dewdman42

Ok so I am driving along with my starbucks coffee in the A7 cup holder, I go to lift my cup up to my mouth to take a drink and somehow it slips and to make a long story short, spill coffee all over the place. There was like one inch deep coffee in the cup holder wells. I was on the highway. 2 miles later the coffee had drained to somewhere into the guts of the car under the cup holders.

I took out the rubber mat at the bottom of the cup holders and there is a big square hole there that shows some wires running underneath.

So basically the coffee drained into that area and now I smell stale coffee

Does anyone know how to open that area up so I can clean it?

Rick Pardo

I'm sorry for your painful and apparently smelly discovery. You would think that a car costing upwards of $70k would have been engineered to have an actual reservoir covering the wiring harness. I've already decided (having ridden in my wife's '11 A5 'Vert) that the cup holders are woefully undersized and, since I just picked up my A7 last Thursday, will use your experience as a cautionary tale. No large or extra large Dunkin' D's for me. I believe the spring loaded sides may have styrofoam piercing aspects - it's a road not worth exploring.

Please contact your dealer and make sure that nothing's in jeopardy from the leakage. Let us know the outcome.

mjm3457

Tragedy. Can you get a small vacuum tip in there to suck it up? but by now it has probably evaporated, and you are left with the smell. Maybe you can flush with a little detergent in water, and suck it back up?

It's something I have worried about because we both like to drink coffee in the car. My wife bought two of those expensive Audi ceramic cups with the leather sleeves for insulation. They do prevent side cup punctures from the fingers, but I don't recommend them. It is difficult to get the snap-in tops off for cleaning, painfully so, and the sleeves slide off and get lost. And, the ceramic is too hot to hold without them. Then we bought slimline stainless steel mugs with handles that work OK. We have not had problems with the standard paper coffee go-cups. But don't use styrofoam; too squishy and easily punctured.

dewdman42

I think the airspace under the cupholders is extensive, I have no idea how deep in there it went and yea the liquid has long since evaporated. Seems ridiculously bad that cup holders would have a hole in the bottom that leads to wiring. hehehe. Well I guess I will just hope the stale smell goes away eventually unless anyone has any idea how to open things up a bit more so I can go in there and clean. I will ask the dealer but I'm sure it would cost a lot to have them do it.

snagitseven

Not sure why Audi would have that hole in there in the first place. To access the wiring for continuity testing of some sort? Surely, there would be another way other than leaving a drain hole into the void. Others have used duct tape to seal the hole under the rubber insert. The whole cup holder design was clearly an afterthought by Audi engineers.