Sunroof drains clogged, I think...???

SavageUrge · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2010 5:29 pm

Every time it rains moderately to heavily, my floor mats are damp or wet (depending on how heavy it rains). I'm thinking this is because my sunroof drains are clogged. I've come to this conclusion based solely on past threads that I've read on this forum. My questions are, where are the drains, how do I access them and how do you clean them out? Can I use a shop vac with a small attachment? Thanks for the help!

SavageUrge · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 12:57 pm

*Bump* any ideas folks?

HoosierJeeper · **Joined:** Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:23 am **Posts:** 1218

Some use an air compressor to blast them a bit.

SavageUrge · **Posted:** Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:56 am

Thanks, but I don't know where the drains are...front/ back / sides? Thanks

jimkelly · **Posted:** Sat Sep 04, 2010 6:39 pm

Yes definately. I had the same problem 3 months ago.

When it rained I would get water on the passengers side carpet. I only noticed after a severe rain and had 3" of water on the passengers floor.

The drains are located in the front corners of both sides of the sunroof. The drains run down the A pillars. The easiest thing would be to open up your sun roof and look in the front corners with a flashlight. You will see a black plastic flattened looking funnel that connects directly to the tube and it has no screen on it. (Not a good design Chrysler!) I learned this the hard way by taking everything apart. (mine had peices of oak seed in the funnel part right at the hole opening) That is most likely where the problem is.

Do not try to blow out the funnel if you see an obstruction try to remove it with needle nose pliers or shop vac with a crevis tool. If you cannot you will need to follow the directions below, clear the drain tubes then take air and blow the disconnected funnel out towards the sun roof.

If you dont see anything blocking the holes then you need to do the following to check the drain lines:

Remove the A Pillar covers with sock wrench (forget the exact size). You also need to unscrew the sun visors, you don't have to remove them though, you can let them hang out of the way. You also will need to remove the interior roof trim molding by the door. Once this is complete you can pull down the headliner enough to get your hand in the space between the headliner and the roof. You will see the black tube run right up to the corner near the sunroof. It just pulls off from the nipple, there is no hose clamp holding them together. I pulled the hose from under the headliner to where it was exposed enough so I could use my human powered blower to see if the was blocked. You could here the line was clear.

After I completed the instructions above only to find out that the lines were clear, I looked in the corners of the sun roof and found my problem. If I had only looked there first would have saved my self some time.

All that said the project stated above took about 30 minutes to complete per side.

Dont forget, you need to remove the bottom trim moldings and pull up the carpet to soak up all of the water hiding in all the areas of the floor pan. The carpet of the KJ has thick foam padding attached. I thought the carpet was dry ( and felt dry to the touch) only to find out the the padding was still water logged and the floor pan is not flat and has areas that could hold 1/2 gallon or more of liquid.

I was going to cut out my carpet and install herculiner so I would not have to worry about drying it out again, but I'm glad I did'nt, for what ever reason both sides of the floor contain large bundles of wires for the KJ systems and again the floor pans are not flat. You would think they would do a better job routing the wires.

Well good luck.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:58 pm

Speaking of wet floorboards, if you ever notice water in the cargo area or under the back seats, the 3rd brake lights have been known to lose their seal on the gasket and leak as well

SavageUrge · **Posted:** Sun Sep 05, 2010 11:34 am

Thanks for the details jimkelly! Good info jarhead, I'll keep a lookout for that too. I never thought about the high mount stop leaking.

jimkelly · **Posted:** Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:19 pm

SavageUrge wrote:

Thanks for the details jimkelly! Good info jarhead, I'll keep a lookout for that too. I never thought about the high mount stop leaking.

How did you make out? Did you find the problem?

SavageUrge · **Posted:** Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:31 pm

I still haven't found the time to check it out yet, LOL. I'll post up my findings when I do. Thanks again to everybody for the help and suggestions!

crasher · **Posted:** Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:28 pm

SavageUrge wrote:

I still haven't found the time to check it out yet, LOL. I'll post up my findings when I do. Thanks again to everybody for the help and suggestions!

Since this was the last post, I don't think S/U ever found the problem.

Yeah, I've been scouring the site looking for every tidbit of info I can find to fix my prob with the drains.
I can't find the drain exits in an '06 Liberty CRD.

papaindigo · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2015 10:51 am

The most common sources of water, excluding windscreen trim, on the front floor boards are:
1. in any vehicle with AC water on the passenger side is likely caused, been there done that several times, by a clogged HVAC housing drain. The drain is usually a little rubber thing, commonly with a semi formed/lightly closed end, located low on the front firewall below the lower level of the HVAC housing. I've seen them clogged with dead bugs, bits of crud from the grill area (NOTE the KJ does not have a filter on the HVAC system. It's a good idea occasionally, based on fall tree litter in your area, to pop the grill cover and clean things out. To do so remove both wiper blades and gently pry up the plastic pins, if they break idparts has replacements.), and algae.
2. on any vehicle with a sunroof water can show on either front floor board or in my case drips down the inside of the windscreen. On the KJ the sunroof drains are located as noted. If nothing is obviously trapped at the upper end, wasn't on mine, they can be routed out with like 3' of heavy duty weed whacker cord run in from the top followed by a bit of rinse water. If rinse water runs out on the ground around the back of the rear tires they are functioning fine. NOTES 1) don't leave sunroof cracked the least amount under vegitation that can drop stuff that will clog the drain and 2) when cleaning be careful, trust me, not to even slightly dislodge the sunroof trim or the leak with be worse.

I do not know where the down end of the drains are as I solved my problem with weed whacker cord.

Sunroof drains clogged, I think...???

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