I've done the sunroof drains (replaced the plastic drains with heater hose and clamped them on) and cleaned pinch welds. After rain I still get wet seatbelts and moist carpet but only when the nose is uphill. Meaning I think it is either the windshield and possibly door weatherstripping or aftermarket speakers letting water in somehow.
Cleaning your sunroof drains FAQ (3 Viewers)
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I have some sloshing water sounds coming from behind the driver's seat after a few days of heavy rain while the 80 was parked in my driveway... blocked sunroof? I don't feel any moisture inside of the vehicle's headliner or carpeting itself.
Could be water trapped in the rocker panel from the sunroof drains. There are little drain slots on the bottom edge of the rocker panel that allow them to drain. They get clogged easily with debris. Poke a zip tie end through them to clear them out and let the water and gunk drain.
If it isn't the rocker panel holding water, check the rear quarter panels. Mine was leaking from the rear sliding windows during a downpour and accumulating some water beneath the jack and tool storage area.
Awesome, thank you. I know someone who had leakage with both rear sliding windows that lead to some major body rust issues, so I'll want to make sure to address that if that's the source.
Shots for those that need it. I ran string trimmer through with warm water. I used a sprayer with a stream so I could shoot straight in. After I felt it was pretty clear, I ran my air compressor through it at low pressure (50 psi).
Driver front drain hole at sunroof:
Example of pinch weld slot. I just jammed zip ties up there to make sure they were clear. I’ve got sliders. This is driver’s side.
Rear drain hose. Also driver side. Look behind rear tire aiming towards factory spare location.
Driver front drain hole at sunroof:
Example of pinch weld slot. I just jammed zip ties up there to make sure they were clear. I’ve got sliders. This is driver’s side.
Rear drain hose. Also driver side. Look behind rear tire aiming towards factory spare location.
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I'm troubleshooting water on the floorboard of the front passenger seat.
This thread was helpful, even without photos. I ran some weed trimmer line from top to bottom for the front drains. I needed about 8' of line until it "bottomed out". It never did come out the bottom - I'm not sure that's even possible. When you see where the front drains come out, it's such a small pinched hole that there is no way the weed trimmer line would actually penetrate the hole. I even took a large flat blade screwdriver and prised the front drain holes (on the bottom of the truck) open a bit more, hoping that that will help prevent future blockages. I did not see any major debris exit the drains from below. I did run a couple of cups of water through each front drain.
I did remove the trim over the front kick panels, and when looking inside (there is a large hole and a smaller hole) - you can see a fat approximately 1" black hose which I assume is the drain. When I touched this and wiggled the trimmer line that I had inserted at the sunroof end of the drain, I could feel it inside this black hose. But I could not see where it comes out from the kick panel. So I did not think removing the kick panel helped anything whatsoever. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
I'm unable to see the rear drains at the sunroof because I have a rack on. So that will have to wait for another day.
The one issue I did find, was that there was sludge/grease/dirt build up blocking the passenger front drain hole at the sun roof. There is a lot of debris/dirt/grease inside the sunroof channel. I'm going to need to remove my roof rack so I can take the sunroof out and really clean that out well. That will certainly help things.
This thread was helpful, even without photos. I ran some weed trimmer line from top to bottom for the front drains. I needed about 8' of line until it "bottomed out". It never did come out the bottom - I'm not sure that's even possible. When you see where the front drains come out, it's such a small pinched hole that there is no way the weed trimmer line would actually penetrate the hole. I even took a large flat blade screwdriver and prised the front drain holes (on the bottom of the truck) open a bit more, hoping that that will help prevent future blockages. I did not see any major debris exit the drains from below. I did run a couple of cups of water through each front drain.
I did remove the trim over the front kick panels, and when looking inside (there is a large hole and a smaller hole) - you can see a fat approximately 1" black hose which I assume is the drain. When I touched this and wiggled the trimmer line that I had inserted at the sunroof end of the drain, I could feel it inside this black hose. But I could not see where it comes out from the kick panel. So I did not think removing the kick panel helped anything whatsoever. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
I'm unable to see the rear drains at the sunroof because I have a rack on. So that will have to wait for another day.
The one issue I did find, was that there was sludge/grease/dirt build up blocking the passenger front drain hole at the sun roof. There is a lot of debris/dirt/grease inside the sunroof channel. I'm going to need to remove my roof rack so I can take the sunroof out and really clean that out well. That will certainly help things.
Malleus
Far west of Siegen
There is a very easy solution for wet floorboards: pull one of the two body screws holding the rear corner of the fender onto the body. You only need one. That will drain the pocket. If you depend on the rocker panel drains, you may be waiting awhile.
