Water leak

burnerET · December 6, 2016

After a heavy rain last night, I get in my 2015 sierra denali to find about an inch of standing water in the driver floor board, thankful for those husky liners. Took it by the dealership and lady scheduled an appointment to check it tomorrow. She said it is probably the drain tubes in sunroof. I've also read about the shark fin seal and windshield. My question is, she told me if it is the drain tubes being clogged that's not covered under my warranty or extended bumper to bumper warranties. Is this correct? I feel no other wet spots or sign of water at all in the truck. Is that normal to just get water on floor and no where else

Pacfanweb · December 7, 2016

If it's drain tubes and it's under the base warranty, it absolutely IS covered.

That's what I do for a living and I repair GM's (Fords, etc) under base warranty all the time with clogged drains.

I don't know a manufacturer out there that doesn't cover that under the base warranty.

If you are out of the 3/36, then no....it's not covered.

That said, unless you live under some serious tree coverage and leave it open all the time, I doubt your drains are clogged already.

Most likely the sat antenna, with the windshield being #2 most likely.

burnerET · December 7, 2016

That's what I figured to as far as the cause. I am outside the base 3/36 though, I guess I assumed that was what an extended warranty was for. I browsed through it this evening and it doesn't say it does cover it but it also doesn't say it doesn't. I visually inspected the openings of the tubes in the sunroof trac and didn't see anything clogging them. I pulled of the A pillar cover and driver fuse box and door seal cover and didn't see any evidence of water. The truck is constantly under covered parking as well minus 2 days a week when its at the fire station

Amuro · December 7, 2016

If I was you I would lower the headliner carefully to gain access to the drain tubes and take a good look at the roof antena. While inside the vehicle have someone else run the garden hose on the roof and find the leak yourself. If you can get the dealerships to cover it then let them deal with it but at least you will know for sure if you check it out yourself

burnerET · December 7, 2016

How hard is it to drop down the head liner

Pacfanweb · December 8, 2016

I don't drop the entire headliner to fix a satellite antenna. Take off the a-pillar. Remove the visor. And maybe the visor hook. You should be able to pull the headliner down enough to get to the satellite antenna that way. Oh, and remove the grab handle if you have one right there.

A lot of times the sunroof drains can be clogged but you don't see anything right there at the opening. Get you a cop or a water bottle and pour some water in there and see how fast it runs out on the ground behind the front tires. It should run out pretty fast. You should be able to have a decent little stream pouring into the trough and have the drain keep up with the flow.

Obviously you can put enough in there that then drain cannot keep up with it, but under normal circumstances it would never get that much water in there during a rain anyway.

Pacfanweb · December 8, 2016

As far as coverage, just cleaning out sunroof drains is not covered. That is actually in the owner's manual as a maintenance item. The satellite antenna... I don't know if that is covered under extended warranty. All the ones I have done so far have been under base warranty

burnerET · December 10, 2016

So a little update...I finally have my truck back after it being at the dealership for 3 days. Im so infuriated and frustrated by the incompetency and just lack of respect for customer service that seems to be a trend at most dealerships. Ill start with the service advisor that helped me was completely incompetent at not just her job but any job in the automotive field. When you refer to things and use the words "windshield wiper thingy's", you're a moron. At first I was told water was leaking "from the windshield wiper thingy" and that their was a service bulletin the tech had found over it. I asked her to provide this and she said she would get it. Of course she never did. Day 2.... still not done. Come to find out it wasn't the windshield wiper thingy's, ( after speaking to the actual tech he was referring to a weld on the fire wall that apparently has had issues, but that was in the 16s not the 15s.

We then move on back to the theory that it was dust that has clogged up the drain tubes and that isn't warrantied. When this possibility was discussed, when diagnosed if this was the issue, I would be notified before being done due to the fact it cost 287 dollars. Well they went ahead and did it anyway because the tech thought it was a warranty item, and it isn't, so Im just stuck with footing the bill. This is at 5pm on the second day and of course the truck is still not put together, because the carpet was wet and that was going to be another 4hrs worth of work. I told her to kick rocks Id do it myself. I asked if they were in the habit of performing repairs without speaking to the customer and she just kind of replied it was a mistake on their part but i still have to pay. Im livid at this point and ask for the manager, of course he is gone for the day. I tell her have my truck ready in the morning and I want to meet with her in the manager and the tech. I send the manager a lengthy email with specifics, dates and times, things discussed etc.. and ask that I receive a call.

Day 3...arrive to pick up my vehicle, of course the managers in meetings today conveniently, but she spoke with him and he agreed to only charge me 89.99 for a diagnostic fee. I ask if this is how all their customers who buy 50k vehicles and have all their service work done at their dealership are treated, and she just blankly stares. The tech goes outside to some how try to explain how a vehicle that never leaves pavement and is always under a covered parking spot, accumulates enough dust through a 2mm crack in sunscreen to clog the drain lines, and how do you in fact verify there was dust to begin with when you're blowing out from the top. Does someone watch from the bottom, is there a catch? Apparently you can't know if there was according to him, its just a guess. He also then removes the just cover box on driver side dash, and proceeds to tell me the drain tube fitting, where it connects to the firewall, was loose and had to be pushed back in. After he did that, he re-preformed the water test and resolved the issue. How this wasn't caught on the first one is beyond me. I ask him how that comes loose? IM not sticking my hand back there fooling with things. Apparently daily driving and vibration can do it. I end up having to eat the 89 dollars just to get a vehicle to live and leave furious. Of course I never hear from the manager. Im just frustrated by the whole situation. Sorry for the rant

Pacfanweb · December 11, 2016

So the problem wasn't with the drain being clogged after all, and it was just the exit spout had come loose from the firewall?

Here's a thought: First, you can't usually tell what is clogging a drain. If it's blocked right at the exit with a leaf or a seed pod or a dead bug...sure, but if it's some type of bio debris down in the tube, you just flush it out and most of the time you don't know what it actually was.

But: If it was clogged....and he blew it out with compressed air (big no-no, I never do that), that might well have made it come loose at the exit.

Regardless, if the exit spout had come loose and was just hanging inside the vehicle, the water was simply draining inside the truck, not outside.

I've not seen that one one of these as of yet, but there's always the first time, I suppose. And that would darn sure flood the inside, no doubt.

As far as the charges....if you were out of base warranty, a competent dealership would tell you and have you sign at drop off, an okay for at least some sort of minimum diagnosis charge. Which sounds like about what you paid, but you should have been told about it.

That's the way it works here in NC, anyway.