Re: Water leaks and stiff shifter

[steveb@newkla.kla.com]

Barry's concern about becoming a U-Boat captain ... :)
> 
> I have water leaking into the little storage compartment by the drivers left
> leg. In a hard rain, it fills completely with water. I know the windshield
> seals often leak on older Audis, but I don't think that's the problem.
> The windshield and seal were replaced just before I bought the car 
> (two years ago) and I have had no leaks until now. Anyone know what else
> it could be?
> 
I had a similar problem on the right side with my '78 Audi Fox.  You had 
to be in a very specific situation for the leak to occur.  It turned out 
that in a heavy rain and moving at freeway speeds that occasionally I would 
notice something moving on the floor of the passenger compartment out of 
the corner of my eye.  Eventually I managed to look over while it happened 
and found that I had a small river over there for a quick second!  I didn't 
see moisture around the window seals so I was baffled.  It turned out that 
the problem was that there is a seam along the back of the "shelf" (where 
the wipers and heater stuff is often located) which was not fully sealed.  
I figure that water would build up in the shelf and get blown around to the 
point that it reached the seam and poured into the car.  It was a real bear 
to get mirrors and such in the right place to be able to actually see that 
the seam wasn't sealed, and tougher to get the RTV Silicone in there.

Your problem may be related to water getting through one of the other inten-
tional holes in the firewall & shelf (Throttle cable, clutch, brake, steer-
ing, electrical, etc.).

WRT the shifter, I'd recommend that you pull up the shift boot and see if 
there is something underneath that is in need of lubrication.

Steve Buchholz
s_buchho@kla.com
San Jose, CA (USA)