Another H3 Sunroof discovery?

[Wild Bill]

Hello all! If you have owned an H3 with a sunroof for any length of time you have most likely experienced some degree of dismay with the poorly designed drainage system. We have had a lot of rain these past three months and I have kept my 2007 garaged to avoid any potential problems. Since the weather has become much dryer here recently I decided to take advantage of that fact and do the proverbial drain tube and firewall grommet modification, ie; clearing the tubes and then drilling out the cross hairs inside the rubber grommets and replace. OK, so I remove the side panels to gain access and just like so many U-Tube videos I locate the grommets. But wait! I have no drain tubes going into the grommets! How is this possible? I see the tube going down the A pillar but it is nowhere to be seen under the dash and going to the firewall. How is this possible? And just out of curiosity and since I already had everything disassembled, I removed the passenger side grommet just so I could inspect this hated little bugger. To my surprise it was lacking any kind of opening! Nothing! Nodda!! Just a normal looking grommet with absolutely no opening. It was not filled in by a previous owner. It came from the factory this way! Where the cross hair type flaps are supposed to be it was all solid rubber. This was true on the drivers side as well. I have never heard of any factory mods of this kind for the H3 in all my years of reading and ownership! So....where exactly were my drain tubes? I removed the lower plastic kick panels near the floors in the footwells and sure enough the tubes were routed along the A pillar and on down past the dash and door hinges and all the way down to the floor level and then through a hole inside the very bottom of the A pillar forward of the doors. I saw no signs of a grommet. (Thank God!) So....I opened the roof and with my trusty water bottle in hand I did the usual leak check and both left and right side front drains worked beautifully! Has anyone else ran into this improvement on their vehicles? It is a surprisingly neat and professional looking modification and so I think it was done at the factory. Any of you experts out there aware of any such design change from the factory? My H3 is a 2007 base package, inline 5 with all the usual whistles and bells.

 

[Nikal]

That’s great, but odd? Especially on a 2007. You hear about these types of things on when design flaws are found and changes are made on later years. So I was expecting you to say your H3 is a 2010 or something. But the fact you say 2007 makes it very strange? That means if it was a manufacture installation, they then went back to the original drain design.

 

[HummerHead]

Hello all! If you have owned an H3 with a sunroof for any length of time you have most likely experienced some degree of dismay with the poorly designed drainage system. We have had a lot of rain these past three months and I have kept my 2007 garaged to avoid any potential problems. Since the weather has become much dryer here recently I decided to take advantage of that fact and do the proverbial drain tube and firewall grommet modification, ie; clearing the tubes and then drilling out the cross hairs inside the rubber grommets and replace. OK, so I remove the side panels to gain access and just like so many U-Tube videos I locate the grommets. But wait! I have no drain tubes going into the grommets! How is this possible? I see the tube going down the A pillar but it is nowhere to be seen under the dash and going to the firewall. How is this possible? And just out of curiosity and since I already had everything disassembled, I removed the passenger side grommet just so I could inspect this hated little bugger. To my surprise it was lacking any kind of opening! Nothing! Nodda!! Just a normal looking grommet with absolutely no opening. It was not filled in by a previous owner. It came from the factory this way! Where the cross hair type flaps are supposed to be it was all solid rubber. This was true on the drivers side as well. I have never heard of any factory mods of this kind for the H3 in all my years of reading and ownership! So....where exactly were my drain tubes? I removed the lower plastic kick panels near the floors in the footwells and sure enough the tubes were routed along the A pillar and on down past the dash and door hinges and all the way down to the floor level and then through a hole inside the very bottom of the A pillar forward of the doors. I saw no signs of a grommet. (Thank God!) So....I opened the roof and with my trusty water bottle in hand I did the usual leak check and both left and right side front drains worked beautifully! Has anyone else ran into this improvement on their vehicles? It is a surprisingly neat and professional looking modification and so I think it was done at the factory. Any of you experts out there aware of any such design change from the factory? My H3 is a 2007 base package, inline 5 with all the usual whistles and bells.

Hello there, Yes I agree with you , I have the same problem on my 2006 Hummer H3 for the past months it’s been raining hard in the Bay Area, and noticing there’s a leak in my sunroof and dripping down inside on the side of front passenger side by the firewall and wetted my BCM and shorting some of my light (Hazard Light keeps blinking and can’t shut it off). I have to put a temporary seal tape on the roof and top of the windscreen, you can see a water accumulation in the ceiling. Soon to be fixed fue to a nonstop rainfall in california.I’ll doing couple fixes on the vehicle due to it hits a half a million miles on the odometer.

HummerHead

 

[Jeepwalker]

Are you absolutely sure? The tubes are way high up there ...where you can hardly reach them ..and hardly see them. More like under the windshield, or very top of the firewall, is a better description. It's easy to not see them. Easy way to know is to go to the hardware store and get 7' of very fine cable like 3/32". Wrap tape around and cut the end 'clean' with a cable cutter ...and wrap a little more tape around the tip ...to make sort of a small rounded end ...then feed the cable down the drain tube from the top.

Secondly. The sun roof drain system is really an 'emergency' secondary drain system. It shouldn't be the main water prevention stage. Sort of like the drain in a house basement. Water shouldn't get past the seal except in like driving rain type circumstances. And sure, some can, but most owners seem to think it's the main drain. It isn't. If a significant amount of water is getting past you ought to resolve those issues first. You might not need to even replace your gasket being in the bay area and all. I would consider removing the glass off the vehicle and cleaning off all built-up gunk/dust/debris and so on from both the gasket and the roof surround. A lot can build up around the seal. And clean/vacuum all the dead bugs or anything that you have in the sun roof channel.

