Access to Front Passenger Drain Tube

[goochman]

After alot of carpet pulling, rubber mat cutting, and towel drying Im 99% certain I found my water leak and its the front passenger drain tube for the sunroof.

There are some good pictures of how to get to the front driver side but not passenger. From my experiments I think Ive found the 'cubby' where the tube should connect with the drain however I can barely get my fingers in there let alone try to reconnect some tubes.

Ive attached some pictures and am hoping someone can give me some guidence on the best way to access this - Im almost wondering if it would be better to make my own drain though Im not so sure about drilling a hole through the bottom of the car :O

From the 3 pictures I have a question - 1, there is a black plastic piece under the glove compartment that Im sure needs to come off - is the glovebox attached to this piece - ie, am I basically removing the entire glovebox assembly?

The under the glovebox picture of the rubber mat - access from what I can see is just above the popped out rectangle leaving little room for fingers

Any best advice here on how to plug this leak? Its driving me insane.

--Looks like I dont have perms to post pictures so if anyone has some advice on what needs to be pulled to access this drain tube Id appreciate it.

Also any thoughts on drilling a new drain hole under the passenger footwell?

[goochman]

I took a harder look at the sunroof leak thread and noticed the passenger drain is shown - I was able to get the flexible tube out and I pulled the hard tube from the top - ie, confirmation its disconnected.

I tried to fish the hard tube back down so I could reconnect but I can find it with my fingers - Im thinking this might not have been a good idea. I havent been able to cut as high as is shown in the pictures so I am going to take my knife out and see if I can get higher. This is a real tight fit.....but I feel I am closer.

[goochman]

Success!

I was determined to rip apart the car until I got the pipe connected. I took a different route that might be helpful to others.

1. I would recommend not pulling the tube from the top of the dash (the hard tube) - it is difficult to get it back to the exact spot if you do this.

2. If you cut a hole and find the soft tube that leads to the drain but cant find the hard tube from the top of the dash then I would suggest the following - grab 2 old coat hangers (i used 2 of the dry cleaner cheap ones). Fold 1 in half and crimp it so its pretty close together. Fish this down the hole in the top of the dash until you see it in the passenger footwell. Straighten out the 2nd hanger and 'hook' it to the first and pull up to the top of the dash. Connect the hard pipe to the pulled hanger and use this to pull down and find it. I connected the hanger just above the 'connector tip' so I could connect the tubes without interference.

3. This made it easier (I cant say easy) to find the hard tube from the top - though I had VERY little space to work from - I was not able to make a clean hole with access like the sunroof leak pictures showed - mine seemed smaller or the hard tube didnt come down as far - anyhow I was able to connect the 2 tubes by pulling on the coat hanger and pushing up.

After doing this I realized I could leave my coat hanger under the carpet in case this tube ever became disconnected again. It wouldve been impossible for me to place a clamp or tape the connection due to the very small space I had to work with.

I poured 2 cups of water in the sunroof and it all seemed to drain out!

Id mention that if the hard tube was about 1 or 2 inches longer it would be alot easier to fix this issue - someone should make an extender!

Fingers crossed on the long haul but atleast the Bonneville is back together.

Next project is to fix the heated drivers seat!

[vogie01]

You should of used a water hose to test the drains before you started the re-install. The pressure from a heavy rain or car wash might just break those loose again.

I just completed fixing all the leaks on my 02 SLE as well. I had to due multiple tests because of where the water was flowing to in the cab. The water seemed to be from the front drains, and was really the door.

Did you check your doors for leaks? The door leaks are more common than the sunroof drains.

[goochman]

You should of used a water hose to test the drains before you started the re-install. The pressure from a heavy rain or car wash might just break those loose again.

I just completed fixing all the leaks on my 02 SLE as well. I had to due multiple tests because of where the water was flowing to in the cab. The water seemed to be from the front drains, and was really the door.

Did you check your doors for leaks? The door leaks are more common than the sunroof drains.

Yeah I ran a hose around all 4 doors since originally I couldnt find where the leak was coming from. On the surface it seemed like all 4 drain tubes were working. Water was pooling in the rear passenger area - I finally isolated the water leaking from the front tube and dribbling down the footwell and traversing along the edge of the door to the back footwell. No water came in through the doorsills.

I also realigned my sunroof. I agree it could come off again - if it does I will put some super glue around the hard tube connector before reattaching. Now that I can find the hose everytime now will make it faster to get to the root cause.

[vogie01]

No water came in through the doorsills.

I also realigned my sunroof. I agree it could come off again - if it does I will put some super glue around the hard tube connector before reattaching. Now that I can find the hose everytime now will make it faster to get to the root cause.

The door seal does not usually leak, it is the door itself. There is a plastic sheet behind the door panel that become disconnected, and lets water into the cab. Very common. You can fix it by just removing the door panel.

Check this out if you have not already. viewtopic.php?f=43&t=11470

[flabonny03]

Gooch,

Wish I could see your pics.

I'm having the same issues, but mostly on the driver side. I removed the drain tube from the dash, but am having a tough time re-routing it back into place. Your hanger method might be the ticket.

However, I also haven't figured out how to remove the parking brake pedal. What did you do?