Need help with this LATEST water leak issue~

[geargrinder]

Sigh. Check the pix.

Its a “barb” type nipple and the hose pulls over it with 2 little tabs on either side to help you pull it up on. It should be pretty snug. Not iron clad tight. Just nice and snug. That’s all it needs.

If it’s real loose then maybe yours is split and that’s why it need tape. If the tube flows well then it should be impossible to create any pressure or back log at the joint to really cause any stress on the seal. But as I said before a small ziptie is an ideal hose clamp if you have any concerns. A metal hose clamp is a bad idea because it’s overkill, not needed, yet as the rubber is soft it easily might cut into it as it’s tightened, or worse , break the plastic barb nipple. I suspect one of those things happened to OP (split hose or perhaps broke something by going gorilla with the hose clamp).

[evomel]

HMM GOOD IDEA zip tie for added security - I guess all the thrashing in extreme cornering has loosened the German nipple LOL

Sigh. Check the pix.

Its a “barb” type nipple and the hose pulls over it with 2 little tabs on either side to help you pull it up on. It should be pretty snug. Not iron clad tight. Just nice and snug. That’s all it needs.

If it’s real loose then maybe yours is split and that’s why it need tape. If the tube flows well then it should be impossible to create any pressure or back log at the joint to really cause any stress on the seal. But as I said before a small ziptie is an ideal hose clamp if you have any concerns. A metal hose clamp is a bad idea because it’s overkill, not needed, yet as the rubber is soft it easily might cut into it as it’s tightened, or worse , break the plastic barb nipple. I suspect one of those things happened to OP (split hose or perhaps broke something by going gorilla with the hose clamp).

[geargrinder]

HMM GOOD IDEA zip tie for added security - I guess all the thrashing in extreme cornering has loosened the German nipple LOL

Its such a good idea that I said it twice...

run small ziptie around the top of it to hold it onto the barb

as I said before a small ziptie is an ideal hose clamp if you have any concerns.

[DennisG01]

Sigh. Check the pix.

Its a “barb” type nipple and the hose pulls over it with 2 little tabs on either side to help you pull it up on. It should be pretty snug. Not iron clad tight. Just nice and snug. That’s all it needs.

If it’s real loose then maybe yours is split and that’s why it need tape. If the tube flows well then it should be impossible to create any pressure or back log at the joint to really cause any stress on the seal. But as I said before a small ziptie is an ideal hose clamp if you have any concerns. A metal hose clamp is a bad idea because it’s overkill, not needed, yet as the rubber is soft it easily might cut into it as it’s tightened, or worse , break the plastic barb nipple. I suspect one of those things happened to OP (split hose or perhaps broke something by going gorilla with the hose clamp).

I didn't see any pictures in the thread showing the nipple, but maybe they're just not showing up for me? However, I can imagine what it looks like based on your description. Thanks!

[geargrinder]

I meant check the pix in the LMGTFY link I posted already.

I really do have to be everybody’s google bitch don’t I.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

You like being the Google b!tch.

[DennisG01]

I meant check the pix in the LMGTFY link I posted already.

I really do have to be everybody’s google bitch don’t I.

It's alright - I totally understand what the connection is by the description you provided. The only reason I asked/talked about it in post #23 is that it sounded like (from post #21) the connection was such that "the hose was the male part and the sunroof gutter side was the female part". That didn't make sense and if it "was" that way, it would have been a poor design. With further clarification, I understood the connection mating point to be the other way around.

[evomel]

Its such a good idea that I said it twice...

well- my nipple didn't have a barb unfortunately - the BMW hose seems to be shortly designed - reason being the inside tube is short it needs to be longer to meet the nipple - would have been nice of them to have a click system like the plumbing systems do but that would be wishing for to much right lets see how long this holds - the nipple should have had a seam or dimple so fitting would have been snug

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It's alright - I totally understand what the connection is by the description you provided. The only reason I asked/talked about it in post #23 is that it sounded like (from post #21) the connection was such that "the hose was the male part and the sunroof gutter side was the female part". That didn't make sense and if it "was" that way, it would have been a poor design. With further clarification, I understood the connection mating point to be the other way around.

next time I'll take pic its quite simple but really a bad design by the factory as it doesn't insure snug fitting- its like putting a gutter over your head with an open drain LOL

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gear grinder now I'm just hoping this was the culprit for the flooding

[geargrinder]

Jesus Forking Christ. Seriously.

"E39 Sunroof Drain Tube" -> 'Search' -> 'Images'.

