Clean your blocked drains!!!

[rob_g_clarkson]

I havn't been in the car for about a week to 10 days, and I got in her yesterday & my missus got her scarf out of the stowage bins so we could enjoy some roof down fun.... and uh-oh... it was wet through....

Ah ha I thought, I know what this is.... had a quick look on here here for the "how to" guide... and lo and behold...  my drains were full of icy cold water & absolutely chocked, full of gunk... 10 minutes later they were all nice and dry, free flowing and working as well as possible.

I was quite surprised how much carp there was to be honest... I mean the car's only done 18k, and it's been garaged most of it's life.... but there we go - a lesson learned the hard way, prevenative maintenence is much better than a wet scarf  s:roll: :roll: s:roll:    s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

[Jigwar]

........prevenative maintenence is much better than a wet scarf  s:roll: :roll: s:roll:    s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Especially if it's the missus'   s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

[leon_in_uk]

just wait till your aerial packs in.. remove the screws in the storage bin and check the underlay there, you will need to fry it out.. in fact take the relay and dry that too.

otherwise you will have the same problem as me and the aerial will stay up

[Anonymous]

Just another heads up on this one - although my car is usually garaged, it wasn't over Christmas, noticed the drains were blocked in usual way (it was wetter inside car than out, and aerial won't go down!).

Cleared drains now, but assume aerial is shot. Will have a look at relay later.

[Anonymous]

My filler cap was getting very stiff and I tried spraying grease from the cap side but it never seemed to work so I did this (see picture) while unblocking my vents the other day  s;) s;)

[heathstimpson]

I have amps under my plastic bins so better check teh drains out before there is a large bang I suppose  s:? :? s:?

[Anonymous]

just wait till your aerial packs in.. remove the screws in the storage bin and check the underlay there, you will need to fry it out.. in fact take the relay and dry that too.

otherwise you will have the same problem as me and the aerial will stay up

Hi Leon,

Did your replacement relay solve the problem? Or did you need to replace the motor too?

N

[leon_in_uk]

i have put the relay in, it didnt blow or cause any problems. but a new motor will be needed. the aerial is still up..

[blade900]

After reading this thread yesterday and thinking I must get round to doing that I popped out in the car. Stopped at the first junction and heard a rather alarming sloshing noise coming from behind my head!

I didn't even get as far as feeling how blocked the drain was, there was over an inch of water above it   s:shock: :shock: s:shock:  

Anyway, thanks to the 'How to' guide both drains have been cleaned out and are now free flowing  s:D s:D

Once again the club comes to rescue, nice one chaps   s:bowdown: :bowdown: s:bowdown:

[ole carter]

Great job this......!!! I've just come in out of the pouring rain having cleaned out my drains after the wife came back from yoga tonight telling me she could hear water slopping around behind her.  s:cry: :cry: s:cry:    s:cry: :cry: s:cry:  

many thanx to the forum though for info shared...  s:D s:D    s:D s:D  

just one question though, the rubber flaps on the bottom drains,do they need to be left on ,as to me these appear to be the problem,giving all the sedement and shite a wall to build up behind and block up the bottom outlet,as i've noted this seems to have to be a regular job.

like others on here the cars only done very low miles 20k on an 03 and spends most of time in the garage .

[Liz]

Digging up old stuff again and proof that going to Macdonalds can be good for you.  Having never had the problem with water on my 1st 2, I never gave it much consideration - serves me right, heading out of Maccy d's with the banana milkshake on the way to work, I  hear the sloshing behind me due to a rather large slope that you have to go up..forgot about it until my speakers start sounding shitty and then stop working in the car yesterday, opened bins to find my lovely Genesis Amp sitting in a pool of water.  After much swearing (especially after seeing the price of a replacement the amp  s:shock: :shock: s:shock:  ) I pulled it out and left it to dry off (thank god that worked!!).  Just spent the past hour clearing out the inside of the car, didn't take the side vents off thanks to finding a pair of plastic handcuffs which were just the right size to put down the now nice and clean drain holes and push the rubbish through.  

Timely reminder to people - do check these, could of worked out very expensive in ICE.

[Anonymous]

I'm a bit worried, or should that be exited, about the plastic handcuffs   s:D s:D

[Liz]

Not really, just big cable ties with a lock on them!  My under nappy had fallen off the car on the way to work and they were all that I could find at work to put it back on with, as it turned out were too big anyway, so they remain in the car!

[Anonymous]

Only thing is Liz, that's the temporary option as the gunge that builds up sticks the flap closed and pushing it from the top will let the water out but after the flap closes, nine times out of ten you will have water filled bins again   s:( s:(

[Tem]

Genesis Amp sitting in a pool of water.

