odd water leak fixed

[reapedinhalf]

Hey all, first post, first e30 as of 2 or so weeks ago. I had a b5 Audi a4qm for a while and eventually picked up an e34 525i 5 speed (to the left) as a car for the girlfriend... That car started the downfall of the Audi and the love for everything BMW. At any rate, here's the whip in sterlingsilber metallic on the way home from purchase -



I figured I'd try to add something constructive to this first post, so here goes. The car's been great, but I took it through the car wash only to find out that I had water EVERYWHERE, and I mean that. Oh well, it's a good excuse to dye the bleach-cleaned :confused: carpet (back to gray or even black) while it's out drying on my front porch. Long story short, all the typical leakage spots leaked and were reasonably easily fixed, however I did find an odd one that I could see being common so I decided to add a picture.

I found a good amount of standing water under the rear seat. Yeah, odd. Turns out, this caused it.



That's the mount for the left trunk hinge from the inside looking out. The weld (rivet?) broke, and parking uphill would fill up the jack storage compartment. Parking downhill would cause the water to flow forward around the wheel well up to the rear seat-back and through the seatbelt mount bolts pooling on the rear seat pan.

Just figured I'd share because I hadn't seen this one posted anywhere.

[DesktopDave]

Welcome to the 'club!  Audis are fine cars, but I agree - BMWs are just more fun (especially to fix).  BMWs have more feel too, though they're far less fun in the snow.

Nice catch...I had the exact same problem with mine.  The weld is vulnerable to water pooling in the upper trunk channel.  Eventually it rusts, pushes up the seal, then slowly fills the trunk.

I've never heard of the rear seat pans filling that way though...are you 100% sure the rear sunroof drains are clear?

[reapedinhalf]

Thanks Dave. I did enjoy the Audi but I hated working on it. Constant battle of wires and solder and chasing down oil leaks. Outstanding winter car (even with half-tread all seasons), but a little bland to drive outside of that.

As far as the sunroof drains go, I checked them three times!  My neighbors were giving me strange looks as I was walking around my car for 2 and a half hours putting back Black Labels, and sprinkling the car with a watering can... I'm positive it was due to that particular hole by the trunk hinge. I sat there pouring water through it and watched its path.

Reasonably satisfying knowing that I'll have carpet again soon!