How to repair sunroof drain tube connectors?

Our sunroof drain hoses have rubber connectors that attach to the sunroof drains at the corners. The connector and hose are separate pieces that are attached (glued?) together.

Several of my hoses have developed leaks in this connection. Everything else is good, so I'd rather fix the leak instead of replacing the hoses. I searched and, although I saw this issue mentioned once or twice in passing, I didn't see a repair solution.

I'm thinking I should pull the connector off the tube completely, put a thin layer of silicone caulk on both parts, and push them together. Anyone have experience with this solution or another one?

I thought about wrapping the whole thing in silicone tape, but you have to stretch the tape to make it work, and I think it would collapse the drain tube.

On edit: See a photo of the problem in post #8 of this thread.

I'd think that silicone tape would make things slippery?

If you can get to the connector and the tube then perhaps zip-tie them?

I've only experienced problems with a rear drain on one of my Golfs. Turned out the hose was just pulled out of the exit grommet: it was reachable from the trunk, by hand (big relief!).

And then there's wiper washer hoses... LOTS of issues with those on BOTH cars: fortunately no leaks in the middle of the headliner, just at the rear and in the hatch itself.

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/sunroof-drain-clog-repair-recall-on-vw-audi/

For anyone else that may come across this, here is a thread of the sunroof drains and fixing them. The last picture shows the connector with silicon on it

As far as the connectors, I uses silicone on all of mine. Just make sure that none gets inside the hose

Thanks for the input. I think I didn't explain myself well enough. My leak is in the bond between the white rubber connector and the rubber hose. They are glued together at the factory. I think the connector is watertight when it slips over the sunroof nipple, and the hoses are clean, intact, and connected to the lower grommets. The only leak is between the rubber connector and the hose itself.

UhOh said:

I'd think that silicone tape would make things slippery?

Click to expand...

I'm talking about stuff like THIS used for plumbing repair. Typically, it's wrapped tightly around a rigid pipe or pipe joint. You're supposed to stretch it to twice its normal length, which then makes the layers of tape bond together. The result is a leak-proof silicone "bandage" that prevents fluid from the original leak from escaping. Since the tape has to be stretched and wrapped tightly, I would think it would collapse any soft hose. I could put a short piece of rigid tubing or a spring inside the tube to keep it from collapsing, and then use the tape. But that is a lot more complicated than what I'm proposing.

UhOh said:

If you can get to the connector and the tube then perhaps zip-tie them?

Click to expand...

Yes, I had my headliner out last weekend and will do so again this weekend in order to make this repair and also to fix the position of the sunroof I installed. So I'll have great access. I don't think zip ties or any clamp would work, because there's nothing hard underneath -- same problem as with the silicone tape.

UhOh said:

And then there's wiper washer hoses... LOTS of issues with those on BOTH cars: fortunately no leaks in the middle of the headliner, just at the rear and in the hatch itself.

Click to expand...

Ugh, I've tangled with those also.

HogWrangler said:

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/sunroof-drain-clog-repair-recall-on-vw-audi/

For anyone else that may come across this, here is a thread of the sunroof drains and fixing them. The last picture shows the connector with silicon on it

Click to expand...

Looks to me like this is the hose-in-hose repair. I could do this, but once done, I wouldn't be able to disconnect the hoses from the sunroof again without cutting the hose. So I'd rather try for a less drastic approach.

HogWrangler said:

As far as the connectors, I uses silicone on all of mine. Just make sure that none gets inside the hose

Click to expand...

Great, so you pull the white rubber connector off the hose, clean it, put silicone on both pieces, then assemble them again?

Yes that's what I did. You might could get by with just covering the outer part with sealant

Cool., that's what I had in mind Are they holding up well?

So far they have been. Going on 2 years with no leaks (knock on wood)

Great, I'll try it this weekend.

Better late than never -- I found this photo that shows the problem perfectly from this thread:



The guy who posted this (banshee365) snipped the ends off his hoses, added a short vinyl hose extension, and clamped the hose over the sunroof nipple, like so:



I'll try this if the silicone caulk repair doesn't work.

Problem is they only bond the hose to the spherical boot on two sides of the tube. When the tubing hardens with age it tries to shrink but it can only shrink on the sides that are not bonded so it becomes oval shaped while the spherical boot remains round. This creates 2 gaps where water can leak out.

What I do is pull the "rubber" hose out of the white spherical boot and jam a piece of rigid tubing into the inside diameter of the hose to help it regain it's round shape. Slide a piece of large heatshrink tubing onto the hose. Then I put them back together with a bit of RTV (a very small amount). Once they're back together slide the heat shrink up onto the boot and shrink it.