Very first one:



Further down, some factory doc:

[geargrinder]

well- my nipple didn't have a barb unfortunately - the BMW hose seems to be shortly designed - reason being the inside tube is short it needs to be longer to meet the nipple - would have been nice of them to have a click system like the plumbing systems do but that would be wishing for to much right lets see how long this holds - the nipple should have had a seam or dimple so fitting would have been snug

next time I'll take pic its quite simple but really a bad design by the factory as it doesn't insure snug fitting- its like putting a gutter over your head with an open drain LOL

Seriously Mel I have no idea what your effin talking about at this point. You're going to drive ME to pharmaceutical abuse.

Are you calling the hose the nipple? Are you calling the barb the nipple? "Inside tube is short needs to be longer to meet the nipple"? WTF are you saying? Are you calling the the rubber hose the nipple? Except before you say "the nipple didn't have a barb" so are you correctly calling the plastic drain outlet the nipple?

The NIPPLE aka BARB which is THE DRAIN FOR THE CASSETTE MADE OF PLASTIC (see now you have me CAPZLOCKZ11111222111) in fact DOES have ridges on it. The rubber hose DOES fit snugly up against the cassette. As you can see from the pic above.

You know just to be super clear, since we're struggling with basic communication here, I just went to the basement and took a pic of my spare sunroof cassette. Yes I have to do everything for everybody it seems.

Look. This is the nipple aka barb. Which we only call a barb because in fact it gots ridges on it to retain the hose. Two of them. Nice little ones. Wouldn't call it a barb if it didn't.

And the hose should go right up snugly all the way to the cassette tray main body, just like it shows in the other pic.

And when it does, it retains the hose perfectly fine and snugly as I've said about 100 times now. Because its not an engineering problem when its put together properly and nothing is broken.



Stop saying it doesn't fit snugly, or its not designed to attach, or that its a massive engineering failure because its a wide open drain and the pieces don't fit together tightly.

As I've said like 4 times already if yours doesn't sound like / look like / work like this there is something wrong with your car, not the design.

OK I'm right the eff out of this thread. Too much stoopid.

[geargrinder]

Oh.. one last less-ranty, more-constructive thing before I unsub....

If your rubber tube really truly seems too short to reach, examine how its threaded around the wiring in the A-pillar. I've seen the tube get wrapped up around the wires so its not taking the straight-line path up through the retaining clips in the a-pillar, and that might make it seem too short. It needs to be right up against the back of the a-pillar, nothing behind it, clipped in behind the metal tabs, it should have a 100% straight-run in there.

[evomel]

Oh.. one last less-ranty, more-constructive thing before I unsub....

If your rubber tube really truly seems too short to reach, examine how its threaded around the wiring in the A-pillar. I've seen the tube get wrapped up around the wires so its not taking the straight-line path up through the retaining clips in the a-pillar, and that might make it seem too short. It needs to be right up against the back of the a-pillar, nothing behind it, clipped in behind the metal tabs, it should have a 100% straight-run in there.

HEHE you crack me up- b yup I did look all the way down the threading on the A pillar was fine- the problem I felt was a problem was the BMW tube on the inside was short by 1" to reach the nipple make proper tight seal- hence silicone tape- zip tie wont really do much except keep it in place

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question- why would the factory not put the same type of fittings as they did on the radiators for water onto of your head? LOL just to ensure no water damage - just a common sense question ? If I took part in designing any car I would have put more thought into ALOT into the E39 - I NEVER had problems as such in my e30-e28 nor e34 but what do I know? I'm just a DESIGN DIRECTOR !!!!!!!!

[geargrinder]

Dammit forgot to unsub so I got the notice email. I should follow Snotty's advice and not sub to anything.

This is pointless to argue.

OK. I LOVE when people whip out their credentials to support a stupid and erroneous assertion. Ooooooh you're a "design director"! Well call the honor guard and roll out the red carpet. Everybody put on their black tie, some "Design Director" is wrong about something but huzzah! He's a Design Director! Give him a trophy for "Best Erroneous Conclusions In The Face of Facts By A Design Director".

Your ignoring facts, not answering questions, and repeated completely erroneous statements (ex: ranting over and over about how theres no barb/lip when there are 2, how the tube doesn't fit snugly when it does unless something is wrong with the car... etc.) show that you're just a whacko at this point. God only knows what your car looks like in there and what may or may not be wrong with it.

For the 9000x - something seems wrong with your car. This is not a "happens to all of them" thing. The drain works fine unless one of the 3 things above happens. Which are very simply laid out and explained. And for 2 of them, the RADIATOR SNAP FITTING won't make a shizt of difference because the tray is still gonna overflow. Leaking at the junction is only one of the failure modes there, and its only if the hose has pulled off, not if the hose is properly attached and not forked up​ which it seems increasingly likely yours is.

If your hose is short and doesn't reach and / or your barb doesn't have ridges on it:

then YOUR car is broken, its not a BMW design problem.

Time to add EVOMEL to my "Block" list.

