996 CAB DRAINS -WATER COMES OUT IN THREE PLACES?

[Pete Ansbro]

The first rain for weeks resulted in a wet patch on the carpet where the n/s rear seat cushion would be so, between torrential showers, it was off with the back wheel and the arch liner. (I've always trusted this job to my indie previously but at 30 minutes before the weekend it was time to take a brave pill!). There was a good layer of fine wet silt behind the liner and in the outlet of the "official" drain (but no flap valve?) all which was easily washed away triggering a satisfying deluge from the drain.

I took the speaker from the side panel and first of all figured there to be a splash guard atop to water catch tray to protect the speaker. The catch tray itself seemed fairly clear apart from a bit of crud around the drain hole and I could push about a foot-fifteen inches of smallbore silicon tube down through the drain first blowing through it and then squirting water down it to the sight of satisfying drippage under the wheel
arch.

Here's the puzzle though, pouring water in at the water drainage channel 1 in the attached drawing did NOT result in water coming down the black convoluted tube into the water collection tray 3 but seemed instead to result in drainage via another route to the front of the wheel well. That and feeding about four feet of soft silicon tube down the front-most drain didn't bring the tube out in the black convoluted tube as I expected so does all water draining off the sides and back of a MY02 Cab not drain via the pipework shown in the schematic?

I did the wet side only because of another deluge but plan to tackle the other side this weekend/next week.

 

[Pete Ansbro]

Right, the old adage about "slow down, think about the problem but FFS use the brains you were born with" holds good in this case.

Having discovered that the convoluted tube which discharges water into the water catchment tray and thence via a hole in the side of the car to a flapped valve in the front face of the rear wheel arch was ineffective because of 1. crud in the vicinity of the wheel arch drain and 2. the top end of the convoluted tube not being in its correct place, pause for breath after long phrase, I was a bit baffled that water poured into the three rectangular slots at each side in the clamshell receiving tray did not pour into the internal catch tray and thence to the wheel arch but poured out of the inboard front edge of the wheel arch.
[] In fact that's what they are designed to do and the water catch tray and egress via the flapped valve is designed to cope with water draining off the fabric of the roof. LIGHTBULB MOMENT!!
So what have I actually done to remedy the problem of water inside the car? End-for-ended the convoluted drain, silicone lubed the upper end and pushed it hard onto the tube where it should have been. Cleaned the plug 'ole from the water catchment tray and its discharge pipe to the flapped valve in the wheel arch.
Now that I (think) I know what I'm doing I shall tackle the offside before we get properly into the rainy season.
Thanks for listening guys......

 

[VW911997]

Hi Pete, I found your post incredibly useful - thank you. I found that the rear foot well of my car was soaking wet after the heavy rain we had in May. I did a number of tests to see where various water channels drained to but was unable to determine where water entering the three slots at each side of the clamshell drained to. Please could you clarify what you mean by "inboard front edge of the wheel arch" so I can inspect it for myself on my car.
Thanking you in advance!