If the drain tubes are not really clean, they will eventually fill up enough that water will back up into the sunroof pan, and that will leak. The only way to really clean those tubes, and you really only need to clean the front two, is to remove them and run a brush through them. Yes, you can run string trimmer line in them, but it won't clean them, it'll only clear them.
The front drains empty into a pocket between two sealed body panels. The rear drains exit through the fenders and discharge into free air. They never clog. It's pretty easy to see why.
Toyota's plan was to have the front drain tubes discharge into the pockets, and when the pocket had filled up (hopefully not to the level of the wiring harness connectors installed in those very same pockets!), the water would overflow into a channel leading into the rocker panels, which would then drain via pinch drains between the inner and outer rocker panel sheets. In the event that the pinch drains ever plugged (no, that never, ever happens), Toyota installed removable plugs in the rocker panels to allow (some of) the water to drain out.
The long term solution to leaking roof drains is to replace the front drain tubes with rear drain tubes, and run them though one of the body mount holes that secure the front fender trailing edge. This is the solution Toyota finally used to fix the problem on later models.
This sounds like a lot of work, but it can be done in a weekend, provided you have the parts (spare rear drain tubes).
Photo is driver's side, front is left, rear is right, in the photo. The running board forward edge is immediately forward of the bolts. Doesn't matter which you remove; there is another, hidden, about a foot forward and 6 inches up, on the firewall. There's no danger of the loosening at all. This is my DD and it's been this way since 2017.
If the drain tubes are not really clean, they will eventually fill up enough that water will back up into the sunroof pan, and that will leak. The only way to really clean those tubes, and you really only need to clean the front two, is to remove them and run a brush through them. Yes, you can run string trimmer line in them, but it won't clean them, it'll only clear them.
The front drains empty into a pocket between two sealed body panels. The rear drains exit through the fenders and discharge into free air. They never clog. It's pretty easy to see why.
Toyota's plan was to have the front drain tubes discharge into the pockets, and when the pocket had filled up (hopefully not to the level of the wiring harness connectors installed in those very same pockets!), the water would overflow into a channel leading into the rocker panels, which would then drain via pinch drains between the inner and outer rocker panel sheets. In the event that the pinch drains ever plugged (no, that never, ever happens), Toyota installed removable plugs in the rocker panels to allow (some of) the water to drain out.
The long term solution to leaking roof drains is to replace the front drain tubes with rear drain tubes, and run them though one of the body mount holes that secure the front fender trailing edge. This is the solution Toyota finally used to fix the problem on later models.
This sounds like a lot of work, but it can be done in a weekend, provided you have the parts (spare rear drain tubes).
Photo is driver's side, front is left, rear is right, in the photo. The running board forward edge is immediately forward of the bolts. Doesn't matter which you remove; there is another, hidden, about a foot forward and 6 inches up, on the firewall. There's no danger of the loosening at all. This is my DD and it's been this way since 2017.
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I'm still a fan of rerouting the drain tubes through floor plug holes, behind the kick panel trim on either side. Do the plugs really seal out water from underneath? The tubes won't either, but they're a pretty decent fit. No more relying on anything about the factory rocker panel drain situation.
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Great post!
Malleus
Far west of Siegen
My front drain tubes have been routed to exit through the body at the forward of the two rearmost fender body bolts for years now. They have no seals between the tubes and body and I've never seen any water in the pocket. Of course, I don't ford with my truck, so the only water that could get in there is spray from the ground. It would be easy to seal the clear area between the tube and body with seam sealer.
Even here in a northern coastal rainforest with messy sea-level snow, I don't ever recall noticing that particular area wet from spray, so seems fairly safe, sans ford-the-river.
Had the same initial thought about sealing around the hoses when I relocated them, but at the time was figuring out the floorboard water intrusion (it was mainly the front glass) and didn't want to prevent drainage. Everything worked out, but never felt compelled to seal
as i wrote in the "what did you do over the weekend" thread last weekend, i've found water on the passenger side floor. thought i'd solved it over the weekend with opening up the forward drain slit, but an big overnight storm proved otherwise
truck was pointed nose down again, to test the forward drain. hard to tell in that pic, but that is standing water in the harness channel.
while i could try and probe out that forward slit with a zip tie again, i'm not expecting different results. drivers side is bone dry, so i'm at a bit of a loss why the passenger side is filling up. the way i'm parked, the slits are uphill of the rocker pockets a good bit, so not sure why my drivers side is clearing itself but the passenger side isn't.
i tried to figure out where the hose terminates, and if anything is clogged in that pocket, but i wasn't able to tell. the hose is kinda flapping around in there, which i believe is normal. any tips on cleaning out that pocket? is the next best thing to remove one of those forward bolts? i have the inside plug out currently, but i'd prefer the water never even get into that harness channel and drain outside.
