Thread: Sunroof drain repair/modification

After finding the reason my key fobs were no longer working and repairing the connection (Solder and heat shrink) I then had to find out where the water ingress was coming from. It didn’t take too long to find the passenger side drain behind the fake intake vent was the cause. The rubber elbow had basically turned into a goo and was no longer sending any water from the drain to outside of the cabin area but rather draining straight back into the passenger side foot-well….the cause of the corrosion of the remote access wires and remote key not working. The hardest part was that the drain tube was now no longer accessible as it had become dislodged from what was left of the rubber elbow.
After lots of searching on the internet all solutions were either showing the drain tube protruding through the cavity where the rubber elbow drains the water out or from inside the cabin behind the Central Junction Box (CJ. Access to which is a major pull apart of the interior! I tried several alternative ways to gain access to the end of the drain tube including having a look behind the battery and fuse box, I tried removing the plastic trim at the base of the windscreen and of course in the end started pulling apart the inside of the car….. Then an idea, what if I were to enlarge the size of the hole that the rubber elbow/drain protrudes from to gain access to the drain tube? That is exactly what I have now done. I have enlarged the hole to 22mm to give access to the drain tube to give access of long nose pliers….no way it was budging to bring it out through the enlarged hole! At least without doing damage, and also found that the internal diameter of the drain tube is almost identical to that of a 4mm riser pipe as used on the garden irrigation system (available from pretty much any hardware shop for next to nothing). To finish things of I have glued the new pipe into the original drain tube, put a 22mm rubber grommet to cover the enlarged hole with the new pipe poking through, and then routed the new pipe outside of the car. Tested and finished….total cost under $10 and minimal effort.
Drain hole enlarged to 22mm.jpgEasier access to drain tube.jpgOutside diameter of drain tube extension.jpgExtended drain tube ready to be installed.jpgGlue applied ready for installation.jpgDrain tube instaled.jpg

Its a pain to get to but i removed the CJB on my D3 to get to the end of the hose only to find the hose and end fitting was good, still it was the best way to unblock the hose since there is no vent on the LH side unlike a D4.
A few good reads on the disco3 forum and the CJB was actually quite easy to get once i knew how.