Tailgate has water inside

BiggDogg

A2OC Donor
After heavy rain last week, upon opening the tailgate about a half pint of water ran out of the inner cover / door card in the inner handle area. I searched the forum but couldn't find anyone with the same problem. I guess it must be getting in via the reg. plate area with the lamp and button wiring. I did change a reg. plate lamp in the spring but thought it all went back OK, and there is a little roof formed by design over this area anyway. Has anyone had this? How to fix?

Thanks,
Matt
 
Hi Matt, I have/had a similar issue with BB earlier this year. It seems to be related to a poorly fitted replacement rear window, which is slightly out of alignment and therefore letting water in somewhere along the edges. As a temporary release there are a number of holes along the lower edge of the tailgate which are covered by little rectangular rubber bungs. Just pop a few of these out, and lift tailgate about a 1/4 of the way and let the water drain.

For long term fix, it might be worth asking someone like AutoGlass etc. to have a look.
 
Thanks very much. I’ll give it a go.
I suppose the rubber bungs are to prevent exhaust fumes from being sucked in like if you drive with the tailgate open but tied down when transporting a sofa or similar.
I hadn’t looked to see if the tailgate has its original glass and will do. The outer skin of the tailgate feels like it is stuck to the inner panel with double sided tape that is coming adrift, meaning it feels like it pulls away when you lift the tailgate by the lower edge. Maybe that is my problem. My project FSI tailgate skin feels the exact same, but that one doesn’t fill up with rain.

Oddly I do also have the same problem with my A4 (B6) cabrio boot lid filling with rainwater. The consensus on that is it gets in around the centre brake lamp.


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Still got this issue with water entering, I’ve been too busy with other stuff. HOWEVER now it’s no longer opening on either the tailgate button or the central locking remote centre button which is meant to open the tailgate. I am using the manual release positioned on the offside below the glass.
The microswitch in the lock mechanism is working because DIS correctly displays a graphic warning when the tailgate is open, and not when it is shut. It was intermittent all last week and has now gone permanent. Having removed the tailgate liner, I put my volt meter on the connector of the motorised unlock actuator (usually incorrectly called a solenoid) and with the lock manually closed so the CCCU detects the tailgate closed, then press either tailgate unlock button, there’s no voltage pulse reaching it, neither when connected to nor disconnected from the actuator. The brown ground wire buzzed out fine to the body. Next I started wondering about a broken wire between the tailgate and body in the flexible section. I disconnected the connector at the actuator and measured a resistance of 1.64kOhm between the brown ground wire and the white wire with a purple trace that goes to the CCCU. This resistance must be inside the CCCU and shows there’s no break in the wiring, so now I’m thinking CCCU. It’s the AF suffix unit. Everything else seems to be working. There’s no water in the passenger underfloor bin where the CCCU lives (my 500g bag of silica gel is in there to keep the humidity constant and hopefully low). I’d be really grateful for some advice from @timmus or anyone with similar experience.
Matt


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Did you come to a conclusion with your leak?
My tailgate seems to fill with water and give me a nice shower when I open it …
 
You did read the above solution or did you just post without reading?
I was asking about a Solution to the question the post originally was asking - water in the tailgate.

I can see removing bungs helps drain it however that is not stopping the water from entering in the first place and being the probable cause of the failed release wiring/ solenoid

People have mentioned the fitment of glass or potential skin dis-bond but not concluded with anything solid.
 
I believe the spoiler is both "bonded" to the glass and also a couple of bolts. Still not sure if the water is inside the tailgate or the number plate panel. Number plate could also be a source of the water building up inside.

I gave a warning many months ago about never to fit the springs onto the tailgate struts as they can distort the tailgate, damage the strut mounting points or even break a hinge.
 
I am another who gets a shower from the latch when opening the tailgate. I have a theory as yet untested. I think the seal on the top edge of the spoiler had failed. Water runs down the hatch glass and seeps into the spoiler as mentioned above by audifan. I assume the spoiler has bolts at the extremeties into the hatch frame. When opening hatch the water in the spoiler pools at these bolt locations thereby getting into the hatch frame. The water then sits in the hatch frame until the hatch is opened whence is falls from its dam position to the latch.

I can't decide to take it all apart to confirm the theory or just run a bead of silicone sealer along the top spoiler/glass interface.
 
I must be super lucky - I have no tailgate leaks and I can't hear water sloshing around in the spoiler despite the lack of drain holes either!

Just as well - there's a storm just coming in now with a yellow weather warning in place here.
 
Drilling drain holes in the bottom corners of the spoiler ought to solve all the possible causes of water ingress into the hatch via the spoiler's mountings discussed above. The number plate is another possibility though.
 
I must be super lucky - I have no tailgate leaks and I can't hear water sloshing around in the spoiler despite the lack of drain holes either!

Just as well - there's a storm just coming in now with a yellow weather warning in place here.
I think we are all adapting and growing Webbed feet up in the North West. ☔🌧️🐸
 
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