Drain cleaning again
 

So it's been a wee while since I last done the drains on the car and it's been dry here for a few days, so thought I would get busy.

Now the car does not live under trees but I was shocked at how much twigs and leaf debris that has accumulated since I last done it.

So today I decided to attack the scuttle with a different approach, the missus had a long thin brush kicking about under the stairs that's never used so I thought I would give it a go. It's very effective as the leaf debris and stuff sticks to it and gets pulled out quite easily so using that I went at it with the brush and Hoover for about 40 mins till it was clean.

The brush was most effective going in under the plenum from driver side, and the Hoover detailing attachment was best in the passenger side down through the heater hoses.

I also had a go again at the sunroof channels cleaned them out with wet wipes as there was a fine layer of sediment, I then got the bug spray bottle out and pumped warm soapy water down the forward drain hoses and then poured more water in the drainage tray and made sure the water drained away on its own.

After all the brushing and hoovering I got boiling water and flushed the scuttle out and made sure it came down form both sides of the tunnel.

Get the dyson out lad, better still, get a 50 litre compressor and it will blast the lot out and esp nozzling it down sunroof and door drains for example. Very cheap plus get some air tools and u will never be afraid of heavy duty on jack stands again ! Shock don't pull init. ��

I would love a compressor, however I would not advise using it to clean sunroof drains, if the outlet is properly blocked you run the risk of ruptured drain tubes.

The brush and vax was quite effective just slow.

Good post. For the sunroof I found this video quite helpful too...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFJXX0s6PfU

The sunroof is a pain.

My drains was blocked.
I removed the wheels, stripped the arch liner and cleaned the end of the drain tubes from the wheel side.

The ends are rubber and gets full of gunk.
Once that is out all that nasty gunky water runs down your arm. :)

I need to do my scuttle area as well.
That's loaded with crap.

Found out the hard way that at least one of my rear sunroof drains are blocked. Left work yesterday and the rear seat got soaked when I went round a corner.

Same today after some rain overnight.

So just how difficult is it to gain access to the rear sunroof drains in the wheel arch.

Pages 96 & 97 of THIS DOCUMENT should help Manny +++

Thanks Neil, took on the challenge today. Managed to get access to both sides. Assuming I was looking at the right things then both rears are clear inside the arch. So I added some water, and after all that it looks like the drivers side front is blocked. I have a photo of the outlet to add, in this picture the rear of the car is on the left of the picture.

Interestingly the strut on the drivers side rear looks like its been replaced at some point, the black ball part on the drivers side has less corrosion than the left.

Drains again
 

So recently I was up in Orkney visiting the family and typically it ****ed down while I was there, and I was unfortunate enough to find the sunroof drains had become blocked since my last cleaning. :mad:

So i managed to clear them with a bit of hose and a lot of huffing and puffing, me blowing down the drains.

I then popped the bonnet to find the scuttle area 3 inches deep in water too :mad:

Luckily I was parked on a steep hill so the water never made it inside the car through the air blower and I sucked it dry with a vax, took 3 fills of the vax to empty it :eek:

I had no tools with me so had to go to a local garage and borrow their stuff, I tried looking from below over the pit and the belly shields taken off but there is nothing to be seen down there.

I then made a long blow pipe from copper brake hose attached to a blow gun and bent the end over at 90 and fed that under the Pollen filter box and blasted hell out of it until i got the remaining water (still raining) to drain out the bottom.

Anyway since then I am back home and had a look at the drains again with nice dry weather.

With the scuttle covers off I have since found you can actually see one of the drain tube pieces on the passenger side of the car.

I then used my trusted bug spray tool that i made up for the sunroof to jet some soapy water down the hole and clean it out.

If you look in from the passenger side there is a couple of hoses and valves next to pollen filter box and if you go in through where i have in the picture you can move the hose down enough to see the drain hole.

Then you can manipulate the end of the hose down the hole and flush it through.

For the price of a bug spray bottle, don't leave your drains to chance it will bite you on the ass one day if you don't take care of them.

I was very unlucky earlier this year and discovered my cowl drain where clogged and that water was comming in both through the air fan and the seal around the air fan :mad:

So took all the carpets out for a week to dry out (both in the sun and on the bathroom floor).

Jacked up the car and used a long pin with some paper and surfex hd and cleaned the cowl drains.

Then i flushed it from above with boiling water before i used some swissvax pneu and made the drains more smooth so dirt dont stick as easy (hopefully).

I discovered that one of the metal clips holding the drains against the chassie had come loos and was clogging the one drain. Any tips on how to attach it again?


Will be checking these drains more regulary (sunroof and AC to).