[evomel]

GEARGRINDER everything is WRONG with this car thats why I HATE it can you tell? if its not the mechanicals or drivetrain its the electrical or plumbing you name it- not to mention the terrible designed front bumper and terribly designed bottom splash guards which keep breaking- I know its hard to accept criticism us artists know how to handle that- all I'm saying is it would have been nicer if the factory put a little more effort - now WE are having to deal with it - and NO I'm not trumping my credentials ;/0

Dammit forgot to unsub so I got the notice email. I should follow Snotty's advice and not sub to anything.

This is pointless to argue.

OK. I LOVE when people whip out their credentials to support a stupid and erroneous assertion. Ooooooh you're a "design director"! Well call the honor guard and roll out the red carpet. Everybody put on their black tie, some "Design Director" is wrong about something but huzzah! He's a Design Director! Give him a trophy for "Best Erroneous Conclusions In The Face of Facts By A Design Director".

Your ignoring facts, not answering questions, and repeated completely erroneous statements (ex: ranting over and over about how theres no barb/lip when there are 2, how the tube doesn't fit snugly when it does unless something is wrong with the car... etc.) show that you're just a whacko at this point. God only knows what your car looks like in there and what may or may not be wrong with it.

For the 9000x - something seems wrong with your car. This is not a "happens to all of them" thing. The drain works fine unless one of the 3 things above happens. Which are very simply laid out and explained. And for 2 of them, the RADIATOR SNAP FITTING won't make a shizt of difference because the tray is still gonna overflow. Leaking at the junction is only one of the failure modes there, and its only if the hose has pulled off, not if the hose is properly attached and not forked up​ which it seems increasingly likely yours is.

If your hose is short and doesn't reach and / or your barb doesn't have ridges on it:

then YOUR car is broken, its not a BMW design problem.

Time to add EVOMEL to my "Block" list.

[evomel]

guess I'm not alone LOL https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2...er-trunk.shtml and I guess it ONLY gets worse in NEWER BMW models LOL

[DennisG01]

Evo, it's quite possible that since the car is 15 years old, there has been work done to it by some previous owner... possibly a few previous owners. That could be causing the recent issue of leaking. Think about it... it's GOT to be a relatively recent issue. If it had been leaking for the past 10+ years, your electronics would be completely shot and the floor board (bottom) would have rusted out by now and you'd be driving and braking like Fred Flintstone.

At this point, it is what it is and you just need to make it work. I do not know if the drain tube is one piece from the sunroof gutter all the way down to drain fitting below the car. But, replacing the drain tube with a longer one is an "option"... but I suspect it could be hard to pull a new one through (tie/tape new one to old one and pull). Or... if there's a fitting that you can easily locate the replace from there. OR... ADD a barb-to-barb fitting in the A-pillar and use a new, longer tube from that fitting to the gutter drain fitting.

Just out of curiosity, what's wrong with the bumper and splash guards? I do not have any problems with those, so I'm kind of at a loss to know what the issues are.

[evomel]

Evo, it's quite possible that since the car is 15 years old, there has been work done to it by some previous owner... possibly a few previous owners. That could be causing the recent issue of leaking. Think about it... it's GOT to be a relatively recent issue. If it had been leaking for the past 10+ years, your electronics would be completely shot and the floor board (bottom) would have rusted out by now and you'd be driving and braking like Fred Flintstone.

At this point, it is what it is and you just need to make it work. I do not know if the drain tube is one piece from the sunroof gutter all the way down to drain fitting below the car. But, replacing the drain tube with a longer one is an "option"... but I suspect it could be hard to pull a new one through (tie/tape new one to old one and pull). Or... if there's a fitting that you can easily locate the replace from there. OR... ADD a barb-to-barb fitting in the A-pillar and use a new, longer tube from that fitting to the gutter drain fitting.

Just out of curiosity, what's wrong with the bumper and splash guards? I do not have any problems with those, so I'm kind of at a loss to know what the issues are.

~not to many owners on this one- but I will say since day one I've had problems with her- long story short on the bumper - the bottom tray and fender liner continuously break - there isn't enough support to keep these items onto the car to begin with- not on mine anyway - whats more at speed and I'm not speaking of straight line speed these items especially in front of the wheels have a tendency to pop out and break sometimes getting lodged into the wheel and in my experiences causing tire damage- I don't enjoy having to constantly bring these problems up- but they are a a real problem that don't go away- its like buying a house that was badly designed or built -

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

You must be related to JaimeZX.

[evomel]

so the leak is back!!!! here are several pics- as you can see the nipple is HUGE there is no way the tiny small inside tube that BMW supplies could possibly ever go over that nipple to make good contact EVER! Now that I've said that and you can see the pics yourselves I tried a few things -different diamter hoses starting from the nipple to make good contact around it leading to the hose - tried it still no good!!!!! what I ended doing is talking the sticky weld ribbon sealer around the nipple then jammed in the BMW tube- as you can see the BMW tube hose what ever you want to call it is short by at least 1" - 1 1/2" to even reach the nipple- then when it reaches it there is no way in this world that it will go around that nipple - GREAT DESIGN!!!!!! LOL I wont get to negative on ya'll god forbid LOL - so - so far this is holding with a zip tie - just wanted to share just in case any one here doesn't put their e39 in a garage as I do.

