Sunroof drains to where?

[SBC]

My passenger front footwell is flooded. When I pulled the carpet today, I found at least one inch of water. I am rather sure it's because the sunroof drain hose leads down to the floor, where it's supposed to go out through a drain plug. But where IS that drain plug anyway?

Btw, I drive an early E32, but I am rather sure they are the same...

[Mr Project]

Well, I can tell you the source, since I just did my headliner....There are 4 tubes on my 535i, one from each corner of the plastic frame. 2 down the A pillars, and I think the rear ones were down the B pillars, rather than the C....darn my foggy memory!

If you aren't sure, probably just easiest to pour some water down that sunroof drain and see if it comes out on your floor while the carpet is out.....

[SBC]

Thanks, but I know where the tube ends. It ends just above the floor, where, in my car, it has no way out! The drain plugs surely must be clogged, but I have no idea where they are.

Btw. the drain I am working on is the right hand side A-pillar, but when I have found the solution and know what to look for, I will check the remaining 3 drains.

[Elekta]

weed eater line, snake the drain line until you see it come out under the chassis. There are little metal flutes about mid ships under the car where your line will come out.

I always pressure wash my drain holes when I wash the touring to prevent this.

[SBC]

530iTouring
The lines end inside the car, and not directly at a drain. If I push a wire through the line, It just comes out at the other end and hits the floor.

Looks like the water drains on to the floor and then run to a drain plug, which I am unable to locate.

If you know where these drains are, can you please try to give me more precise directions? Thanks.

[SBC]

Just got back from a visit under my car. I tried to locate the drain plugs, but I am not sure if I found them...?

For those interested, I have uploaded a few pictures on my site. The first one http://www.homeofsbc.com/picture1.jpg display two simple holes. The picture was taken by using a mirror, since the lowered car doesn't leave much space for a camera.

http://www.homeofsbc.com/picture2.jpg looks more like a drain outlet to me. I found something like 5 of these from the front to the rear wheel, but they were all closed. Scratching on the inside made a metallic shine, so I guess this isn't the drain plugs after all.

Burried on the the passenger footwell carpet I found these plugs http://www.homeofsbc.com/picture3.jpg, but they seem to be completely sealed?

While I was at it, I also took a look inside the engine bay, trying to find the AC outlet hose and to see if the ebox connection through the firewall was leaking. My model has no connection from the ebox, though, and there wasn't any room whatsoever to check for the AC drain.

So all in all, I feel like a complete jackass, not being able to find/do anything. Unless someone here is able to help during the weekend, I guess I'll be visiting BMW on Monday... :-(

[SBC]

It seems that I have found the solution myself, but due to the lack of interest in this thread, I won't waste my time writing it here. In case anyone in the future finds this thread during a search, stop by my site. I may have written a few words about it by then...

www.homeofsbc.com

[Jason]

Mine is sagging and I would like to fix it, in toying with the idea of synthetic suede like the E39 M5.... any thoughts?

[Unregistered]

It seems that I have found the solution myself, but due to the lack of interest in this thread, I won't waste my time writing it here. In case anyone in the future finds this thread during a search, stop by my site. I may have written a few words about it by then...

www.homeofsbc.com

Nothing on the site about the drain hole solution, what was that site address again, www.homeofsob.com?

[sbcncsu]

It seems that I have found the solution myself, but due to the lack of interest in this thread, I won't waste my time writing it here. In case anyone in the future finds this thread during a search, stop by my site. I may have written a few words about it by then...

www.homeofsbc.com


Nice...

Anyway, on the E30s of the same vintage, the drains end behind the kick panels, beneath the A pillars. There is a cavity there where the fender attaches to the Unibody. That cavity can, and will fill up with crud clogging the drains where the fender is welded to the a pillar base / rocker panel. The drains look like tiny louvers where the seams come together.

I think you have a problem if your sunroof is draining into the floor pan. You need to check and make sure the drain tubes go down into the kick panel. The rear drains on the e30 go down the C pillar into the fender just in front of the rear wheel, same thing applies there.

HTH.

[SBC]

Nothing on the site about the drain hole solution, what was that site address again, www.homeofsob.com?

Unregistered
Guest

I find it very interesting that you have nothing positive to add whatsoever. Instead you just complain that I haven't updated my site during the 38 minutes from my posting to yours!

At least my site has been of help to quite a few of the 100.000+ visitors so far. I spend up to 2 hours each day replying to emails about BMW repairs, but I guess that is not enough for you?

Due to the lack of response here, I have been at BMW paying $150 an hour to get some help with this problem. During the work done to fix this, I took more than 30 photos, which may or may not be used on my site.

And you? You don't even have the courtesy to make your identity public, yet you don't understand why I won't spent a lot of time explaining things that seems to be of no immediate interest to this board?


sbcncsu,
Sounds sorta like the same, yes. Everything was messed up quite badly on my car, though. It appears that the drain has been clogged for a long time, which made rust eat through into the floor pan! The result was water everywhere and a problem a bit difficult to locate (could have been the AC outlet too).

If the interest is high enough and I find the time (not much of that these days), I will update my site with the info, to help others fix this problem before it gets as bad as mine. Not sure if this exact thing takes priority, though, since I have already collected more than 500 pictures for new repair sections...