Looking for left rear sunroof drain for 2013

[Onoahimahi]

Hi - I located and cleaned 3 of the 4 drains for the sunroof of my 2013 Explorer Limited but can’t find the driver’s side rear drain which I expected to be at the front of the left rear wheel well but I don't see it there. (The sunroof has been leaking and will no longer open presumably because water damaged the motor circuit.) Can someone point me to this drain please?

Thanks,
-Scott

 

[texsn95]

My driver's rear actually drained from 2 locations. Haha not sure if it's supposed to do that, but I cleaned them with a flexible cleaning tool from Amazon and it will drain as fast as pour water down it.

 

[Onoahimahi]

Texan95 - thanks. So you snaked the drain from the top with the sun roof open? Mine won’t open so I have to snake from the bottom. I have removed the tire and partially disassembled the wheel well but don’t see the drain outlet.

 

[peterk9]

Hi - I located and cleaned 3 of the 4 drains for the sunroof of my 2013 Explorer Limited but can’t find the driver’s side rear drain which I expected to be at the front of the left rear wheel well but I don't see it there. (The sunroof has been leaking and will no longer open presumably because water damaged the motor circuit.) Can someone point me to this drain please?

Thanks,
-Scott

Hi Scott. Clogged drains usually result in water pooling in the footwell. Is that what you were experiencing? If not, it could be that the moonroof seal is the culprit. Does the shade work? If so, you could try swapping that motor with the one for the glass partition. They are the same motor.

Sunroof for 2013 Ford Explorer | Levittown Ford Parts

parts.levittownfordparts.com

The diagram shows the 2 motors and the drain tubes.

Peter

 

[texsn95]

Texan95 - thanks. So you snaked the drain from the top with the sun roof open? Mine won’t open so I have to snake from the bottom. I have removed the tire and partially disassembled the wheel well but don’t see the drain outlet.

Yes it was open and went down from the top. I couldn't see the end of the cleaning tool out of the hole, so it must have hit a bend, but went down pretty far.

If the front drains are clogged it'll pool in the front footwells, but if the rears are clogged (and the car is angled down towards the back), the water will back up around the rear door / seatbelt area and drip down the B pillar inside. I had it overflow so much one time that it drained back and dripped into the rear hatch area on the passenger side.

Moonroof Drain hoses c/w diagram

Does anyone know where they drain? I can trace from the roof, via headliner down the A pillars.... then Not sure where they go from there. Can I see them from under the Explorer?

www.explorerforum.com

 

[Onoahimahi]

I found it! I removed the tire and wheel well trim and looked around until I found it and discovered that I didn’t need to do either.

In front of the left rear tire is a small mud flap and all you have to do to access the drain is remove the two bolts that hold this mud flap in place. That will expose a hole in the “frame” and the drain is visible through that hole. This hole is shown in the first photo. To clear the line, I used the black flexible foot-long air nozzle attachment shown in the second photo. I used a few short blasts of low pressure air to clear the line. To get a photo of the drain itself I had to use my endoscope. The third photo is a photo of the endoscope display showing the actual drain. If you zoom that photo you can see a drop of water coming out of the drain.

Now all four of my sunroof drains are clear and functioning. I was getting water in the front passenger floor area as well as the spare tire well with water running down the 3rd row seatbelts. Hopefully this is all fixed now. The next challenge will be getting the moldy smell out of the car! :-(

If I had to do this over again I would have first replaced the motor so I could open the sunroof and then cleaned the drains from the top.

-Scott

 

[410Fortune]

Well done!