Water leak but, from where???

[drewusmaximus]

Hi all, 1995 525i 5 spd
During the past two weeks I took my car to the car wash twice and no water leaks. Today it snowed a little but the snow melted quickly. Now I have water leaks on the front pillars! Anyone know where the water would be coming from?
Below is a link of the water leak on the pillar
Thanks in advance!

http://i1378.photobucket.com/albums/...psn1vhv7ln.jpg

[demetk]

If it's not the sunroof drain tubes leaking then maybe a bad windshield seal?

[GregT53]

Is the floor wet?

My guess is sunroof drain.

First step would be to make sure the drain tube is clear. I use a three foot piece of 3/8" outside diameter plastic tubing. Get the stiff kind, not the clear, soft type.

Clear both sides. Check for leaks using a garden hose to let water run across the front side of the sunroof for 10 minutes.

If still leaking, it may be the drain tube connection to the sunroof cassette.

You'll have to drop the headliner a bit to check the attachment of the drain tube to the sunroof cassette. These connections don't typically fail like they do in newer model BMWs.

Could also be a crack in the tube, again an unlikely occurrence.

[drewusmaximus]

The floor is bone dry. I don't understand why it's leaking now. I washed the car a couple times and had a couple of snow storms and never leaked. Is there a DIY that will show me how to access the drain tubes for the sun roof?
Thanks!

[GregT53]

Here is a photograph of the driver's side drain. It exits through the forward jack point on the same side. If you carefully pour water through the drain, you should see it dripping below though the jack point. If it does not drain then you have a clog, so use the tubing mentioned above to unclog it. If it drains but nothing or very little exits though the jack point then it's found another path...your A column, and you will have to remove the A column cover and drop the headliner shell enough to have a look at the tube attachment point.. In the attached photograph, the drain hole is the small, round opening in the lower left corner. The narrow, vertical, black piece is the air deflector that pops up when the sunroof is retracted. The wide, black piece is the sunroof track. Hope this helps.

[drewusmaximus]

I cannot see the image.

[GregT53]

I will try to reattach. For some reason, the image does not show when using mobile devices to access the forum.

[ross1]

Looks like a sunroof drain to me also.
I've heard of them simply falling off the nipples(one on each corner) on the sunroof cassette.
See if you can get a look at that corner by removing the a-pillar cover, sun visor and grab handle, then pulling the headliner down a bit

[jclausen]

Sunroof drains or bad hose

[GregT53]

Hoping this works. If not, would someone please tell me how to post images directly?




Attachment 596286

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Hoping this works. If not, would someone please tell me how to post images directly?






Attachment 596286

Sorry, just can't figure this out. It's a nice image, too!

[anonoh]

Sorry, just can't figure this out. It's a nice image, too!

Don't upload the image onto the forum tool. Use an external image host of your choosing such as photobucket, imgur, imageshack, etc and upload it there then copy the direct url in between the tags ['quickimg]<url here>['/quickimg] (remove quotes). This way, people can also view the image publicly w/o logging in to the forum which is a pain.

[GregT53]

@anonoh: Thanks for the instructions and for posting the image. By now, the OP probably has everything fixed!

[drewusmaximus]

What is that picture? It's hard to see what it is.

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I'm trying to figure out how to remove the A pillar. The rubber trim won't budge. I believe the A pillar pops right out but the rubber trim is in the way.

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I'm trying to figure out how to remove the A pillar. The rubber trim won't budge. I believe the A pillar pops right out but the rubber trim is in the way.

[GregT53]

I explained the picture in a post above.

Pull the rubber trim off to remove the A pillar.