Fixing the sunroof drain leak. Or water in the footwell
 

Hello all.

I had water in my passenger side footwell and I had this fixed once before under warrany. I called them and the Buffalo Mini Dealer wanted $350 to fix it. So I gave it a try myself. Took me 1/2 hour. And the job that the Mini dealer did before was just stupid. They used a tywrap to hold the tube on the drain. They couldnt have put a hose clamp on it? Cost them 30 cents more? Anyways....

Remove the visor. Remove the inside A Pillar trip. Remove the grab handle above the passenger side door. Remove the top part of the weather stripping. then you can gently pull down the head liner just enough to get your hand in there. You can see the metal drain that goes down the A Pillar and the one that comes from the drain on the roof. It is connected by a black hose. This is what comes off. Put it back on after sliding some small hose clams on the hose. Tighten them up and you are all set. Pictures below.

TV

Thanks for the pics. I wish you had posted a little earlier, since my car was at the dealer for the exact same reason. :thumbsup:

Thank you,

I just found water in my passanger footwell and wongered where it came from. Now I can fix it too.

Just a note. You dont, nor do you want to take off the A Pillar inside trim all the way. All you to is loosen it enough so you can pull down the headliner a bit. Be careful as this is where the airbag is. Take the battery terminal off the battery for a least an half hour before you mess with anything to do with an airbag. I seem to remember you pull the trim towards the back to loosen it.

Just did this last night. However, I didn't mess with the A pillar. Since I have the moonroof, I was able to remove the trim around it along with the visor and the clock and get to the drain tube from the corner of the headliner near the drain. I never thought I could be so happy to see dripping coming for underneath my car instead of down the side of my dash.

Amen to happy puddles underneath the Mini. I also found it easy to partially remove the moonroof trim to get access to the drain tube on the drivers side (as well as mirror, and side window visor)

I found that the offending side ductwork was obstructed. Using an air compressor at ~100 psi with a rubber tipped tapered adapter stuck into the fore drain hole, I pulsed air through the wetted tubing which freed up the leaves, gunk, or whatever else. I repeated that same for the other side. The two rear ducts were flowing freely. The Mini can now take a good leak after it rains!

I had this problem on the wife's 2010 Mini. The first time I followed your instructions but discovered that it really wasn't leaking through the pipe on the passenger side.

The problem is that the drain pipe becomes clogged with dirt & debris as seen throughout the sunroof slide on the passenger side. When enough rainwater pools, it spills over the edge of the sunroof support just above the drain hole and onto the headliner.

What assists these clogs is the accordion-shaped rubber tubing connector that you sealed off with clamps. This grooved portion of the tube acts like a sediment collector for debris which will accumulate over time.

My solution was to use a thick piece of square shaped trimmer string/cord(see below) & very slowly thread it through the drain hole. Once inserted over a 2-3 foot span, I would rotate it slowly as if it were a piece of floss. This method immediately unblocks the drain path.

In lieu of springing for a roll of trimmer cord that you likely would not use on your lawn care products, you could contact the manufacturer for a free evaluation sample. This string is practically a necessity for your oil change toolbox.

For what it's worth, the new 2016 Minis with sunroofs have the same identical drain hole design which should provide many years of unpleasant surprises for current & future Mini owners with a sunroof.


Oregon 21-470 Gatorline Square String Trimmer Line .170-Inch Diameter 1-Pound Donut
https://www.amazon.com/Oregon-21-470...=oregon+21-470

Same problem with my 2005 R50 on the passenger side footwell. Bottom side of rubber drain tube was detached from metal tube. Boy I sure do love these forums and thanks guys for taking the time to post. 20 years ago my mini could have been half disassembled before I found the problem.

Old thread, but great info nonetheless.

EXCELLENT INFO !!!

Thanks for sharing and posting great pics !!!!!

More info here also. Checking the front and rear drains and making sure they are not clogged also is good maintenance. Also on the S models making sure water does not get in there to the battery location.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-footwell.html

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-problems.html

This JUST happened to ME ....Tuesday !!!!!


Cannot believe the timing. As seen above I replied about a WEEK ago with exc info !!!

