CK.GTS

I've been hearing water sloshing around on the drivers side door for a few months now, and I figure it's either the HVAC drain (which I doubt since that's in the glovebox and the noise is coming from the drivers side doors), or a clogged cowl drain. I plan on doing both in a few months once it gets a bit warmer, but wanted to get feedback on whether folks have encountered this and what they did to do so.

When I went to a local dealership (P.Miller), they told me it would cost around $800, because they needed to remove the GTS side skirt to get to the plugs and drain the water out. I thought that the price was a bit ridiculous, so I'm waiting for the weather to cooperate and tackle it myself. But I'm wondering if I even needed to remove the side skirt to drain whatever it is I needed?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

projectd18

I believe all you need to do is remove the wheels, fender liner and you should be able to see the cowl drian plug. I would get this done asap, check to see if your carpet is wet. Mine was the AC drain and the dealer claim there was a new part they replaced for me under warranty to prevent future clogged.

CK.GTS

Yeah, I've been checking it regularly. The carpet isn't wet and I haven't had the SUV sit out in rain or snow as much as it sits in the garage most of the time. I do plan on getting it done next weekend. Starting to get annoyed everytime I hear the water sloshing around. My wife doesn't hear it, and says I'm nuts.

bgrpph

Just picked up a '15 Cayenne Turbo w 31k miles, just out of warranty. i'm totally new to the Cayenne & reading all i can. I recall seeing somewhere here or 6sp-a video that showed the side skirt coming off & plugs being removed from botton with huge amount of water flowing out- so it maybe the sloshing isn't the door but these drains

Slickdvl

Most likely the drains - if you take off the plastic trim in engine bay on near the driver side windshield and shine a light down there you may see a lot of leaves and water. You don't necessarily need to remove the wheel but it helps. You just need to remove the fender liner screws and plastic cap towards the right side (looking at the wheel) and pulling it out of the way - you should see it right in front of you - little black nipple looking thing. Its about same height as the wheel.

Texas993

I had that with my former TT. I put it up on a lift, removed the side skirt trim slightly, removed the plug on the frame rail (or whatever it is called on a unibody) and got 1-2 gallons of water. I left the plug out to avoid future issues.

DaveInAZ

I had to get at it from the passenger side footwell, it has a crazy clamp that would only come out with clamp pliers. Once that was free, just a single pen going thru there helped clear it out though.

It has a similar design to the Toureg:

https://www.clubtouareg.com/forums/f...-it-38457.html

hotrod2448

I have never heard of a vehicle with so many drains and them being so prone to clogging. Cowl drains, AC drains, Sunroof drains, rocker panel drains, etc... None of them accessible without some disassembly. Is that a Porsche thing or a VW thing?

projectd18

It is kind of ridiculous at this price point...my AC drain was clogged up at 25k miles 2015 causing my passenger carpet to be completely wet.

deilenberger

Hi, welcome to the forum. That's a nice link to the VW writeup - but we have an even better one (I wrote it) on our DIY subforum: https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...vac-drain.html

You might want to poke around that subforum a bit - lots of good info there - there are some standards to meet before a DIY appears there.

https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-diy-224/

DaveInAZ

Wow, you're right...I may have come across that a long time ago when I was searching last summer before I regged...you even took a pic of the clamp, too. Thanks.

I left the clamp off as well...seems excessive.

Kipp

Did you get this sorted? I have the same issue following heavy rains. Any pointers would be appreciated. Did you have to remove the side skirts to clear the drains?

lml999

It's a VAG thing.

Years ago I bought an '04 Audi allroad for pocket change as it had, literally, gallons of water sloshing around in the passenger footwell. The water had taken out the shift interlock and was in the process of taking out the transmission computer, which sits on the floor. Otherwise it was a nice SoCal car, straight, clean, etc., recently moved to Brooklyn. I drove it back to Boston with the water sloshing and all the dash lights on. Mechanic was shocked that it ran.

We rehabilitated it. To fix the water ingress problem, I reseated the trim at the base of the windshield on the passenger side. One sharp blow with the heel of my hand did it. Yep. Common problem with the C5 Audi. Easily fixed/avoided if you know what you're doing.

Nobody at VAG took any water management classes. It shows in all of the cars. some more than others...