Sunroof Drain Cleaning

Do you have water dripping from areas of your headliner? Do you have a sunroof in your vehicle? If the answer is Yes to both questions, watch this video to try to isolate where your leak is coming from. It could be because you have clogged sunroof drains that need to be cleared.

You can clear your own drains with a little persuasion from weed whacker line or some other type of solid line you can snake in the drains.

**In the video, I say the driver side rear drain travels down the B-Pillar but it actually travels down the C-Pillar and then over the wheel-well.

**Some people have employed the use of compressed air but you need to be careful if you choose this method. If you use too high of air pressure, you could force the drain tube off the fitting and then you'd be forced to pull down your headliner so you can reattach the drain tube.

**Helpful Tools**
*If you're looking for other tools not used in this video, check out Timmy's Master Tool List.*

*Weed Trimmer Line

*Milwaukee Cordless Drill

*Milwaukee M12 Battery

*Milwaukee M12 High Capacity Battery

*Milwaukee M12 Battery Charger

*Auto Trim Removal Set

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**As Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases.

[TimmyTheToolman]

In the video, I say the driver side rear drain travels down the B-Pillar but it actually travels down the C-Pillar and then over the wheel-well and into the drain tray.

[patrickguy]

Hint: Using a candle or torch, heat up the tip of the weed whacker line to form a ball about double the line diameter and it will travel up and down the line much easier than a straight cut end and also clean debris better. If you really need go clean out the line more positively, do the above but once you are out the other side the slip an appropriately sized flat washer over the end of the line you are pushing from, "ball up" the line behind the washer and then pull it through from the other side...

[alfisher]

Very informative, love that you guys make these detailed DYI videos. You guys have saved me a lot of headaches and stress in being able to handle most 3rd gen issues.

[curtishadden]

Found this video trying to figure why my 2012 Lexus RX 350 sunroof leaked when going through a car wash and let me tell you even though it wasn’t my car, it is by far the best explained DIY video I have ever seen. Thank you so much. You will be my first look from now on. Keep up the good work.

[mink]

Hi. This video really helped me understand where water is coming from in my truck. I also appreciate the complete demonstration on how to unclog the drains. I am not inclined to do this myself but now I am educated on unclogging the drains and can avoid being taken advantage of at a repair shop. Thank you.

[junal]

Your videos are gold, you helped me with my whole break unit replacement, you have helped me with this drainage issue and you will eventually help me with a hesitant transmission on my 2002 4 Runner. I appreciate very much how professional you are and your videos, I wish best for you in your life

[DRNLR]

Thanks for this video. Exactly the same thing happened.. water flooded my cup holders.. this was the consequence of blockage on the front portion of the sunroof drain holes; causing an overflow of the channel; subsequently water traveling to the path of least resistance entering the tiny openings of the front sunroof seal. The seal is in two parts joining; a tiny gap open over 24 years and allowing water to flood me out. Following your video we sealed up the gap with RTV ( black) and more importantly cleaned out the drain.. Godwilling another 24 years we will do it again 😊.

[marke.]

Great video to show where and where not to look and what to remove as well. Saved me a good 30-90 minutes of wrong spots.

[genedebsfan]

I had a 98 Camry AC condensate drain clog. I found the drain under the car and used a wet dry vacuum to suck out about a a gallon of condensate and one piece of cellophane candy wrapper. Thanks for the video, helped me not to bother looking for drains!

[garymartin]

I just bought a 99. 4 runner I found a channel for my repairs I’ve replaced the radiator and just put a new taillight in this evening these machines have been engineered to be repaired pretty simply plus thanks for your videos Timmy

[kmartens]

Timmy, you're the man. Every problem I have, you have a video for it. Thank you.

[jasonrotairo]

I am coming across this problem right now. My family and I spent the day at Monterey on Jan 2, and it was pouring in the evening in the way home. My 4Runner was at home. The next day, I was going to install seat jackers and saw the wet driver side floorboard.
I’m so glad you are on this platform.

[MarcLaRock]

This video helped me open up the drain from the exit side (front passenger) on my 4Gen 4Runner. My only option was to try from the exit side since my sunroof doesn't open. I couldn't figure out where the tube exited out to. Turns out the 4Gen has same design. I tried using bailing wire to unclog but didn't work. I then shot some compressed air up from the end and that did it. Best video I've seen on this issue

[francismitchell]

I searched several other sites before finding yours. Yours should come up first
This was exactly what I needed to here and how to fix it. Great Job

[pwgmcc]

perfect. Missed this 5 months ago, would have saved lots of grief. reverse-unclogged both sunroof drains in the 2000 4runner. thanks for the great information.