It was raining and I noticed a puddle !!!!

Took about 20 minutes. I just reattached. Will clamp it today. The SUN is OUT !!!! :)

Why BMW didn't make the rubber tube longer..or clamp it is ridiculous !!!!

Again..THANK ALL for this forum !!!!!!

just fixed this issue on my brothers hardtop today. Wow, I had to pull back that rubber tube about an inch in order to get on the metal down tube. Can someone explain to me how in the hell it works its way off in the first place!?! These seem like immovable parts.

I have no such thing so just a guess without the benefit of first hand experience. Water + organic matter = slime over time. Slime is slippery like water based lubricant and the dame hose slips off from vibration and gravity. Gravity is a nice thing that keep us from floating in space but sometime it works against us. I never dare to challenge gravity. :eek2:

So I have a thread "No combustion" but turns out this very issue has cause me a great deal of pain!


A little history:
i noticed the car getting wet on the passenger side. Originally thought it was the windshield leaking at the seam but turned out to be the sunroof drain came loose. I did have to do some flood damage control on the floor. Oddly and may coincidental but after I cleared up the water, when I went to start the car, the back doors would fly open. Every time the start button was pressed. I took them apart, put them together, nothing since.

Fast forward a week and I am where I am in the beginning. Car won’t start.


Decided to take my car to Mini and try and do an insurance claim for water damamge - you can do that apparently...

Turns out the car needs a new Junction Box/DME/ Fuse Box. They want 2K for that, another 1K for headliner and carpet pull, clean, dry, etc...

Insurance is going to deny the "water damage" claim though due to this being a mechanical failure of the Sunroof drain plug! They said since I was able to determine the water was coming from the plug that came loose that They would deny the claim and that it should fall under Mini or wear and tear.

So here I am stuck now with a car that doesn't run and a 3K bill... I have been trolling all over the forums about sunroof leaky water issues... Anyone have any advice for me.. Will be talking to Mini and my Insurance Supervisor/Manager. I need something other than -- it's coming out of my pocket!!!

Any thoughts?

what year is your car? r53? check the large connector down in the footwell. take it apart and see if there is corrosion in between the pins. look for broken pins too.

you can solder them back together maybe .. and maybe get the other parts used.

2010 clubman S --

Right now Mini has it, so I can't look at anything. :(

So I am having the same problem in the front. the rear seems to be ok. So before I attempt this what is the best way to go about this? Unplug the battery for 30 minutes before working on this? Or go at it from the sunroof headliner? I don't want any air bags going off.

When in doubt, just pull the positive terminal and wait 15 minutes.

I just wanted to say thank you to this forum. Drivers side was completely off .zip tied lower and clamped the upper.

Sunroof A post metal drain tube
 

Howdy, I wish my leak was an easy fix like the rest of yours. My rubber sunroof tube is attached to the metal tube running down the A post. My leak appears to be coming from inside the A post metal drain tube. water coming out of the A pillar at a pinch weld seam about dash height. Some mechanic buddies say the fix is cutting a "door" in the a post fix the metal tube and re-weld. Gotta pull windshield as well. Any other ideas for a fix?
Thanks,
Bill

can you put a smaller thin walled tube inside, or just run a separate tube all together?

^+1 thats what i would try first.

How did this turn out?
I am in the same boat. Car sat during a snow storm outside and got maybe 6 or 8 inches of sonw on the roof that meted before we got to clearing it off. Then car would crank no fire. I went through a fuel pump and filter thinking the small amount of old gas had evaporated and ruined the pump but still no good. Finally got a decent tester and the footwell junction box showed up as bad. Sure enough as I poked around the passenger side the carpet was super wet. Wires are corroded and so are the bottom couple of connections on the junction box. I now have the carpet out and it is junk. This has been going on longer than I realized as there are rust spots ion the underneath the carpet and mildew/mold on the padding. I figure I am looking at a new body harness and junction box and maybe cobbling in some sort of race car like interior.

Another example of a repeat problem that should have been a recall from BMW. Instead they leave their customers with ruined electrical due to a poorly designed drain.