Ideally need it sorting ASAP, definitely can't wait 4 months for a response. The water could get into the wiring loom etc and render the car worthless.

Thanks 

Update - reponse from Audi UK below:

Dear ******

Thank you for your patience while we investigated your case. I’m contacting you on behalf of your Case Manager, who is currently on annual leave.

We have reviewed your case in collaboration with the management team at Manchester Audi and internally here at Audi UK, specifically regarding your request for a goodwill gesture in relation to the water ingress issue in your vehicle.

After careful consideration, we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer a goodwill contribution in this instance. Our records show that your vehicle has not been seen within the Audi Network since 16,000 miles. Additionally, your third-party warranty provider has declined to cover the cost, and Manchester Audi have confirmed they will not be supporting the repair, as the vehicle was not purchased through the Audi Network and has not been maintained to brand standards.

Please also note that there is no legal obligation for Audi UK to contribute in this case.

That said, we do understand this may be disappointing, and I would like to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Kind regards

My response below:

Thank you for your email and for keeping me updated on the outcome of your review. I appreciate the time taken by Audi UK and Manchester Audi in considering my case.

However, I must respectfully disagree with the decision not to offer a goodwill contribution for the water ingress issue on my Audi A6. While I understand that the vehicle has not been seen within the Audi Network for the last 16,000 miles, the water ingress problem appears to stem from a design flaw, not from a lack of maintenance or servicing. 

 

This issue would not have been impacted by the fact that the vehicle was not seen for the last 16,000 miles, especially considering that it had a gearbox service carried out in November 2024 at Preston Audi. Recent work was completed at Audi Manchester just a few weeks ago.

As the manufacturer of the vehicle, I would appreciate it if Audi UK could clarify its recommendation in the event of a design-related flaw such as this. The water ingress issue is related to an underlying design flaw, and it would logically manifest regardless of mileage or service intervals. Numerous other Audi owners have reported experiencing the same issue, which further suggests that this is not an isolated incident but potentially a systemic problem that needs to be addressed at the manufacturer level.

Additionally, the fact that the vehicle was not purchased through the Audi Network should not exclude it from consideration, as I have maintained the car according to Audi’s guidelines. 

 

This issue, which seems to be design-related, warrants a reassessment, particularly given that several other Audi owners are facing the same water ingress problem. (I can send evidence of this) 

I respectfully request that this matter be reconsidered, taking into account both the potential design flaw and the fact that numerous other owners are reporting similar issues. 

 

I am hopeful that Audi UK will consider offering a goodwill gesture to resolve this matter.

Thank you again for your attention to this issue, and I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

Their final reply:

 

Thank you for your email and for sharing your concerns in detail.

We understand that you have provided a technical bulletin from the U.S. market regarding water ingress. However, please note that if this were a recognised manufacturing issue within the UK, the Audi factory would have issued a formal recall, and affected customers would have been notified accordingly.

We appreciate your position and the frustration this situation has caused. At this stage, we have reviewed your case thoroughly with both Manchester Audi and our internal teams, and we are unable to offer a goodwill contribution. If you remain dissatisfied with this outcome, you are entitled to escalate the matter to The Motor Ombudsman, who can provide independent advice and support.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact Audi UK.

Kind regards

In a nut shell Audi UK will not honour their fu** up so other than the motor ombudsman there is nothing I can do to rectify their design flaw.

Unfortunately I cant sell the vehicle as it is.

Repairing it will cost at least £2k plus from Audi just to look at it as they are charging £180 per hour and require 8-10 hours just to strip the seat and carpet.

Driving it could cause further damage to the vehicle, as the seat has now stopped functioning. 

If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to share them, would be highly appreciated. 

Car is booked in to the garage on Wednesday hopefully they can sort it out. 

I think I may still contact the Motor Obudsman as I may not be the only one who has reported this to them. 
I will continue to keep you posted!!