[ronj]

My gosh. This was insanely informative. Showed me how to take the car apart too.
This was awesome!
You know there is someone on Youtube showing how to put Draino down those 2 back drains. I thought what- that could possibly eat away the plastic tubing in the car. People are doing it though.
Thank you for being so informative. Loved it.

[bbchuck]

Awesome video. Thanks for all of the information. Just trying to track down where water is getting into my 2012 Sequoia's rear well. This is a great help to get me going!

[GK-mxqb]

Hey Timmy, I had a "duh!!!" moment when I read your response - wonderful idea and goes to show how important getting others involved for ideas especially those with more experience! Before going the hose cutting/ clamping route, tonight I decided to try checking these rear lines again for drainage. I pulled van onto metal car ramps to get van at higher incline than before and did same as mentioned in previous comment - put rag in front part of sunroof channel to block water from going in that direction. I then poured water into outer channel as you showed in your great video and this time the water drained out rear drain lines - Apparently the van wasn't inclined enough yesterday where I parked when I did the same thing. So good news being the leak isn't coming from the sunroof drain lines but coming from elsewhere .... sigh....

I thought I would leave some helpful info that was beneficial for me in clearing out the sunroof drains. When using weed wacker line fed through front corner drain lines, it's a very cramped area where moving weed wacker line in and out, side to side, in circles, etc is tough on the knuckles as well a little bit hard to control (few inches between end of your fingers and where hole is so more 'play' in weed line). Out of frustration with my hand and fingers being tired let alone knuckles red and sore, I decided to try something with a regular ball point pen. I unscrewed the back leaving off, pulled out ink cartridge and spring and the end pointy part I clipped with a pair of scissor so opening was just a hair bigger than weed wacker line. I then pressed pointy end of pen down to where drain line hole is, shoved wacker line down center of pen and down into drain line hole. Because pen sleeve is hard plastic and about 4 inches long, it gave a lot of stability and control in feed line allowing easy maneuvering to rotor through drain lines plus saved my knuckles from jamming against sunroof parts - hallelujah! At times I wasn't quite sure how far I had come and would pull wacker line out to only discover I had gotten line down but not near as far as I needed. To help gauge this, when line was pulled out, I marked line first with marker so I could easily tell how far I got once reinserting wacker line and thus would give me a good idea how much further I needed to go.

Once weed wacker was used on the front sunroof drain lines and I was assured rear drain lines were draining correctly (mentioned above), I used an a/c drain cleaner product "AC Line Build Up Remover for AC Drainlines 8 oz." purchased from HomeDepot at Lowes Home Improvement price ($2 cheaper at Lowe's $6 and HomeDepot $8 will price match :) These types of products are used to help clear out and keep junk from building up in a/c lines so figured it would work the same on sunroof drains buying me more time before having to do this project again and what's not to love about that?!?!?

Before pouring cleaner in outer sunroof channel as Timmy shows in his video, I placed a small bucket under van where stuff comes out bottom of drain line so bucket would catch the Build Up Remover allowing me to pour it back through the sunroof channel down through the drain lines multiple times. I ended up using 3 bottles for the 4 sunroof drains cycling like this approximately 4 times with each drain line. If vehicle is parked on grass, it helps to put cardboard under where you think drain lines are, test first with regular water and this will help to locate correct position to place bucket so wasting less of the Build Up Remover.

I spent hours (and hours....) online trying to figure out how to clean these drain lines
and Timmy your video was superb! Your video was very detailed which helps me to one, understand the process clearly and two, because of this, gave me the confidence to "go for it"!

Sadly I'm still left with a van that leaks water into the rear cargo area, 4 plus years now :(, and really tired of only pulling it out from under the carport after I check my local weather forecast for the day. Living in Florida it rains a lot, especially in summer, so needless to say this is getting very old and cramping my style!

Next I'll work on the rear weather stripping around rear hatch and gap above rear tail lights and go from there. Again Timmy the Tool Man, thanks soooo much for taking the time to help us all out! And good luck to all you Toyota guys and gals with leaking vehicles; I feel your pain and wish you luck!

P.S. Timmy, need to replace rear left driver speaker (or woofer?) as I blew it a few years ago. With this trim panel already off while searching and hunting for sunroof drain line, seems now is the time to do so! Do you have any video's that explain how to do this?

Many Thanks!
GK

[tom]

Thanks. Very well-explained. You are a natural teacher, sir.

[herbjohnson]

It took me looking everywhere to find this! Thank you! The front drains are clear, it's the back ones that are causing the leak into the rear area.