Member Since: 19 Apr 2011
Location: Koeln
Posts: 32
Drying out
So I have finally realised I have a sunroof leak, tried first with curtain wire but that doesn't seemed to have worked, next job is to attack the drain ends to open them up, but question is how do I remove the tread plates so I can lift up the carpet a bit to try and dry it out, there is a fair bit of water on the floor!
Thanks
23rd Oct 2013 3:58 pm
jamie1859
Member Since: 08 Mar 2013
Location: hampshire
Posts: 11
Top tread guys and thanks very much, managed to solve my leak. Unfortunately I had to unblock both front drainage points the hard way, however your advice and photo's have possibly saved me a fortune. Thank you.
26th Oct 2013 12:02 am
mcorriga
Member Since: 28 Nov 2010
Location: Flackwell Heath
Posts: 50
The source of the nile
Like the rest of you I have been suffering from the occasional down-pour inside my Disco4 when the sunroof drains get blocked. Following the excellent advice from Gareth in the thread above I have mastered the process of unblocking the upper drains. Yesterday I set about finding out where the drains exit the vehicle to make sure there were no blockages there. I found that the drains exit immediately behind the air vents as shown below.
http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/albums/use...CN3439.JPG
You can see from this pic that I have removed the air vent and pulled to one side the rubber air hose. Once the rubber air hose has been pulled out you will see a rubber foam block (not pictured) which sits over the drain exit. The pic below shows the drain exit with the foam block removed.
http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/albums/use...3438~0.JPG
I tested this by pouring water through the sunroof and watching it gush out of this drain.
A few words on removing the air vent cover. If you check this clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuGhI7b7vdo) it all looks rather easy. I think the vent design has changed slightly between Disco3 and Disco4 and I could not get the vent off in the way shown on the clip. I did however manage to get it off very easily by un-clipping the wheel arch cover and reaching behind the air vent and depressing the clips with my fingers before pushing it out. Good luck!Disco 4 SE Tech (2015) Corris Grey
Renault Clio 1.2 16v (2006)
BMW R100RS (1981)
Yamaha XT500 (1977)
Triumph TR6 (1974)
3rd Nov 2013 7:01 pm
Bobs
Member Since: 29 Oct 2013
Location: Manchester
Posts: 2330
I dont have a sun roof ....
without a sunroof where does the water come from ???
Found water in the driver sill / wiring loom when replacing the trim ??
Removed as much as I could with kitchen paper ..
19th Nov 2013 8:35 pm
626nit
Member Since: 11 Dec 2013
Location: Houston
Posts: 2
Can anyone tell me how to take the headliner down or gain access to the drain hoses so I can flush
11th Dec 2013 3:54 pm
626nit
Member Since: 11 Dec 2013
Location: Houston
Posts: 2
Does anyone know how to take the headliner down to access the drain tubes? Any help would be greatly appreciated.....pics alway help, thanks.
11th Dec 2013 8:33 pm
Kentuckykid69
Member Since: 15 Mar 2007
Location: Tenby
Posts: 92
Hi Gareth
EXCELLENT Post - Thanks to everyone who has added to this - just done mine today
TO MAKE IT SO EASY - I USED STHIL STRIMMER CABLE - 2.7mm Thickness see pic
NOTE: USE 2.7mm cable not 2.4mm as in picture
Just fits like a glove ( Cable line required is 1460mm or 57.4" )
Fit it into hole and slowly push whislt turning the line - you will hear it at the end with someone down by the wing - pull and push to losen all the muck at the bottom.
Flushed with warm soapy water and it flows out each side - JOB DONE ( 10 mins total )
Once again - THANKS FOR A BRILLIANT POST
14th Jan 2014 3:46 pm
nujjer
Member Since: 29 Aug 2012
Location: DT11 9BW
Posts: 30
This is another great thread from this excellent forum. Here is my leaky-sunroof story to add to the body of knowledge. I had lurked around this thread for months before finally getting up the gumption to do the fix. The whole thing took about an hour including faffage.
1- Raise the car to high suspension setting and turn the wheels to full left lock (you will see why later)
2- Open the sunroof
3- 'unclip' the front edge of the wind deflector and flip it towards the rear of the car (easier from a step ladder than standing in the car).