And there are drains at the back. I had one that popped out of the hole. You gotta remove the plastic around the rear seat belts (remove the shoulder bolt) ....it might be that whole rear plastic inner pannel has to be removed. I think it does if memory serves me. It looks difficult and a lot of work but it isn't. It's super easy actually. A coulple screws I think on the rear top by the headliner, maybe the lower threshold strip...as I recall ...all the side plastic just 'pops!' off with reusable metal clips. Use gentle care on the lower threshold strip, that has reusable plastic retainers, but if you're careful with the right tool they don't usually break. If you're rough, they might. The H3 interior is really nice how it comes apart. The way I remove panels is with a little light pull and then wiggle at the same time to help allow the clips to come out of their hole. I haven't broken one yet and I've had my entire interior out twice! LOL. And misc panels off at other times.

The rear drain tube grommets don't have those cross-hair fingers. But the main thing is to ensure they're securely in their holes. Speaking of which. I honestly believe cutting those fingers out is not always the best thing. But I know it's a topic people don't want to hear. The idea is to limit air ..and bugs (making a nest in the tubes) ...and the remote possibility of CO (bad exh leak?) getting into the cabin. But a lot of guys do cut them. It would have better to drain them further down by the kick panel. If you DO end up re-making yours, you might extend tubes way further down and stay away from the stock outlet. That would solve a lot of problems.

What I do to clean the existing drain tubes is I've taped a few inches of plastic shopping bag to the end of my long cable (from hardware store). Each year I pull off the hose and attach a clear piece of vinyl tubing to the sunroof drain tube, then route that into a bucket. Then dump some warm soapy water down the sunroof drain and feed the cable through. The plastic wad on the end cleans the inside of the drain tubing. Run the cable up/down a couple times, then rinse, and the inside should be polished clean. But if yours are missing, I would drain down a lot lower like you are probably thinking.

In summary (sorry this is so long), First priority is to keep the water out. Remove your sunroof glass (4 bolts), and make sure there are NO paint chips or dust/debris on the paint & gasket that would let water through ...it (the top of the glass) should be every so slightly raised (no low spots where water can pool at the sunroof edges) ...and that it's fitting and sealing well after installation. Consider replacing the gasket with new if your gasket isn't great & you plan to keep the vehicle. Then the drains as you see fit. If tubing is missing, let us know your mod ...maybe we can learn something from your experience. Good luck!!

 

[Nikal]

Is anyone reading the OP post? He’s not asking how to clean. He’s saying his drain tubes are routed and come out another location vs what everyone else has. He also says the traditional drain plugs in the firewall had a solid sealed plug, and no hose connected to them.

When he tested his drains they work fine, but drain from below the front A pillars and on the ground below his fender area.

Has anyone else discovered their drain tubes routed this way?

 

[Jeepwalker]

Sorry, I guess I started scanning the later portion of the post (thanks for catching me on that).... thought i read he was 'going' to route the tubes via the kick panels. My bad. Attention issues today. (can't edit post)

No, I haven't seen that before, but it's a really good idea. I should do that on mine next time I clean them. It's crossed my mind a couple times to do something like that. Quick way to solve the problem once and for all.

Does the OP have any pics where the tubes exit around the kick panel?

 

[Nikal]

@Wild Bill
Like @Jeepwalker asked do you have any pictures or can you take some pictures of where both front drains drop out by the door jambs?

Are you the original owner? If not do you know the history of the vehicle prior to you? I was wondering if this was a dealers fix? Maybe a plugged drain issue was taken to a dealership, and this was what that dealer was doing to H3 sunroofs to fix the problem?

 

[Wild Bill]

@Wild Bill
Like @Jeepwalker asked do you have any pictures or can you take some pictures of where both front drains drop out by the door jambs?

Are you the original owner? If not do you know the history of the vehicle prior to you? I was wondering if this was a dealers fix? Maybe a plugged drain issue was taken to a dealership, and this was what that dealer was doing to H3 sunroofs to fix the problem?

I purchased the vehicle from one of my employees when it was about 4 years old. If it was in fact a dealer mod they would have to have supplied a solid grommet and switched it out with the original. Anyone ever seen one of these? I did not take any photos since my drains were working just fine after flushing them and I did nothing insofar as repairs, etc. The drain tubes appear to be a single long hose, not the standard two piece, and exit the A pillar just in front of the doors at the floor level. The water drains out just behind the front tires same as the original. Unless you actually saw the absence of drain tubes being attached to the grommets you would never know this had been done. It's a sensible modification that appears to be working just fine. As I mentioned, I saw no signs of a grommet on the newly routed tubes. Just a very neat and clean hole in the sheet metal and the tube going inside. There may have been a clear adhesive sealant of some kind at this area to prevent leakage, or maybe it was just the usual car crud. Because of the neatness and preciseness of it all is why I thought it looked like a factory mod. As requested when I get a bit more spare time I will remove the kick panel and photograph the new location of the tubes. As long as I'm there maybe I'll remove the solid grommet for those who may be thinking Wild Bill has lost his mind and is making all this shit up! LOL!! Thanks for the input! Peace!!