Hi

first week of  picking up my Audi A3 and fell in love what a fantastic car. unfortunately as usual the other half has already burst my bubble, She has quite rightly pointed out that if it rains and you open a door the seats get wet.

You have to be kidding me a 25k car and your sitting on a wet seat is there a fix for this?

Hi freebird,

Can you please elaborate on your issue as obviously you wouldn't be driving with the door open! Do you maybe mean when the car has been sat a collection of water enters the car when you first open the door?

Right so I after having a look around and testing on my own A3 I get what your issue is and understand the problem (I think!), it's something I've experience myself but never thought of as an issue but will now bug me till I find a solution!!!! Please see video below and confirm if this is what you mean:

So if I'm right the issue is that instead of the water running into the channel on top of the door seal the water tension pulls it onto the door rubber and then it sort of flicks into the car! I've had an idea that I'll test unless someone can get it done before me and post the results, idea is as follows:

1) Clean the paint work about the door seal with soapy water ensuring there is no residual anything on the paint work.

2) Thoroughly clean the door seal and treat with something hydrophobic like RainX.

What I hope this may achieve is that the surface tension of the water will hold to the clean paintwork enough that with the door rubber being treated with a hydrophobic solution that the water drops will "wick" into the water channel on top of the seal instead of dripping round the rubber and into the car.

I'll post back once I've tried it with results unless someone beats me to it. Another possibility may be to run a plain white wax candle along the top of the rubber but I'm sure there will be other wax substitutes that would be more suitable!

Hi freebird ....welcome to the Forum

Sorry to hear about the issue with the rain pouring in....happens on a few of my convertibles and can be a little annoying to say the least but it is only a few drops and then fine after that.

Great info above from Robin....I'm sure that will sort it.

Cheers,  Trevor

Thanks Robin that's exactly the problem thanks for the quick answer, I will probably give that a go. The main problem seems to be the rear doors and the drips also stain the seats.

A little irritating but still a great car.