4- Locate the drain holes in the corners (Gareth's red arrow)
5- For no other reason then to prove it to yourself, pour water into the front gutter, it will drain into the holes, but then stop when the tubes are full.
6- You could try rodding the tubes now (I did) and you might get lucky, but if you have read this thread you know that it's pointless.
7- Driver's side: remove the air intake grille (good advice on this thread http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic9963.ht...ake+grill) stand with your back to the car, shove your fingers through the grille, pull upwards to ease the bottom clips out and it will then hinge open along its top edge. Be mindful where you stick your fingers, some of the plastic grille is thin, I broke a bit.
8- Pull aside the rubber air scoop and locate the dense foam insert. It's bigger than it looks in other pix on this forum so I have added a pic here.
9- Wrestle with the insert and pull it out.
10- The 'Stupid Cross Thing' is visible, a little probing with a screwdriver will liberate some gunk. Using scissors, feather, ie hack, the SCT, and water will flow. Yay!
11- Various rodding tools have been suggested. I used coaxial cable from a satellite dish. Perfect.
12- Firmly but carefully insert your rod. There is a bit of resistance at about 5cm where there is possibly a pipe join, after that continue until you bottom out. The rod will not come out of the SCT due to 90 deg bend which is part of the SCT itself. The pipe follows a straight route so you can hold your rod up against the side of the car to see if you have the correct length.
13- Oscillate the rod up and down a little to loosen gunk, withdraw it and test with some water. It drains out behind the mudflap.
14- Squeeze water out of the dense sponge and ram it back into place, it's a bit of a struggle, but you are the human and it's just a stupid object, right?
15- Easily refit the grille
16- Take a break. You have done the easy bit.
17- Passenger side: remove the mudflap, 2x8mm bolts.
18- Staring at the mudflap end, remove 2 push rivets from the underside of the outer wheel arch trim (use a small screwdriver to prise out the centre plug, then withdraw the body of the rivet with pliers or possibly your fingers).
19- Pop off the trim from the mudflap-end to as far as the top of the arch, no need to remove the whole thing.
20- Remove 2 push rivets from the centre area of the large inner wheel arch (easy to find, about 20-30cm up from the mudflap). You should now have something like the pic.
21- Say goodbye to the skin on the knuckles of your right hand.
22- With some difficulty force your hand up to the approximate area of the SCT, directly opposite the driver's side one. It's not hard to find, so keep feeling.
23- I found mine to be crispy and very gunky. I used a small screwdriver to probe out the gunk (careful not to shove the SCT into its hole) and pulled away crispy rubber with my fingers.
24- Back on the step ladder. Rod away. Test.
25- For comfort I poured a litre of hot soapy water through the system. It flowed out very quickly. Nice.
26- Refit inner arch, outer arch and mudflap.
I used a wet'n'dry vacuum cleaner on the passenger carpet and sucked up about a liter of water.
15th Feb 2014 5:06 pm
Gareth Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26779
Thanx to those who have contributed to this thread. I recently have experienced water running out of the SRS tabs after a wash or sustained rain. Further inspection led to the discovery that water in left side of the tray didn't appear to be draining at all; while water in the right side of the tray was slowly draining.
After reading thru several posts and looking at the difficulties associated with trying to access the south end of the tubes, I decided to try another route...Liquid Plumber. To solve the problem I picked up a bottle of the slow pouring/draining gel clog cleaner and poured some in both sides of the drain tray. Long story short, after about 10 or so minutes of setting, the right side cleared quickly, made some gurgling sounds and drained rapidly. Per instructions, I followed up with a good amount of hot tap water. The left side (driver side for me), didn't fare as well.
The left side proved to be much more stubborn. Ultimately I alternated between clog cleaner and hot water on and off for a couple of hours. Getting the fluid to drain by first using a coated electrical wire that was really difficult to use as a snake (not stiff enough) and eventually discovering that soldering wire worked much better. Ultimately I got the left side drain to drain, but not nearly as well as the right side. That was too days ago.
Today was a beautiful day so I decided to tackle the problem once again before the cold front and rains return. Armed with the latest photos of the rubber grommet in the left footwell, I went to work. Upon removal, I was surprised to find that the enter and exit holes of the rubber elbow grommet were quite large...and unobstructed. So back together it went...and another test of water...no better. :1(
Long story but after a couple more uses of the Liquid Plumber and the soldering wire as the snake and boom, the system started gurgling and the fluid drained out quickly! I don't know what was in the line (most likely decayed leaf bits or strands of oak pollen), but it appears that the Liquid Plumber did the trick. Now both drains sound like a toilet flushing as the liquid poured into the pan drains out quickly.