Hi paddy755

I have a 2020 A6 c8 BLK ed with 32k on the clock and I have the exact same issue, water ingress into the rear o/s footwell. I have today put the car into my local garage (who I trust) the only reason I found this problem is the drivers seat suddenly stopped working. I assume water has got into the electrics under the seat and blown the fuse. My garage have said they need to take out the seats and remove the carpets to dry them out, (at least a week) They will then water test to identify where the water is coming from. I have asked them to provide photo/video evidence so I can have a go at Audi later. 'Actionmansingh' has the same problem as well. Sadly he doesn't give an explanation of how he resolved the problem. My garage will try to identify where the water is coming in and rectify the issue, so I will try to keep everyone up to date with my garage's findings so the information is there for everyone, this does seem to be a common fault that none of us expect from a prestige brand like Audi.

Sorry to hear this buddy. Really do feel for you. But this will help:

Looking at your pictures I can confirm your issue is 100% identical to my previous issue.

What's happened is the following:

Water had collected under the car over some time and has been rising as it cant find a way out (design flaw)

The water makes its way out/up from a small gap just under the vent under the driver's seat and pools in the rear footwell. If you stick your finger down there you will feel a deep puddle of water.

If it's not treated the water will eventually end up under the little control module under the driver's seat, and your seat will stop working 😞

I had mine done privately, and the easiest, cheapest and quickest way is to get under the car and remove the carpet/cover from under the car, and you will find some rubber grommets (I think there are approx. 5 of them); one by one pull all of them out and watch the waterfall (have a bucket) – dont bother putting them back in. 

This does not fix the issue however, the water will find its way out.

To be on the safe side, I would just probably do both sides while you're at it. 

It should take a mechanic around 10 mins to do each side, so it shouldn't cost more than £50

I am not a mechanic, so please do your own research; however, following this method will save you £1000s, and it's an instant fix. Please dont bother wasting any more money on a mechanic diagnosing the issue, not worth it in my opinion. 

I hope this helps you out, it's really disappointing knowing after spending all your hard-earned money you're having to deal with unnecessary BS 

Keep me posted!!

Edited February 3Feb 3 by Paddy755

Hi Paddy,

Thanks for the prompt reply, I'm sure that the information you have provided is going to be a big help, I will let the garage know. Unfortunately the water has already got to the electrics under the drivers seat but I'm hoping that it has just taken out the fuse. The water has got to be drained out and the carpet dried so we have to wait and see what happens. I hope the garage can find out how the water is getting in.

Did you have any central locking issues? I have had intermittent problems as reported by the on board computer and each time it has been the o/s rear door. Perhaps that is related.

I think we as a community should play merry hell with Audi over this, perhaps approach the German head office. I know they are built just outside of Munich.

Clearly Audi UK aren't going to do anything about it, even though they are aware of the issue, all about money! 

I'm aware of the TSB that they put out and have printed that out to help my garage. I did see someone else comment that they removed the cover under the car and removed the grommets to let the water drain out. We need to know how the water is getting into these box sections in the first place.

I believe my garage have dealt with an Audi paddling pool before as the boss showed me a video of all the water under the carpet. Let's hope I can get some Answers.

Regards M

Might be worth trying to identify and fix the source of the water ingress too. The TSB posted above covers this.

Also, check the gutter at the bottom of the windscreen. Mine was full of old leaves and the drain holes were blocked. Some people claim thus is a possible source of ingress.

In my case, details of the repair were light but they did say that water was getting in behind the wheel arch, which fits with the tsb.

I think the sales guy was just happy the workshop fixed it and didnt ask for detail. I had only just purchased the car, as an approved used Audi, from a dealer and threatened to return it if it wasn't fixed which gave me some leverage.

Good luck with gettng it fixed!

 

 

Edited February 3Feb 3 by NelsonP

Hi Nelson thanks for getting in touch, thanks for the TSB, I am aware of that one.

