Hi All. The region I live in has had a very wet summer and I recently got into my '19 Clubman to discover a substantial amount of water on the rear floorboard. I'm pretty certain it's the common sunroof drain issue since it looks like it ran from the headliner down the side of the car and to the floor. I removed the rear seat and carpets to dry the car, cleaned the front drain lines, and ensured they now flow out of the car. All of which brought me to this question...

Are there rear drain lines for the sunroof as well? I noticed the parts diagram shows them w/ a part #, but I can't find where they exit the vehicle if they do exist. Perhaps US Spec car do not have them? I found a pic of the part at a foreign salvage site and the hose looked pretty short; too short to reach the bottom of the car. I'm not dying to pull the headliner out, but I will if I need to. I fear a hose may be disconnected above it. Does anyone have any experience with rear drains? If they are there, can I just remove the rear (fixed) glass to get to them?

Thanks for your help!

 

Did you ever find the locations for the rear sunroof drains? I am having the same exact problem with my 2020 F54. Rear drivers side footwell had almost an inch of water in the bottom. So frustrating, have owned the car for eight months and currently only has 15k miles on it...

Front drains were flowing well. Lifted the front end of the car using ramps and did a water test. It was weird. On the passenger side of the car, the water seemed to flow out of a hole up near the top of the trunk opening, right near where that small vertical piece of the weather seal is. No obvious drain port though. On the drivers side, no water would come out the back end. However, a bunch came out of a tiny hole under the b-pillar. The hole is around the size of a grain of rice, I think it is meant to be a drain for water stuck in the plastic cladding on the rocker panel.

Both were not what I was expecting. Was expecting the drain ports to be behind the fender liner under the c-pillar. I'm sort of thinking there is a clog, but that the water is finding another way out there. Some is getting inside in the process..... Anyway, if you ever figured out the locations, would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise I'm going to remove the rear fixed panel of the sunroof to try to find the tops of the drains and attempt to unclog from there.

 

Yes. I eventually removed the entire headliner to see what was going on. PITA, but totally worth it. There are two ports (drivers & passenger side) on the rear of the sunroof tray that are connected to rubber hoses that run the length of the roof, which allow water to run out the seam under the roof spoiler and down the back of the body of the car on the sides behind the rear gate. In my case (and likely yours too) the drains were blocked by debris, so the sunroof tray was actually filling and overflowing onto the top of the headliner which has a thin fiberglass (?) backing, then running any path it could find via gravity to the floorboard. You can confirm this by shining a bright light onto the roofliner (assuming yours is light gray like mine) and you should see some slight staining/water marks from water sitting on the headliner. Once the headliner is out, you can easily disconnect the ~4ft hoses that run to the rear to blow (carefully) them out; I reversed my shop vac and connected it to hose and a bunch of pine needles shot out the back of the car. (fyi, the rubber hose is a discontinued part from what I can tell, so be gentle with them). Clearing the drains was easy; drying the car was the hard. It took weeks of having a disassembled rear passenger compartment to get it fully dry.

The place you mention below the b-pillar on the exterior of the car, I believe is normal. I think that's just water running out the front drains and along the exterior behind the trim and exiting (i.e. entirely outside the car, where it should be). I think you would definitely notice that if the car was in motion; though that's hard to test.

Heavy rain again last weekend that I traveled in, and no water in cabin. However, there was some water in the trunk/boot. That is obviously a different issue (rear gate seal?) but also very annoying. But, it's another water intrusion issue to watch for with these cars. I also plan to remove the rear glass to look around (to make sure sunroof track is 100% clear), so please post a howto here if you decide to do it.

Bottom line, this is a poor design. I share your frustration. My car was CPO and it happened; I've owned it about the same amount of time as you. The drain lines were obviously clogged before I got the car; I don't even have pine trees in my neighborhood or where I work. The local dealer was useless too; even tried to push me to my insurance company to file a claim. Love driving the car, but no love for the ownership experience so far.

 

Awesome, thank you for sharing. Will be taking out the headliner next. Were you able to find a guide that shows the process for the F54? I've seen a few for Coopers and countrymen.... I'm guessing I can probably follow those and get close enough....

Had the exact same experience at the dealership a few days ago. They want to charge $3,400 to unclog the drains. They say that it's "not covered under warranty due to outside influence." They wanted us to make a "natural disaster" claim with our insurance to cover the cost. Totally ridiculous. Independent shop that specializes in BMW/Mini said that they charge $200-900 for the same job, depending on how deep they need to tear into the car to get the drains unclogged.

Frankly, I didn't think cars came this poorly designed/constructed from the factory anymore. I thought that had stopped being a thing like 20-30 years ago.

 

I never found a guide, but it's pretty straightforward. Just remove the upper trim pieces from the b, c, d columns, sunroof trim rings, grab handles, rear dome light, 2 rear roof round clips, and the door seals. Headliner will drop in the rear low enough that it sits on the rear seat headrests, which will give you enough room to work. I didn't bother taking it completely out because my front drains were fine.

​​​​I still plan to take the fixed glass out to look under it, but that can wait now that the cabin is dry. I'll be driving this Clubman for as long as possible since it's the last model year of Cooper S w/ 6MT & All4, so I'll get around to that when I can get to it.

Good luck. Agree that insurance claim is just a money grab... I don't even trust that dealership would fix the problem carefully/correctly... You're much better off removing the fiddly trim pieces yourself. My experience with auto technicians and interior work (across many makes) hasn't been very good.

 

Hey, one last question. Finally got into it today, have gotten everything out and see the drain tubes. My question is do the tubes disconnect from the ports at the rear of the car? I’ve gotten them off at the sunroof, but the rear seems more firmly attached. Don’t want to damage anything. Hard to see what is happening in there while working…..

 

They are usually slip on. They are attached to the sunroof tray itself. Like the R56 and R53. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-footwell.html



https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=54_0486

I noticed on the F54 clubman they are really long in the front vs other MINIs which are short.

Clamp kit https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...oof_drain_fix/

Fronts https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...h/41007346229/
Rears https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...h/54107363719/

 

Thanks for the reply. I could see the slip on side at the sunroof, however at the terminal end - at the drain - there wasn't a tube to slip over like that. It seems like the rubber drain tube might just be one piece with a sort of grommet that just slides into a hole in the sheet metal? Didn't want to yank on it too hard. Nice to know they can be bought still, hd read they were discontinued. It seems like the tubes are draining now, though i only disconnected them from the sunroof side and then blew down them and put water through. Haven't put it back together yet, so if you think I should pull the drain-side terminal end then I will.

 

Just check it, the diagram shows #7 is very long (might go to the floor and out the door or bottom of car and the rears # 8 are short like the other MINIs. I would open the sunroof and test the tubes by feeding it water little by little. Thats confirms they are connected and worked.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=54_0486

 

Sweet, yes that diagram confirms the rear tube ends in a grommet for me. Water test passed, coming out where it should, which is didn't last time I tried. Not a ton of crud came out of the lines, I almost wonder if removing the trunk weather seal was the biggest help. Lots of caked on grime there... Thanks again! To anyone trying to solve this issue on the F54 - the c-pillar trim piece has a hidden screw behind the airbag tag. The tag comes off on that one, unlike on the b-pillar. This was my biggest hangup today.

 

Welcome!