Clogging sunroof drain lines

doesn't seem too bad a price for a main dealer! to stop it happening again, when you wash it, open the sunroof and pull out any bits of leaves or other s**te that is in the frome the sunroof runs in.

very much doubt you have any way of reclaiming you money for this. as it has occured due to the operating environment the vehicle has been exposed to, and is nothing to do with mechanical failure. just one of those things i'm afraid

It shouldn't be, but it is a maintenance item on any VW with a sunroof. Just feed some string trimmer line or soft wire carefully down the drain tubes and then flush with a little water. I'm surprised VW hasn't gone to larger diameter tubing for their sunroof drains as every VW I've had has had this issue from my '84 'roccet to my '02 GTI.

good luck

nate

well said, time to pay up and move on!

bigger maybe better, but the ID of the hose is around 10-11mm already. It's usually just crap plugging the duck bills at the ends of the tubes.

it's not just a vw thing! every car i've had with a sliding sunroof has done this!

Nate, what is this string trimmer line or soft wire? Can this be had at the local hardware store? I don't have a Jetta but I have a Taurus that has a moon roof. It's about 3 years old. After reading the origional post I realize that I have never cleaned the drain tubes. Is it just a simple up and down motion, or you you twist it? I rains a lot here and so I feel this is important.

Honda's too!

Jim B.

Bigger issue on some of the models (Passat) is that the water can submerge the CCM unit, causing it to fail. It is the lowest point under the driver's floor. if the driver's side carper is wet, chances are the CCM is submerged.

Passats also have a problem with the drain in the firewall under the battery clogging, sending water into the cabin.

I have owned about a dozen cars over the years, including 3 VWs. IMHO, this flooding problem is nothing more than a weak design. No other make or model of VW I have owned has been prone to this problem.

Be cautious running something into sunroof drains to clean. On Passats, there is a joint inside you can disconnect. Then you have to pull the headliner.

If its clogged badly I use my power drill with a flex-extetion and give then a good routing.....

I had this happen last year on my '01 GTI. The front passenger well was soaked along with the headliner above the passenger visor. Mine was covered by the warranty luckily.

and rip the hoses loose so you need to lower the headliner and all the trim to fix it! Not a good way to fix the porblem!

I have 69,000 miles on my 99 GLX Passat and haven't had any problems with my drains and never found a need to clean them yet!

snip

I have seen cabin flooding due to clogged drains on A1s and A2s. I just had to clear up the drains on a 92 Cabriolet today. ;-) These are usually the drains by the wiper motor.

later, dave (One out of many daves)

182,000 miles on a '91 GTI and have never had this problem.

I think it's more to where you live and where you park the car. Parking near or under trees... and you gonna get a lot more crap(leaves & twigs, etc) that can plug the drains.

164,000 on my '92 Jetta and have never had a problem. Also never had any problem with other cars '84 Scirocco, '82 4000s, '97 A6q all had sunroofs that were used all the time and until recently they were parked outside under trees. Sometimes even pine trees.

I guess the engineering logic is that properly maintained cars are not subject to being improperly parked under trees, at least in The Fatherland. Foolish Americans! .

Or the owners asks the dealer "Hey I got 10lbs of leaves around the wiper blades, could you clean them out"?