help with sunroof drains!!!

[toddjb122]

kwlr3, this is a huge help. Thanks. A couple questions...

...
The mostly likely cause of water in the footwell is the failure of the drain tube elbow. If the sunroof drain is clogged, the water will be in the headliner. Is there water dripping from the interior light fixture? if not, then the sunroof drain is fine, the carpet is getting wet because the drain tube no longer exits out the fender wall.

I have all the symptoms of the elbow missing, but, I will get an extremely slow drip from the interior light fixture. So, what does that mean? When I get that drip, I usually then look under my driver's side mat and see that it is wet. Passenger side is always dry.

...
You will likely see that the rubber elbow is no longer attached to the fender wall, This is where the water is coming from. You will need to buy a new drain tube just to get the rubber elbow. You can slip the old one off and replace with new. ....

Why do I have to buy a new elbow? Just want to make sure I have the parts before I tear things apart. Is this a standard elbow I can buy in a hardware or aquarium store, or do I need to get the part from LR?

Thanks again.

 

[dantheman1]

I highly suggest you read this thread: http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic22757-15.html
There's a few posts in there from me with pictures of the drain tube and what exactly to take apart.
What I did:
1. Find the "******" exit point of the drain tube and trim it so water flows more freely. Also trim the foam piece over the water exit.
2. After unscrewing a-pillar trim, unscrew sunshade and upper grab handle to pull down headliner.
3. Pull out tube connected to sunroof tray
4. Pour/force water down the tube until it flows freely.
5. Re-attach drain tube and put it all back together.

The reason water gets down to the floorboard and light fixture is because when the drains become clogged, water will jump onto the sunroof rails and slide down the end into the interior. The sunroof rails have no cap at the front, they're wide open into the headliner. Hope this helps.

 

[kwlr3]

todjb 122: It's possible you have two problems, a clogged sunroof drain or even a cracked or loose sunroof tray There are some instances out there of cracked sunroof trays causing leaks. I would start with the easy fix first. See what's going on with the end of the drain tube. I don't think you will find the elbow from another source. I made a temporary fix by splicing the sunroof drain tube to another pice of tubing and running that out the fender wall.

If you have water in your foot well and in the headliner I would say they are coming from two different sources. It takes a lot of water to soak the foot well enough to see it. There is a wiring channel under the carpet next to the rocker panel that can hold a lot of water. For the volume of water it takes to fill the foot well, if it where coming just from the sunroof, I would think that the entire dash, A pillar and all the edges of the header would be wet.

 

[dantheman1]

If you have water in your foot well and in the headliner I would say they are coming from two different sources. It takes a lot of water to soak the foot well enough to see it. There is a wiring channel under the carpet next to the rocker panel that can hold a lot of water. For the volume of water it takes to fill the foot well, if it where coming just from the sunroof, I would think that the entire dash, A pillar and all the edges of the header would be wet.

This was definitely not true for me. The carpet and wiring channel had a few inches of water in there, I mean, it was really bad, but the edges of the headliner, a-pillar, and dashboard were dry. HOWEVER, when I parked the car on a downward slope, water would fill the light fixture and a few drops would fall on the dashboard. It was the same problem both times though, a clogged sunroof drain causing the water to jump onto the sunroof rails and slide right into the top of the headliner where it would snake down the a-pillar into the floorwell. Once I cleared up the drains, I've never had a problem since.

 

[toddjb122]

Well, I have to admit that I punted on this one and took it to the dealer. Beyond my failed attempt to blow out the lines, I stopped short of removing the a-pillar cover and foot well trim once I read some other threads indicating that it could be a host of issues that could involve me dropping the headliner, b piller, and far exceeding my available free time.

The dealer could not find the problem. I think all they do is blow out the lines and maybe check to see that water drained. They called in their sunroof leak specialists who have a fixed rate to diagnose and fix all problems. According to them my issue was not the elbow going from the a-pllar to the fender. Some of my drain tubes were going uphill, they said. They had to partially drop the headline and readjust the tubes.

Sounds like it was related to issues already identified in these threads. Could have been tight turns of the drain tube that crimp and restrict flow... as I don't think a tube running "uphill" would cause a leak. All that is going to cause is me having a trap that retains water, but the outlet is still well below the inlet.

In any case, they fixed the problem and I have a 12 month warranty against future leaks. For $200 and a free loaner car while they worked on it, I think that is money well spent. I got to use the pickup truck loaner to pick up a large picnic table I had just purchased and was still deciding how I'd get it home.

 

[murp0837]

I hate to bump this thread again, but has anyone had this repaired at the dealer? My LR3 is no longer under warranty, and all these do-it-yourself solutions seem a bit overwhelming. What's the approximate cost of repair at the dealer? It doesn't seem like the parts would be expensive.

 

[merrion13]

Murp, I just got mine fixed at the dealer this morning. I spent about 3 hours yesterday doing some troubleshooting including removing the fender port grill and clipping that tube, removing the trim on my passenger side floor and pulling up the carpet to shopvac the water, also removing the A-Pillar. This is how I found out that the drain tube was disconnected at the sunroof.
Dealer charged my 2 hours of labor ($240) which involved them removing the headliner, flushing all hoses and making sure connections were sound, clipping the remaining drain spouts and putting everything together.

I didn't want to drop the headliner myself but I was glad I did the other steps as it enabled me to clearly describe what I needed the dealer to do and I'm assuming made it cheaper for me since I had already done some of the work. Now I just need my floor to finish drying but hopefully this is the end of the sunroof leak.

 

[Houm_WA]

My dealer did some other fix whereby they modified the sunroof rails to mitigate a leak. That cost me about $150. Anyone ever heard of a sunroof rail mod?

 

[Houm_WA]

...my drains had already been clipped.

 

[cjaskuls]

hey murp,

I took mine to the dealers in the end. they charged me for an hour labour (120$) and wrapped the wiring in a water resistant coating so when (notice not 'if') this happens again I'll basically only have wet carpets, but the keyless and everything else should survive.