truck was pointed nose down again, to test the forward drain. hard to tell in that pic, but that is standing water in the harness channel.
while i could try and probe out that forward slit with a zip tie again, i'm not expecting different results. drivers side is bone dry, so i'm at a bit of a loss why the passenger side is filling up. the way i'm parked, the slits are uphill of the rocker pockets a good bit, so not sure why my drivers side is clearing itself but the passenger side isn't.
i tried to figure out where the hose terminates, and if anything is clogged in that pocket, but i wasn't able to tell. the hose is kinda flapping around in there, which i believe is normal. any tips on cleaning out that pocket? is the next best thing to remove one of those forward bolts? i have the inside plug out currently, but i'd prefer the water never even get into that harness channel and drain outside.
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I had a body shop insist I had a leaking sunroof and they did get it to leak with a hose boring down on a seam. I carefully pulled the glass panel out an did @jonheld 's trick with butcher's twine and I cleaned the seal ending with 303 protectant. The first thing I noticed is some wind noise went away. It has been through one horrendous storm and several smaller storms with no issues. Of course the body shop was trying to distract me from the fact they had not used any sealant on the windshield......for the 3rd time.
i probed the forward slit with a zip tie...no water
pulled the forward grommet from the rocker...no water
removed the forward bolt from the fender as @Malleus indicated...no water
bolt threads were nasty with dirt and some corrosion
so my hypothesis is forward slit IS draining better than last week, but the heavy rain still overwhelmed the slit and it backed up into the cabin harness channel via the hole the loom clamp clips into, and then couldn't escape. yet the drivers side doesn't have the same issue, which has me scratching my head
i have the bolt, inside grommet, and outside grommet removed right now. trying to determine my course of action
pulled the forward grommet from the rocker...no water
removed the forward bolt from the fender as @Malleus indicated...no water
bolt threads were nasty with dirt and some corrosion
so my hypothesis is forward slit IS draining better than last week, but the heavy rain still overwhelmed the slit and it backed up into the cabin harness channel via the hole the loom clamp clips into, and then couldn't escape. yet the drivers side doesn't have the same issue, which has me scratching my head
i have the bolt, inside grommet, and outside grommet removed right now. trying to determine my course of action
I use my garden sprayer with a Dawn solution and sprayed into the rocker area after removing the plastic quarter panels. Kind of surprised at the amount of dirt that came out the slit drains after a few minutes.
i was thinking about rigging up the same thing. maybe the pass side is just funkier and impeding the draining of water just enough. wish i could see inside the rocker somehow but all the holes are too tiny to get a mirror or anything in, and i dont have a borescope
did you do your cleaning from inside the cabin, by spraying directly into the opening where the wiring bundle and hose are?
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I would not bother, you have three holes for the clips that will easily take a sprayer tip and just be generous. Also, do @Malleus 's trick with the removal of a bolt. Try as I might I sheared it, so I drilled through primed and am actually now painting this morning.
The car is moving to its new home in Colorado Sunday.
Malleus
Far west of Siegen
Those two body bolts in the bottom of the "drain pan" in the footwells are not only painted, but I think they are seam sealed, too. I have broken every weldnut from the body panel that I've tried to remove a bolt from. I cut the bolt head off and grab the bold/nut with a magnet from the bottom of the well.
If you leave the weldnut in the footwell after you remove the bolt, it'll always have water in it, until it evaporates, at least as deep as the weldnut height. That's the best reason I can think of to remove the nut. With it gone, the well will drain completely - and you'll never have water in your rocker panel again.
A step drill will enlarge the hole so that you can get a grommet in it, if you're worried about the bare metal hole. I just spray some paint on it and call it good.
It's been years since I first did this on my DD and I haven't seen any rust. I have a rear drain tube through it and no grommet.
If you leave the weldnut in the footwell after you remove the bolt, it'll always have water in it, until it evaporates, at least as deep as the weldnut height. That's the best reason I can think of to remove the nut. With it gone, the well will drain completely - and you'll never have water in your rocker panel again.
A step drill will enlarge the hole so that you can get a grommet in it, if you're worried about the bare metal hole. I just spray some paint on it and call it good.
It's been years since I first did this on my DD and I haven't seen any rust. I have a rear drain tube through it and no grommet.
i removed the leading bolt just fine. it was much longer than i expected.
so you are saying water will not cleanly drain out around the captured nut inside the rocker? how deep are you estimating? wouldn't the bulk of the water drain out through the now open hole, and any remainder through the rocker slits or evaporate?
the only way to remove that nut is drill from below to enlarge the hole and the nut breaks free? not sure if i'm ready to take such drastic action!
