The door weather strip sits on the outside of the door window and it forms part of the exterior seal that helps to reduce the amount of water that can run down the window glass and into the inside of the door.
I say "reduce" because water will always run down the inside of the door. It's part of the design, but during my investigation into water ingress, I found my seal to be inadequate.
The weather strip is part #8 in the diagram:
![Image]()
Part numbers are:
8J0837478C (right)
8J0837477C (left)
Prices are currently about £60 each from Audi.
As per the diagram, it is screwed into the car door door with a T15 screw, #10 on the diagram and is part number:
N10642801
7 screws are needed per door.
Why would you need to replace the weather strip?
Well, over time the velvet like coating that meets the glass can wear down and become flat, producing an inferior water seal.
Here's a pic of my old one (left) vs a new one (right). You can see that the wear on the velvet like coating has worn on mine:
![Image]()
The other thing that is different is the protrusion of the worn part. On mine it is less. It has lost flexibility and memory. The new one pushes back into its place with force and would be pushing onto the glass in a more firm manner.
Fitting the weather strip is not a simple task.
As per Ian's video (
) you need the door card off and access to the glass clamp screws for removing the glass.
When doing this task you may also wish to consider cleaning all around the seals and washing the glass (it will have a dirt line which creates the mess some people have when they wind their windows up.
Steps:
A couple of points I found:
I say "reduce" because water will always run down the inside of the door. It's part of the design, but during my investigation into water ingress, I found my seal to be inadequate.
The weather strip is part #8 in the diagram:
Part numbers are:
8J0837478C (right)
8J0837477C (left)
Prices are currently about £60 each from Audi.
As per the diagram, it is screwed into the car door door with a T15 screw, #10 on the diagram and is part number:
N10642801
7 screws are needed per door.
Why would you need to replace the weather strip?
Well, over time the velvet like coating that meets the glass can wear down and become flat, producing an inferior water seal.
Here's a pic of my old one (left) vs a new one (right). You can see that the wear on the velvet like coating has worn on mine:
The other thing that is different is the protrusion of the worn part. On mine it is less. It has lost flexibility and memory. The new one pushes back into its place with force and would be pushing onto the glass in a more firm manner.
Fitting the weather strip is not a simple task.
As per Ian's video (
When doing this task you may also wish to consider cleaning all around the seals and washing the glass (it will have a dirt line which creates the mess some people have when they wind their windows up.
Steps:
- Leave the window in the up position.
- Remove the door card (yeah, one line for that one
). - With the door card off, remove the large access panel/shield to get access to the glass clamp bolt (I think 12mm). Completely remove this bolt as it goes right through the glass (special hole in the glass).
- Remove the top bung (closest to the wing mirror) to get access to the other glass clamp which is a hefty torx screw (t30 I think). This screw stays in place!! Just loosen it!
- Release the glass from the clamps. It just pulls up and out. You may have to get your hand into the inside of the door to help wiggle the furthest clamp off, as it can be a little stuck with age.
- After the glass is out, remove the plastic triangle on the inside of the door next to the wing mirror but inside. Just prise it at the bottom then push up at the same time (t has a slot where it sits on the metal lip that is exposed out of the rubber seal).
- Removing this inside triangle will reveal more access to pull up the rubber gater slightly. Under the gater is a torx screw that will release the outside plastic triangle.
- With both inside and outside plastic triangles removed, you can now remove the aperture rubber seal. It pulls up, but it works best if you reach inside the door (long arm needed) to remove the seal from its place (just pull it). It is pushed into a recess that runs down inside the door. Removing it along the door edge is easy, just pull up. Do not pull it off at the side edge of the door (where the door lock is) because it connects onto the glued on part. You just need it out of the way.
In the picture below, mine has been removed. You can see in the middle of the picture is the recess that the rubber seal sits in when it runs into the inside of the door (for supporting the window glass as it lowers into the door):
- Once the rubber is out of the way, you will see the 7 torx screws that hold the weather strip to the door.
Most of mine were rusty, but one was really bad and took some effort to get it out.
A couple of points I found:
- The seal that runs down into the inside of the door needs triple checking that it is in place properly. It seats into the recess and the seal is designed to protect the glass from the metal. If the seal is not seated correctly/fully, then it causes the window regulator too mush strain and it cuts out (does not fully raise/lower the window).
It took me a while to figure out why mine was not working properly.
If it is not seated correctly it can also cause a lot of window squeal during lowering.
- The quality of the weather strip I got was not great. The eBay seller was really helpful and they said the pair I bought were from Audi direct. They looked OK, but on fitting there was a slight deformity right at the tip of the seal that points to the front of the car. I had to actually trim some excess rubber off a little rubber tab to make it fit as designed. I don't know if Audi would have done such a great job...
- The horizontal position of the weather strip affects how the front lip sits (at the front of the door). Too far backward and the lip is distorted as it has a small tab that needs to fit into the line of the door. Too far backward and the weather strip hangs over the edge of the door at the rear. Don't got tightening it all up without checking the alignment with the door nearly closed.
- The glass alignment is also critical. I put a section of masking tape along where the glass an the seal edge met. This allowed me to pull it up to the right height. If you push it too far down into the clamps, then when you close the door, it will not meet the roof line (will have a gap at the top of the window).
As well as vertical, you also need to pay attention to the horizontal position of the glass. Too far forward and the gap on the rubber where the real quarter window joins, will be too big (looks odd). So maybe another bit of masking tape is needed here also.