Yes it would be great if we could find how the water is getting into the car in the first place, let's wait and see what the garage can find out.

The gutter at the bottom of the screen was the first place I checked, the 'plenum' drain grommets. They were all ok. Haven't got a sun roof so that rules that out. Door seals look fine so that's out as well. 

Thing is while the car is stood on a flat surface in rain it's filling up. There has to be an opening into the box sections somewhere?

Fingers crossed the garage can find it.

Thanks for your help

Regards M

Hi Mark,

No worries, I hope you find the cause of the water ingress, please share that on here as im sure it will help others.

BDW I did take this up with Audi UK, they did not accept any liability as the TSB was issued in the USA!

So that was their excuse even though its the exact same model etc

Good luck

Hi Paddy,

Yes I read all your emails to and fro from Audi. Let's hope my garage can find the place where the water gets in and then take it from there.

Look out Audi 🤬

I was on this thread as I had the same issue. We got broken into last January and my A6 Avant 69 plate was stolen. Pretty traumatic but luckily didn’t bump into them. I found the car 24 hours later via the app and it was recovered with no issue.  Insurance wrote the car off which I was kind of happy about due to the leak in the footwell. It went to an auction so wondering if someone on here has the car now. 
Anyway, good luck everyone and whoever is now dealing with my old car.

Hi Cal,

Thanks for getting in touch, sorry to hear of your loss, however you don't have the Audi paddling pool to deal with now.

I'm just seeking as much information as I can to try and find out the cause and make it as easy as I can for the garage to resolve.

Cheers M

45 minutes ago, MarkW57 said:

I'm just seeking as much information as I can to try and find out the cause and make it as easy as I can for the garage to resolve.

I wish you luck in your endeavour. It's always better to treat the illness not the symptoms as others have tried to do.

Cliff,

Thanks for your support 👍

A big thanks to all of the other Audi owners who are responding, any help is much appreciated. As an OAP I can do without spending all this money.

Apologies for jumping in on this thread, but a special thank you to Mark and all those who are advising. 
It’s great to hear that the forum is being helpful, and that help is appreciated.

Many thanks all. 
Regards,

Gareth. 

Hi Gareth,

Thanks for your support 👍

Any help from anyone who as experienced this unexpected little twist is greatly appreciated.

Mandeep how did you resolve this issue with your A6?

Hi all re: water in the rear footwell. Update as promised.

WOW!😭

I am Absolutely shocked to say the least.

The garage I am using rang me and asked me to go in and take a look at my Audi paddling pool. 3" of water in the rear footwell and to make matters worse also in the front. The electrics under the seat have been completely ruined. (See pics and video) They are going to get the water out next and then water test to see where all this water is coming in from. (Point of entry) As soon as I find out I will post pictures so that everyone can know what the issue is that Audi are choosing to ignore.

I'm not going to let this go without a damned good fight.

This surely makes these cars not of merchantable quality or something like that.

I told the garage I'm using all the information that I had got from you guys in the forum and hopefully they will be able to join the dots so to speak.

I will update on here soon.

Regards Mark 

 

Hi all, latest update.

A water test has been done by my garage and there is no obvious point of entry for the water ingress into the car.

Car was put on ramp and under body protector removed, drain plugs removed and water poured out of logtitudal member, plugs being left out permanently! Clearly the drivers side longitudinal member is getting a lot of water in and when full it empties into the cabin, clearly this is a design fault.

Wheel arch protector will be removed and the garage will try and gain access to the soundproofing as detailed in the TSB as mentioned by others. As we all know Audi won't recall to give good after sales services to it's customers and so the bill is growing. The under seat electrics are heavily corroded and the wires are brittle and will have to be bi-passed to restore functionality back to the seat (see picture attached) this sort of water damage hasn't happened overnight this must have taken years. The carpet padding is still wet after a week of drying so far, I expect at least another week maybe more, I will update again when I get more information. 

