Water Leaks

[4pointslow]

My 2000 4 door Explorer has water leaks. Of course it has a sunroof/moonroof.
I would like input from people who have fixed water leaks on their Explorers if anyone wants to chime in.

There was a piece of broken plastic in the front area of the sunroof channel which I found after opening the sunroof and looking around.
I got the piece out with needle nose pliers. The piece of debris may not have been from the sunroof but it might have?

After removing the interior and dropping the headliner, I found the right (passenger side) front drain tube clogged solid and blew it out with compressed air.
The left rear (driver side) drain tube was kinked and only partially clogged but was holding a little water in it, I was able to clear it by blowing through it with my mouth (yuck).
I want to replace the tube since it still has somewhat of a kink in it but I have no idea what replacement tubing I should use.
Here is the kinked drain tube.

Also I want to install clamps on the tubes since some have reported that they became detached and caused water to leak over the top of the headliner.
Here is a picture of where the drain tube attaches to the right rear of the sunroof channel.

I blew compressed air back through the rear drain tubes from the bottom to clear anything that might have been in the track and reattached the hoses.
Feeling over top the sunroof at the back I can put my finger in the water channel so the top is open by design.
That means excessive water in the channel could overflow it and drip onto the headliner, wow that's crappy.

Today it is supposed to rain so I will get in and look for leaks. I suspect leaks will come from other areas as there is some serious damage to the drivers side front door seals and drip channel (if I am calling it by it's correct name.
I ordered the seal that goes in between the door and body (if that makes sense) which is for sale all over eBay.
The drip channel over the driver side door seal is severely damaged but I don't see any for sale on eBay or internet so I will be removing the one off my old 98 4 door that has rusted away and lost it's timing chains (4.0 SOHC).

Update: I was able to swap the drip channel over the driver side doors from my 1998 4 door to this 2000 4 door Explorer.

 

[4pointslow]

Update: Think I found a solution to prevent kinking of the rear sunroof drain tube hoses.

I found some real strong 3/8 ID hose in my garage from a previous project, made by a company named Parker.
It is called push-lok hose. I used it on my 2004 Supercharged 4.0 SOHC Explorer for vacuum and intercooler coolant hoses.
This hose holds form, I doubt it will ever kink.

Only had one length of red so the other side in the rear, I used black. In the front there was no kinking so I didn't feel the need to replace them.

Found some fuel injection clamps made by a company named Ideal/Tridon. Clamps on all 4 hoses should keep them on.
I'm starting to feel better about stopping the water leaks.

One thing that bothers me about the design of the drain system is where the hoses lead to.
The water that is drained off the sunroof is led down to the rocker panels. Water runs right into the rocker panels that are known for rusting away.
Can't our engineers come up with a better way to build a vehicle? Maybe I just expect too much, after all how many years is a vehicle supposed to last.
This picture shows how the bottom of the hose goes through some insulation and right into the rocker panel area.

 

[donalds]

i used that hose on my supercharger install for vac lines and on my preoiler with the brass pushlock fittings to
they are nice

 

[4pointslow]

More water leaks.

I sat in the vehicle during a nice rain storm and waited for water to come in.
It was surprising to see where it came in at.
There was some wetness behind the right rear wheel well, right where the MTX sub woofer will be installed.
Definitely don't want that getting wet!
Turns out the water was coming in from a hole, that the wheel well flare clip goes through.
Now I like the look of the flares but I do not like water intrusion.
I assume there is a seal that is missing or has deteriorated and is no longer keeping the water out.
For now I just smeared some RTV around to stop the water from coming in.
Maybe I will look into a more permanent or better solution at a later date.
Here is a short video clip of the water coming in.

More water leaks.

 

[4pointslow]

i used that hose on my supercharger install for vac lines and on my preoiler with the brass pushlock fittings to
they are nice

How was it attaching the brass fittings?
I never had the pleasure of using them yet, but probably will in the future.

 

[donalds]

I put a little dish soap on the brass then use a table for support and just push the hose on no clamp required
You can also heat the hose in hot water to help push it on
And once it's on its on you will need to cut the hose off
The brass hose barbs are reusable if you clean them

 

[allmyEXes]

Can you make an appropriate size hole in the rocker to extend the hose through it? ~3/8ths inch and use some metal fuel/trans line to slip through the hole in to the end of the plastic hose to extend it a few inches?

 

[4pointslow]

Probably could but I have way more things to do to this thing to get it road ready for winter so I have to move on.
I've got most of the interior back together after installing my head unit, amp and sub woofer today.
Really wanted to install the remote start but I have to push that off too, trying to get all these interior parts out of my house. LOL
You know its bad when you have two headliners in your dining room. hahahaha

 

[Hybred]

My sunroof leaks too, the drains are clogged. I can’t blow through them from the top, even with compressed air.
I couldn’t find where the drains came out to blow air back up, or clear the lines with wire.

If you could post up locations of the exits, that would be awesome.

 

[4pointslow]

Sorry I have no picture of the exits, the rear ones go inside the rocker panels so you cant see them.
That picture above with the red hose going down into black foam is the exit, but you cant see inside the rocker panel where it dumps.
I pulled the rear hoses out of the foam and blew backwards through them.
For the front I removed the hoses at the sunroof itself and blew compressed air backwards through the sunroof.
Then I blew air down into the hoses when they were disconnected.

 

[4pointslow]

Last water leak fixed, almost forgot to post about it.
The interior is back in and no more leaks.

The last leak was over top of the driver side rear window which is bolted in.
During a rain storm water was dripping from the top center nut on the inside (see picture below).
After tightening it and the other nuts as well, there were no more water leaks.

 

[christopherjost]

I had a water leak dripping into the cupholders and pulled the entire overhead out. Found the tubes were only friction fitted so added hose clamps. Bad news was there were no blockages or obvious problems with the drain pan so also pulled out the glass and scrubbed up the seal. Since I already had it all apart, put new lining on the sunshade.

Before putting it all back together, I rode around for a week waiting for rain. Still leaked. Turned out to be the top of the windshield seal. Ooof.

 

[4pointslow]

I had a water leak dripping into the cupholders and pulled the entire overhead out. Found the tubes were only friction fitted so added hose clamps. Bad news was there were no blockages or obvious problems with the drain pan so also pulled out the glass and scrubbed up the seal. Since I already had it all apart, put new lining on the sunshade.

Before putting it all back together, I rode around for a week waiting for rain. Still leaked. Turned out to be the top of the windshield seal. Ooof.

I had a leak on the top of my windshield on a 2000 Ranger I used to have. Drove me nuts trying to find it.
Replaced the third brake light seal which was leaking, then the rear window seal which was also leaking.
I was so surprised when it still leaked after that, LOL. Then I removed the headliner while I had some time off from work.
As soon as I got it out I heard thunder. I drove it out of my garage and it started to rain in like 2 minutes. hahaha.
I could see that it was the top of the windshield right away. I took the vehicle to a glass place and they pulled the windshield out and brought me out into the shop to see the rust. They were able to seal it up after grinding the rust away and applying some black sealing stuff they had.
Never leaked again and I eventually sold the truck.