The OD of the rigid tubing I use is almost exactly 10mm. I get it from my mity-vac MV7201 that I use for filing DSG transmissions. I am slowly cutting away at it (I rarely do this repair).
I was unable to find anything at the local hardware store with this OD but you might be able to get something off of McMaster-Carr or similar.
The tubing is key to a successful repair. I'm not sure how much the shrink wrap does other than assisting in holding the two pieces together mechanically after they are reattached. I got it at home depot. Says 3/4"-3/8" I assume this means it starts out at 3/4" and shrinks to 3/8"

If there is any interest in this I will go through the agonizing process of getting the pics I have off of my phone and magically putting them into a post in this thread.

The thing I found that worked well was to pull the nipple off the tube abs reglue it with GOOP Glue.
Mine have worked for years that way.
The tube is (I believe) heat welded in tow points and with age and heat the tube shrinks a little and leaks like a sieve.
I wonder when VW will wise up!
I

Hey Robbie, nice to have you chime in. That's a great observation about the way the tubing shrinks and creates two leak points; also about inserting a short piece of rigid tubing inside the rubber hose. I understand what you're doing, no need to post pics on my account. I have some thin-walled brass tubing I got at Ace Hardware with an OD of 9.54mm; maybe that will work.

RedBarron55, I'll look into Goop glue and check it out. Thanks!

Fixed it today, here's what I did:

Here's the left rear hose after I removed the boot. Note the shrinkage on the end and the glue spot. The shrunken part was hard and stiff, not soft and pliable like the rest of the hose.


Here's the boot end where the hose goes. Note the glue spot.


I found that 1/2" copper pipe fits nicely inside the hose, expanding it just a little bit. I realize there is a possibility of corrosion and green spots on my driveway, but I am willing to bet there won't be a problem. I found that soaking the stiff hose ends in very hot water for a few minutes made them soft and pliable again -- at least long enough to install copper pipe inserts. Here's a photo of the right rear hose with an insert installed, along with an uninstalled insert.


End view of the installed insert:


Assembled connector. I used a cotton swab to apply a thin coat of Goop glue to the hose and boot before assembling them.


Assembled hose end. Note that it might be possible to remove the copper insert if I have corrosion spotting on the driveway, as I didn't glue the insert.


With the copper inserts in place, I could have clamped the boots to the hose on top of everything else, but I decided that would be overkill.

Hope this helps.

Here are some additional photos. They are not directly related to the rear drain hose end repair above, but they may be helpful to someone.

Here's the front left hose. It uses a different type of connector and didn't appear to leak, so I left both front tubes alone. I did snip the grommet nipples on the door posts and make sure the drains were clear.


Here's the right rear drain, showing the connectors:


The rear soft hoses don't run all the way back but connect to hard lines at the base of the "C" pillar, like this.


This label was on both rear tubes:

Reconnect Grommet to tube on door jam

Ok i just read this thread and little did i know that by me pulling out the grommet in the drivers drawer that it would diconnect from tube, so now im like how the heck am it to get it reconnected , the door is in way and i cant get to opening to use long tongs or ?to hold tube near hole and try n slip grommet back on , all without pulling tube off of the top connection
I guess i just need to remove door and try that
One guy said if i remove kick panel that is how to gain access to the connetion , but its to low to floor theres no way , so only other way i thought would be to remove headliner ;( and pull tube off and out and connect it to door grommmet the feed tube up a piller and get grommet back in then connect top of tube and reinstall headliner ? What a choir , just bc i didnt reseacher first before starting to tear stuff apart , i guess i thought i could pull front door drain plug out and still be connected , as thats just how i did in both rear grommets being i had interior panels all off dealing with the mice invasion
Any advise on how to reconnect door grommet to tube would be helpfull unless someone wants to make wise crack about it ...lol TIA

Longhair, I didn't have that issue, so I can't help directly. But in my own research, I remember seeing some posts on how to deal with that problem. You might try using Google in addition to the tdiclub search, as Google will include results from vwvortex and other sites. Good luck!

I can’t see photos

I had Longhair's problem once with my passenger front drain.

I was able to get it reconnected by snaking trimmer (weed-whacker) line down from the sunroof, then reaching into the pillar through the grommet point with long-nose pliers to get the line at the bottom and pull it through. Then I threaded the grommet onto the line and, while keeping the line from pulling through the top (think I clamped vise-grips or something on the line so it couldn't get away), a little tension on the line while I refitted the grommet into the door popped the tube back into it. Easy-peasy.

Thank you Rob
I have been chasing this leak for a bit . Wondering how to reconnect the lower fitting to the grommet

Happy to help.