That's exactly the reason why I decided to fix mine for good instead of cleaning them every now and then and still getting water all over my expensive electronics.  s:? :? s:?  Still haven't noticed any side effects and no snakes have crawled up the drains.  s:D s:D  

 l viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17630 l

[inert2k3]

I used a long thin piece of insulated cable (that connected an old freeview box to my old telly)... cut off the connector and pushed the cable down my drain when it was blocked.



It kept going in for a while and I had the door open to check if I could see the water coming through from the underside. Nothing happened until the cable reached a pile of gloop by the exit flap and all of a sudden... all of the water started coming through.   s:D s:D  

I poked around for a while to remove any other large pieces of gunge and then poured a mixture of very hot (not quite boiling) water and fairy liquid to clean up any residue. Poured a bottle full about three or four times and the water went straight through and out easily by the end.

Drains havent blocked up since!   s:D s:D  

Mohammed

[Liz]

Only thing is Liz, that's the temporary option as the gunge that builds up sticks the flap closed and pushing it from the top will let the water out but after the flap closes, nine times out of ten you will have water filled bins again   s:( s:(

I don't relish taking the side vents off to be honest - will wait until they back up again (will check regulary this time as I got lucky with the amp) and do it then when the weather is better!  Might try the fairy liquid fix as well Mo, thanks for that!

[cclarke99]

I'd agree with Liz about removing the side vents, I thought I was going to pull the whole side of the car and I'm sure they'd break if you did it more than few times. Because they don't have to be removed to do any maintenance Toyota don't make it easy. Having tried both methods I'd go for the tiewrap or old bit of wire method, it may not do such a good job but it's a lot easier and less likely to do damage. One sign that they are starting to block up is that water keeps dripping for a long time after the rain has stopped, so you find a puddle of water under the car even though the surrounding area is dry. It might be my imagination, but once the drains were unblocked the engine sounded noisier, presumably where the noise from the air inlet finds it's way up the drain.

[Anonymous]

It really is quite an easy job. Just take it slow and it will be fine. Even I managed it. There is a thread, not sure whether it's on here or sc.

[Liz]

Its in the how to section..I had a print out!

[cclarke99]

I agree it's not a difficult job and the "how to" instructions are excellent, it's just obvious that the vents are not really intended to come off. In the factory, the white plastic clips must be installed in the side vents before they are popped into position. You only have to look at the shape of the slots where the two fit together to see that they're not supposed to come apart and had I known that before I started, I probably would have done the job another way.

[Mici]

As there are 2 holes each side of the bottom of the tarpaulin, the ones that go in to B-pillar - are these for air ventilation only? I'm worried as one of our mechanics took it out and I can't it back in the hole down the B-pillar again as my rear fender is now kinda stuck on its place with bodykit on and my hand isn't small enough to get down there...  s:( s:(

Anyone know the purpose of these? Water drainage or air ventilation? I would be keen to think on the last one...

Mici

[evileye_wrx]

Heard some sloshing about tonight behind the drivers side and had a little water inthe drivers side luggage bin when I got home. Also a lot of wter appeared to be coming out of the bottom of the car. I shall be attempting a Non Vent removal drain cleaning tomorrow since I don't really want to remove the C One vents   s:cry: :cry: s:cry:  

Phil

[Gif]

Was trying to figure out how that could be achieved on Friday but didn't come up with a satisfactory solution.  Given the very low use of my car and internal storage, I was intrigued to find that the passenger side drain had signs of standing water when viewed from above.  

Since I decided investigation was needed into the cause, I ended up removing the vents.  And yes I did the "drop one of the white clips down inside the sill" trick   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  even though I was being ultra careful not to.

There was no debris at all in the drain, simply the crap design! The rubber flap had sealed itself to the outlet pretty tightly as a result of the mould growth from rain water.   I still cannot undertsand why Toyota didn't extend the drain pipe vertically down through the sill and straight out underneath with no need for a flap   s:? :? s:?  

Anyway, ideas for cleaning without removing vents?

1.  Insert a flexible blunt instrument down through upper mesh to open flap / push crap out of exit?  Don't like the idea of pushing crap out into the void in the sill structure.

2.  Find flexible pipe of suitable size.  Place over upper mesh and blow (vacuum / leaf buster   s:scared: :scared: s:scared:  etc).  Same problem as above though.

3.  As (2) but suck (wet vacuum) which may empty the drain but wouldn't necessarily solve the stuck flap problem.

Beyond that, I was at a loss.  Still trying to work on a modification design that would prevent it ever happening again. Short of simply removing the drain outlet I am struggling here too.

[philster_d]

you can poke a coat hanger down from above