Just wanted to add to this thread another much quicker/easier method that worked for me recently ...
I know some people are probably gonna gasp in horror when I say this, but I used
Mr Muscle Kitchen & Bathroom Drain Gel and it worked a treat.
I would've used the tried and tested method, except I didn't have any copper pipe and I needed to use the car immediately to respond to an IT emergency call. Also, it was snowing/raining quite heavily at the time and I didn't want to get the carpets any wetter than they had already become.
I did stop to think whether such drain cleaner could do any harm but, thinking about it logically, I decided that if it was harmless enough when used on plastic sink drains and U-bends, it's unlikely to do any harm to any of the car's plastics, since these will, if anything, be made from tougher stuff, capable of withstanding the harsher environment in which they reside. I had used the same product countless times around the house and I knew it worked well and was safe to use.
Here's what I did:
- Got a length of rubber hose and syphoned out as much of the standing water as possible.
- Frantically spat out accidently sucked up dirty water and washed mouth out several times.
- Poured in about 400-500ml of drain cleaner.
- Waited about 20-30 mins (may be best to wait slightly longer, but I was in a rush).
- Poured in a kettle of recently boiled water.
Immediately the water started pouring out of the drain. I poured a few more kettle-fulls through, just to be sure and, so far, the drain has remained unblocked.
(and I don't seem to have contracted any life-threatening disease from the mouthful of dirty water I nearly swallowed, which is a bonus).
EDIT: I'm tempted to get
some of this ... and perhaps pour a cap-full down every few weeks as a preventative measure.
(UPDATE: The link directly above was referring to
this product, which seems to be no longer available unfortunately)