View Single Post
Old Jun 6, 2008 | 10:06 PM
  #5  
A-series's Avatar
A-series
v-card member alpha
 
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,010
Likes: 0
From: Assplosion, NE
Default If you have a sunroof, here's the fix.

I found this link while doing a search, it ended up being the fix for my problem.
http://civic.indybbs.net/viewtopic.p...c0d232e6dad016

For those with a similar issue, only the floor of my driver's side was wet, first the front and because of the large amount of water it made it to the back as well. None of the carpet on the sides or against the firewall under the pedals was wet, only the floor - as if it might be coming up from below.

The sunroof drain tube consists of a yellow tube that runs from the sunroof itself and plugs into the black piece or "valve" where it exits the car behind the splash guard. Over time they partially separated and allowed most of the water coming down the tube to drip onto the wires under the dash (tight connections luckily so no damage) before draining onto the floor. It doesn't actually contact the carpet until it's on the floor because it's dripping behind where the carpet sits on the side, just past the dead pedal.

I ended up removing the main relay(being careful not to cut my hand again on the sharp point of the dash like I did when I re-flowed it's solder), hood release lever, and the bottom bolt of the bracket that is mentioned in the link - you'll know when you see it. I actually ended up bending it out of shape slightly and wedging my flashlight between the bracket and the carpet so I could get my hand in there.
I'd planned to use a hose clamp like the link suggested but the tight space and a rather small clamp made me abandon that, so I ended up applying some RTV silicone sealant/adhesive - a thin film for the inside where one tube fits into the other and a thicker layer around the outside, or as much as I could get to.

I went from a soaking wet front and rear driver's floor (a surprisingly large amount of water gets by the outside perimeter of the sunroof, especially in a monsoon) to nice and dry despite more rain since the repair. I haven't yet pulled my carpet up out of laziness so after drying with towels, I just ran my A/C a lot h:

The day before I found that link I did a temporary fix, which works if you don't have time to get under the dash, and it payed off by keeping water out of the tube while the adhesive dried since it started raining just as I was finishing up. I first wrapped a spare bolt with electrical tape and plugged it into the drain hole in the sunroof drain channel (just open and look) and just in case, I followed that up with duct tape around the perimeter of the sunroof.

If you don't see water dripping from under the dash when it's raining or you're in the car wash (as detailed in the TSB above) and you think this might be your problem, an easy check is to open the sunroof and poor a bottle of water directly into the drain hole. If doing that once or twice produces a noticeable wet spot on the carpet (and the drain valve outside only drips like mine) it's time to get under the dash.
Reply