I "cleaned" my drains several months back, that's what made me "think" the tubes have their own sealed "channel" inside the pillar. I didn't say the pillar itself is sealed, but the drain tubes path. That's a difference.
In any event, thanks for the explanation and tips.

I have a question for you Bob:
why is that people get water ONLY in the passenger side footwell and not everywhere else in the car if the sunroof drains are responsible for the water getting in?
What are the odds that all these people who reported water on the passenger side floor get only that side sunroof drain clogged?
I would assume the same question could apply for the windshield seal or door seals.

thanks.

 

Ok..'door frame' then (I say fender only because most want to refer to it that way, but you are correct).. the thing is that the drain tubes are 'plastic tubes' and the door frame and a-pillars are hollow. If you have a loose tube in the door frame (like it got pushed in) with water flowing through it, where does it go? Into the footwells. The pillars and door frame (along with every other seam on the inside of the cabin) is NOT sealed, only spot welded and maybe painted..... And believe me, the tubes can get pushed in, I've already done that mistake and had to go fishing .

The 'passenger side only getting wet' thingy is different and, I thought, was only on those cars with a battery up front, like A4's or newer A6's...? And, just so you know, these drains are responsible for wet trunks in most cases, so they do let water into the interior of the car. Oh, and nobody has reported a wet headliner in conjunction with a wet trunk.

Anyways, I was just trying to point out another possibility since Jack says the common culprits were already checked.

 

I agree with you from this angle, provided the tubes are loose. But if they're clogged (that's where the discussion started, didn;t it?) and the tubes are not disconnected from the corner passages, then the water would acuumulate in the tubes and eventually will flood the top.
That's why I'm arguing that CLOGGED sunroof drains are not responsible for wet floors.
Disconnected tubes, leaking windshield seal, door seals, etc...that indeed may be a different matter altogether, and I don't dispute Bob's or your knowledge on the A pillars.

 

Not for me it didnt

 

You ask a very good question. To properly answer you, I would have to study a sunroof frame to see how much of it overlaps the a-pillar and where, assuming all four drain tubes are plugged, the next lowest point in the system would be in relation to the side curtain air bag and a-pillar trim. Then, we would have to look at the make up, and water resistance of, the side curtain air bag (i'd bet the back is water proof, for safety reasons) and of the a-pillar trim to answer the question: if water came out of the "next lowest point in the system", where would it go? It is very possible that the water just drains down the inside of the a-pillar sheet metal until it meets some blockage, then starts accumulating until it overflows into the passenger side footwell. Unlikely, from my experience, as the bottom of the a-pillar sheet metal assembly (the a-pillar outer is welded to the a-pillar inner with some reinforcements to create the a-pillar assembly, wich is in turn welded to the rocker panel assembly and header assembly along with the b-pillar assembly and the c-pillar assembly (and the d-pillar assembly in the case of an Avant) to form a door ring assembly, but I digress...) has a small gap built in at the bottom to allow any water that sneaks in to drain out to the outside of the car. Can it do all of this without any water getting on the headliner? VERY good question! One wouldn't think so, BUT others swear it has happened to them and you should not discount actual experience in the face of conflicting logical inference. Usually, actual experience is correct.

Bob

 

Actually all 4 tubes are plugged in at the highest point in the system, at the 4 corners of sunroof's frame. There are no separate tubing sections alongside the pillars. If you unplug the tube from the corner passage you can pull out the tube for that particular side.
If the water accumulates until it overflows, then the overflow occurs at the top, damping the headliner. That's what I'm trying to say all this time.
Of course unless through a freakish coincidence everybody gets only the passenger side tubing cracked somewhere throughout the pillar or the door ring frame, and water sips through the crack exactly in the footwell (hard to picture that considering that the front drains are higher than the footwells and angled toward the outside of the car).


I totally agree. Thanks for your time, Bob.

 

Well.. this isnt about it only draining into the passenger side footwell. If a tube is bad or clogged, I can see it potentionally draining into the footwell on that side, just as it does the trunk. As Bob says, though, there is usually a drain hole in the door frame just for this possibility, but if your drain tubes are clogged, these could be too - or covered over by, say, the rust proofing - then you'd have problems. Again, there are several people here and on other forums that had water in their trunks because of clogged drain tubes w/o any indications in the headliner. Ever had to find a leak in a roof? Water can travel places you'd never think of.

Again, the battery box, windshield frame and cowling box drains are the most common, I was just pointing out another possibility.

 

Found it. Not the Sunroof drains or the drain under the Battery box.

It is effin humid as ever here in Sunny SW Florida and the tubes for the AC unit are sweating like mad in front of the cabin air filter with my Fan on high it is sucking the condensation from the pipe into the filter saturating the filter then leaking into the box and down through the dash onto the floor in the right front corner passenger side.

I'm going to insulated the crap out of the pipes that should fix it.

 

Driver side rear flooded. 6inches. What say yee?
Haven't heard much about drivers side rear only. Thanks.