[TheAngryBear]

Seems to me like someone tried a home hack drain previously and you are dealing with the consequences.
Here is the drain line
54128193171
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...e/54128193171/
It should be 1460 mm long



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[evomel]

[QUOTE=TheAngryBear;29961625]Seems to me like someone tried a home hack drain previously and you are dealing with the consequences.
Here is the drain line
54128193171
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...e/54128193171/
It should be 1460 mm long

Can you resend me that link? its taking me to a different online area-

[TheAngryBear]

Weird but apps have been known to do that...
That is theECS online store for the part
Also pmd the link


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DennisG01]

Hmmm. Interesting. I can understand your frustration trying to get this to work. But most likely, as AB said, something has been messed with over the years by a previous owner - especially if you're having this much trouble.

The piece you are actually holding in your hand... let's call that the "boot", for ease of talking here. Does the boot fit over the hose - meaning are the boot and hose actually two pieces? Assuming it is, for now... It appears that maybe the design of the system is such that the boot goes over the nipple, but maybe the hose goes inside the nipple? Or the hose simply butts up against the nipple. Either way, the maybe the boot is supposed to make the seal and it's lost it's elasticity over the years.

Since you can get the boot over the nipple, here's a more permanent fix you can do. I do a lot of working on boats and I end up using marine products around the car since I have them laying around. Overkill for cars, but better that than underkill I suppose. Check out a sealant made by Boat Life called LifeCalk. This is a very strong, adhesive sealant that dries to a flexible, rubbery type product. Squirt some of that down inside the boot - between the boot and the hose (still assuming these are two pieces). Be very careful not to get any inside the hose. Let that dry (you actually mist this stuff with a little water to help it cure faster). When it's at least mostly dry, squirt a little on the nipple (no closer than 1/8" to the end) and pull the boot over the nipple and secure. Once dry, it will help hold it in place and make an excellent seal. Probably some type of black RTV could do the same thing.

FYI, it sort of appears that your zip tie is too far down and not really clamping on the nipple... or just barely at the end of the nipple. That will slide off in time.

Have you physically verified that the leak is from the nipple/boot connection? Or are you saying the leak is back because you're seeing water show up on the floor?

[evomel]

Hi Dennis - I'll give that marine product a try sounds interesting for sure! The boot Is one pc yes inside it is a hose- I don't think the hose inside the boot is small enough to go through the inside if the nipple it's quite a mystery how this all was engineeed or designed or thought out by the factory. It definitely leaks from the nipple connection I've tested this every time and every time it leaks from there no other point or place and the water puddles down to the passengers floor if a lot travels to the rear ! And then Sizzle sizzle - those who have not experienced this wonderful experience most likely put their car away at night in the garage or put a cover on ? I've felt with a multitude of leaks on this car and have changed all vapors seals three times myself and three times by so called pro's -

i actually oreserd a new boot tks to angry bear and will try the marine product thank you buddy ����

[DennisG01]

Without seeing it in person and touching/feeling it, I'm not understanding how that is all supposed to fit together if the inner hose won't fit in or on the nipple. Only butting up against it isn't really the best approach (if that's what it really does). Again, this is without being there and physically seeing it, but I wonder if cutting out the inner hose to be flush with the bottom of the boot would make sense? I mean, if it doesn't fit nicely against/on/whatever the nipple, then it creates a choke point for debris. Could this be where the system typically clogs up? Or... instead of trying to cut out the inner hose, squirting the LifeCalk into the boot could accomplish the same thing.

Maybe if you take some accurate measurements we can figure out where the inner hose ends up compared to the nipple end? Or take the old boot fitting and cut a narrow slit into it lengthwise to create a "cut away" and then slip it on?

Good luck - I know how crazy water leaks can make a person. The fact that you found the exact leak spot, though, is HUGE. If you feel the boot (the new one) still has to be stretched a little too much to make it all the way on the nipple, just take an inch or two of the old hose and splice it into the new one with barb fittings... and LifeCalk/zip ties! The only downside (and it's really only a small one) is that the barb fitting will create a spot where the inside of the tube narrows down slightly. However, another way to do this is to use a hose that has the same ID as the main hose's (the BMW hose) OD. Use that as a slip connector to add a little length (the LifeCalk can glue everything together. Tip... heat the larger hose slightly to make it easier to slip over the main hose.

Just a whole bunch of random thoughts there - which are worth no more than the paper they are written on (hint... "zero" paper was used)