arch liner (about 4 star screws) on the bulkhead side of the car and you can get to the rubber bung plug pulled this out and an unbelievable amount of water came pouring out i would guess at 3-4 litres looking at the garage floor, cleaned the bung plug which was blocked and pulled some leaves out of the hole, bung back in and wheel arch liner and water leak now fixed there is also one on the drivers side i think so will tackle this next just in case this side is blocked as well. 

[Steve Q]

20 hours ago, Mungo2007 said:

I had an awful problem with water flooding the passenger footwell of a 2007 Q7 a bit of research online and there is a bung plug that gets clogged up, simple to fix wheel off remove some of the arch liner (about 4 star screws) on the bulkhead side of the car and you can get to the rubber bung plug pulled this out and an unbelievable amount of water came pouring out i would guess at 3-4 litres looking at the garage floor, cleaned the bung plug which was blocked and pulled some leaves out of the hole, bung back in and wheel arch liner and water leak now fixed there is also one on the drivers side i think so will tackle this next just in case this side is blocked as well. 

That's good to know, thanks for the extra info. It appears most Audi's suffer with water traps of so e sort unfortunately.

Cheers

Steve

[56Doc]

As shown in the videos, the drain grommet was blocked by debris, so it’s not a  bad design creating a ‘water trap’ but rather very poor or zero maintenance in that the drain grommets are never cleaned out so just block over time. 
most cars have similar problems if the drains are never cleaned out. 
sunroof drains are a classic for blocking. Peugeot 405/406 were plagued by that. Curtain rod to ‘push thru’ every couple of months kept them clear.
the old A6 C5 version had a drain under the battery tray, so it was a monthly job to lift the battery and flush it out. The sunroof would flood the passenger footwell if the drains blocked. 
It’s something that’s never mentioned in either owners manuals or service schedules. 
As an engineer I consider it a procedural failure on the manufacturers part to not be stating the need to check all the drains are clear at the annual inspection/service they all insist on. 
But it would be nice to know where they all are!

[Pappa583]

On 5/21/2020 at 1:23 PM, Steve Q said:

That's good to know, thanks for the extra info. It appears most Audi's suffer with water traps of so e sort unfortunately.

Cheers

Steve

Know this is a few years old but is the face-lift Q7 the same design with these plugs, mines 2016 and thinking if there's the same issue maybe worth a look?

[Steve Q]

1 hour ago, Pappa583 said:

Know this is a few years old but is the face-lift Q7 the same design with these plugs, mines 2016 and thinking if there's the same issue maybe worth a look?

I'd say so. 

[Autobarn]

Unfortunately all VAG group vehicles use the same style of rubber grommet on the end of drain tubes, whether it is from a sun roof,  cabriolet roof or just windscreen trough, in 1999 passats flooded the main comfort control ECU that was in a recess in the passenger side floor due to it, audi TT cabriolets  fill the bulkhead behind the driver failing the fuel pump module and EOS models overflow and drip into the car, I can go on forever listing all VAG models, the rubber grommet is pinched together with a thin slot on the end to stop insects getting into them but actually trap crap from getting out, I always chop the last 1/2 inch off with scissors leaving a nice round hole and no further issues.