Wet footwell

[karlB]

Good am / pm which ever you are.

So this afternoon I got into the car to find the footwell 1/2" deep in water so I looked on the obvious ( youtube ) to see how to fix the problem, so I then went back out to the car armed with a drain hole prodder i.e. one of her knitting needles and a bottle of water, opened sunroof to look for the drain holes which I eventually found, I could see that there was some muck build up around both the holes so gave them a prod with the knitting needle and managed to get it down the holes but not that far maybe 3" or 75mm if you like metric, so next was to try and see if I had unblocked anything, I doubted it, and I was right the water stayed where I had poured it, so action No2, passenger door pillar off, I could tell the previous had had it off but anyway, dirty brown looking rubber tube looking at me so I gave a good stare back to see if the tube had come out of the lower connection down by the dashboard, hard to see if you don't have good lighting, anyway the joint was fine, so this pointed to it being a blockage, so action No3, I had seen on the tube some had cut the dirty brown rubber tube and put a joint into it to get to the blockage by means of blowing it free, at this point I dont have the luxury of have any new tube to splice it with, so I looked for a top joint, I couldn't get my hand up past the headlining to see If it was accessible, next move I pulled the rubber that secures the headlining and door pillar a bit further back which allowed the headlining to be moved down enough to get my hand up and feel the joint at the sunroof part, it was very easy now I could get a hand to it, so a little pull on the dirty brown rubber tube and it came off ok but I did get wet with the water I had earlier poured into the sunroof, and quick shuffle away from it was needed, so now I had the upper end of the tube in my hand, quick wipe of the end and a blow down it told me it was blocked up but a sharp blow of lung power soon cleared it, happy days, shoved the tube back on the top fixing and clipped it back into place, bit of head lining pushed back and the pillar on and rubber door seal pushed back on, I was confident this time that the water test would flow down and away as it should and it did, took me just 5 munites to do the other side, hope this will be helpful to anyone in the wet footwell situation.

[LizardOfBodom]

Thanks.
Sunroof drain issue is unfortunately a common occurance on our cars, good you managed to fix it. A bit of advice though - often clogged drain&puddle on the floor means that there is a lot of moist/water on your CEM (passenger footwell under glovebox - car's brain). If it starts corroding, you will be subject to any random issue you may imagine, from wipers going berserk, horn honking randomly or car going full "I give up" in the middle of the road.
If I were you, I would disconnect battery, dismount CEM and clean/dry/contact cleaner spray it to prevent future issues.

[Petey80]

Good job, glad you got it sorted.

However, I hate to be the bearer of bad news and say that you have probably only temporarily cleared the blockage.

The knuckle/wind trap that you refer too that is located in the corner of the dashboard, nearest the windscreen is the main culprit for blocking up and allowing water into the cabin.

This is what I did to rectify the issue - https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showp...&postcount=301

[karlB]

Originally Posted by Petey80

Good job, glad you got it sorted.

However, I hate to be the bearer of bad news and say that you have probably only temporarily cleared the blockage.

The knuckle/wind trap that you refer too that is located in the corner of the dashboard, nearest the windscreen is the main culprit for blocking up and allowing water into the cabin.

This is what I did to rectify the issue - https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showp...&postcount=301

Petey you must not have understood what I have wrote / typed, I disconnected the tube from the uppermost joint at the sunroof end and cleared it from there all the way through both sides.

[karlB]

Originally Posted by LizardOfBodom

Thanks.
Sunroof drain issue is unfortunately a common occurance on our cars, good you managed to fix it. A bit of advice though - often clogged drain&puddle on the floor means that there is a lot of moist/water on your CEM (passenger footwell under glovebox - car's brain). If it starts corroding, you will be subject to any random issue you may imagine, from wipers going berserk, horn honking randomly or car going full "I give up" in the middle of the road.
If I were you, I would disconnect battery, dismount CEM and clean/dry/contact cleaner spray it to prevent future issues.

Fortunately it was the drivers side, not 100% sure if there is anything electrical to damage on that side in the footwell ?

[Petey80]

Originally Posted by karlB

Petey you must not have understood what I have wrote / typed, I disconnected the tube from the uppermost joint at the sunroof end and cleared it from there all the way through both sides.

Yes, I understood that, but 9 times out of 10 it is the knuckle/wind trap in the corner of the dashboard that blocks up rather than the actual drain tube.

That is why the water remained in the tube and you got wet when you removed it from the upper end nearest the sunroof.

Blowing down the tube will have removed the blockage from the knuckle/wind trap, but not opening it wider as per my method will mean it will block up again.

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by karlB

Fortunately it was the drivers side, not 100% sure if there is anything electrical to damage on that side in the footwell ?

No, shouldnt be, but just to be safe - check with hand if there are any wet patches around p/s under-glovebox area. Better safe than sorry.

[karlB]

Originally Posted by Petey80

Yes, I understood that, but 9 times out of 10 it is the knuckle/wind trap in the corner of the dashboard that blocks up rather than the actual drain tube.

That is why the water remained in the tube and you got wet when you removed it from the upper end nearest the sunroof.

Blowing down the tube will have removed the blockage from the knuckle/wind trap, but not opening it wider as per my method will mean it will block up again.

Well when I did blow down it it certainly unblocked just fine, plumbed it back up and water tested it and the water flowed out under the car as it should, very happy with it, and should it block up again I know it will only take a few minutes to solve the problem.

[David Jarman]

Hi there I have a Volvo V40 D2, 2014,heater steaming front screen,water ingress pass footwell , to rectify fault there is a air con drain in drivers side footwell,
You will find the pipe,under drivers carpet,you will need to unblock leaves,
To do this either use an air line,vac pump,or in my case a bit of pipe,
Blow or suck on pipe ,you might get a mouth full of leaves lol ,but did the trick.
Now more water getting through and building up into pass footwell,
Hope it’s helps guys.