[s-cars] Soggy Driver Foot problem finally fixed

[Keith Maddock]

Well it's been great to spend a week with the Family for Christmas, and 
also to get to see my S4 too after being gone so long.

It's amazing how easy you forget all the little annoyances about a car like 
these when you're away from them... However my car's most annoying trait 
quickly made itself known again to me the first drive, soaking my right 
foot in nice, cold water....

I've spent probably 10 hours so far in the past 2 years trying to fix this 
with no avail.  The last round about 20 months or so was narrowing down 
that the water was coming in from the rain tray into the relay-box, then 
dripping down all that wiring,  pouring into some channel of one of the 
HVAC tubes, and then finally dripping out right over the accelerator.  The 
last attempt was to put some silicone sealant around the base of the 
relay-box wherever I could reach, unfortunately this was only the top/front 
60%.

Yet the problem still happened, but only with certain combinations of hiils 
and turns.

Yersterday I dug into it a bit further, and figured out that it was very 
easy to take all the relays out of their plugs (carefully noting which went 
where), and then all the relay plugs can be released from the holder.  Then 
the rear 80% of the holder can be released by two little levers on the 
side, and this can be completely taken out.

With this out, I had a clear view of the whole area.  I parked the car on a 
incline and used an old t-shirt-rag to plug up the drainage hole a bit.  I 
poured some water in the rain try, and sure enough I could see the water 
dribbling into the wiring.

First thought was to take the whole relay box off and re-seal it down to 
the rain-tray.  This plan was foiled by the very strong glue that Hans & 
Clause used to glue the box down in the first place.  (there are also 4 
screws that I removed).

I then found that the plastic box had a lip over the edge of the metal hole 
that the box sits on top of.  Running a finger under the bottom of this 
lip, there was a bit of a gap there, which could be sealed with some silicone.

So I got out the heaviest duty silicone grease that Dad had in the garage 
(some beige super-.bathroom stuff), and went to town.  What a goopy mess, 
squirting the sealer on the finger and the blindly applying it to the 
bottom of the lip.

With that finished, I deciced to re-seal the outside seam just for good 
measure.  This time I wasn't such a wimp and used my fingers to blindly 
seal all the way around the back of the box.  I probably used a bit too 
much sealant, and for certain my car won't ever win any under-hood concours 
competitions (not that it was even close to perfect before thanks to Dr. 
Previous Owner).... but....

It no longer leaks, hurrah!

So if you occasionally have a soggy (and subsequently VERY COLD) driver's 
foot, I suggest checking this out.



Cheers,
Keith

keith at maddock.com    http://keith.maddock.com/

93 S4 (mit RS2 + BR upgrades + dry_foot upgrade) Portland OR
95 968CS (Ring Tool + Daily Driver) Koblenz, DE
1/8 89 GTI  16V (Spare Ring Toy)  Nürburg, DE