Cheers all

Hi Mark
I can confirm you’re not the only one – I have exactly the same issue on my 2019 Audi A6 C8 Avant.

In my case the water ingress occurs in the same area you’ve highlighted, although on my car it is under the front passenger seat, as we have left-hand drive cars in Italy, while UK cars are right-hand drive.

For now, I’ve lifted the carpet and dried as much water as possible – and there was a huge amount of water trapped in the foam. Out of curiosity I also lifted the carpet on the opposite side, which is completely dry.

Previously, I had also come across the Audi of America TSB, so I decided to check whether the longitudinal chassis member (longeron) was holding water. I removed the sealing plugs on both sides: the side affected by the leak was completely full of water, while the opposite side was totally dry.

At the moment everything has been dried out, and I’m now looking for a more permanent solution to prevent this from happening again. Apologies if the translation isn’t perfect – English isn’t my first language.

Audi know what the issue is, and how to fix it. There is a TSB in the US. It's shocking that they do not honour requests to fix it imho.

I would advise anyone with the issue to contact their local dealer, and request that they fix it, with assistance from Audi UK.

Edited February 15Feb 15 by NelsonP

Hi Arialcor.

Your English is perfect, and thank you for the reply to my post.

The garage I am using to do the work on my car haven't been able to locate exactly where the water is getting in but they did remove the plugs located on the the underside of the car and more water poured out so the plugs have been left out permanently to stop the members filling up again. It has taken two weeks so far to dry out the carpet.

As you will see it the close up picture of the electrical multiplugs are heavily corroded, that tells us that this water ingress has been happening over a long period of time. Audi should be ashamed about this issue and given the cars cost so much you would like to think they would have the decency to recall all the affected vehicles to put this right.

Good luck with drying your Avant out and if I do manage to pinpoint where the water is getting in I will post the information for all to see.

I will be writing to Audi Germany and see what they have to say as soon as I have compiled all the evidence I can. I bet they refuse to do anything though.

Regards Mark 

Hi Nelson,

It seems Audi UK and local dealers really don't want to know, 'customer support' what customer support?

With regard to the TSB it looks as if you need a borescope to see inside the member then cover the area in mastic through the other hole to waterproof it. The big question has to be how does the water get to that point in the first place?

My quest continues 

Regards Mark 

Hi Mark, 

You are not alone. 

I’m dealing with exactly the same water ingress issue on my Audi A6 Avant. I bought the extended All-in Warranty when the car was serviced back in October. Then in late January, my driver’s seat suddenly stopped moving. When I looked into it, I found the rear passenger footwell behind the driver’s seat completely soaked.

Audi Birmingham inspected the car and came back with a quote of nearly £6,000. That includes drying the carpets, repairing the wiring loom, and fixing the OSF wheel arch liner. Oddly enough, the wheel arch liner “rectification” wasn’t even priced on the report.

When I asked what caused it, I was told the water had been getting in through failed sealing bungs underneath the car and had built up over time. If that’s the case, I don’t understand how nothing was picked up during the October service. The answer I got was basically that a routine service isn’t a strip-down inspection, and they can’t predict issues if there’s nothing obvious at the time.

I also brought up the well-known TSB as this seems to be a recognised issue. I was told that a TSB is just a repair guide for technicians and not an admission of a manufacturing defect.

I tried appealing through the warranty, but after going through the policy wording with them, it turns out wiring looms and bodywork/parts are specifically excluded. So from their point of view, they’re relying on that exclusion to decline the claim.

The service manager then offered a “goodwill” repair at £3,600, which I declined. I raised a formal complaint with Audi UK, and today I received their final response — no additional goodwill support.

It’s incredibly frustrating to be facing a bill like this for something that feels like a known issue and completely outside of the owner’s control. I’m really disappointed with how this has been handled and am considering taking it further.

But one thing’s certain - after this experience, no Audi again for me.