Thanx again to all that contributed.LR -- 2005 LR3 -- Zambezi Sliver
JR -- 2002 Range Rover HSE -- Zambezi Silver
Vandy -- 1999 Jaguar XJ8 VDP -- Mistral Metallic (now has a new home)
Blue - 2006 Audi A6 Quattro 4.2 -- Pearl Midnight Blue
12th Mar 2014 1:58 am
JFE
Member Since: 07 Feb 2014
Location: Mpumalanga
Posts: 26
Fixed mine yesterday. The elbow from the sunroof drain at the bottom was so bad I did not realise looking from the outside (air intake on the RHD) that it wasn't sealing at all anymore. When I took the covers off inside it came loose and hung there. Temporary fixed by putting it from the outside in.
13th Mar 2014 4:49 am
wizbongre
Member Since: 26 Oct 2013
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 698
We've started getting problems with water running out the bottom of the drivers side (RHD) interior A-pillar trim, running down the side of the dash and soaking the carpet in the driver's footwell. I don't know if it is the sunroof drains or the external A-pillar trim.
On my list of things to do is buy an A-pillar trim kit from TLO (if I ever get around to doing it!) and also following all of the excellent advice here on this thread.
Similar to Crosbo, I was considering using some sort of chemical cleaner to see if it is any better than rodding alone but I'm wary of how it may affect some of the material it comes into contact with.
Will see how I get on the manual way first...Cheers,
Gareth
'57 D3 2.7 TDV6 HSE gone and soon to be forgotten!
‘15 D4 3.0 SDV6 HSE Luxury
'64 Audi A6 3.0BiTDi Quattro S-Line Black Edition with lots of toys
Funny you ask Wiz, that is the same question the service guy at my local LR shop asked me yesterday after I told him I used the Liquid Plumber. As for any lasting issues...the Liquid Plumber gel I used did not appear to harm the plastic/nylon tubes nor the rubber elbow.
I did spill some into the sunroof track and it really cleaned the lubed mess, but I've noticed no harm. I should also say that I goofed and spilled some onto my leather seats...oops...crap!!! That had me worried, but I wiped it up and then thoroughly wiped it down with a wet cloth as soon as I spotted the mess. Perhaps I got lucky, but no damage there either.
The trick for me was carefully rodding with the gel/acid still standing, when the clog on the left side didn't immediately go away. I was careful with my fingers and I used an absorbent rag to wipe the soldering wire as I withdrew it from the tube.
In any case, I made sure to rinse the system with plenty of hot water once the clog was alleviated.
Good luck to you.LR -- 2005 LR3 -- Zambezi Sliver
JR -- 2002 Range Rover HSE -- Zambezi Silver
Vandy -- 1999 Jaguar XJ8 VDP -- Mistral Metallic (now has a new home)
Blue - 2006 Audi A6 Quattro 4.2 -- Pearl Midnight Blue
I should mention the next step that I was going to take if the Liquid Plumber hadn't worked. The next step I was going to take was to purchase the 2.7mm trimmer line as Kentucky had suggested, cut to length and then used my electric drill with the trimmer line.
I've done this is the past on the EGT of my Powerstroke diesel, where the tubes are notorious for clogging. A good spray with brake cleaner and use of the trimmer line with the drill allows for the bends and turns and does a great job of cleaning the inside without causing damage. Worked like a charm.
Of course if the problem is at the angled rubber grommet, then this may not have worked. But I was attempting to avoid the more complicated matter of tearing into the fender well.LR -- 2005 LR3 -- Zambezi Sliver
JR -- 2002 Range Rover HSE -- Zambezi Silver
Vandy -- 1999 Jaguar XJ8 VDP -- Mistral Metallic (now has a new home)
Blue - 2006 Audi A6 Quattro 4.2 -- Pearl Midnight Blue
13th Mar 2014 3:53 pm
therealboss
Member Since: 21 Mar 2014
Location: Co Carlow
Posts: 1958
Excellent tread guys and thank you very much, managed to solve my leak, now to get the carpet dry.
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