Cleaning Out The Sunroof Drains

cs15dah · July 13, 2019

Appears mine are clogged. Dealer says book is 5 hours to lower the headliner, remove the lines to clean them, then reinstall. $650.

1) Any guides, threads, how-tos out there specifically for this year/model range on how to clean them out? Mine’s a 2015 Suburban. I did see the generic video (I think they used a BMW car) located in another thread, but curious as to any instructions out there specifically for our particular vehicle.

2) I plan on using trimmer string to push through the drain tubes. There are only the two located at each side of the front of the sunroof opening, right? I do have a small compressor but worry about pushing air through and accidentally disconnecting the tube somewhere and not know about it until its leaking.

3) And, where are the drain exits? I looked around the wheel well openings but didn't see anything. Perhaps they're hidden behind the wheel well liners, or up in the fenders somewhere out of sight?

Mandalorian · July 15, 2019

Maybe see if you can find a detailer who does them.

cs15dah · July 23, 2019

2) The trimmer string didn’t work. I couldn’t get it pushed in far enough. Those tubes are long!! Appears there are four drains at each corner of the sunroof frame.

3) I’m guessing the drain exits are behind the wheel liners. I see the water drain out from that area. Up front, by taking off the grab handles and the sun visors I was able to pull the headliner down enough to pull the tubes off and blow compressed air into them. Then I took the rear grab handles off and pulled the headliner down enough to get to the rear tubes. Air appeared to blow through all four lines just fine. Then I poured water into each tube and watched as the water poured out of the bottom. Then I reattached each tube, refitted the headliner, reattached each handle and sun visor, then reinstalled the weather seals around the doors. All in all, I believe it took about an hour. Crazy that the book rate says its a 5 hour job?!