Sunroof drain location and repair-mkiv wagon

Pulled headliner for recovering. Discovered why sunroof drain never worked well despite religous cleaning of nipple in door jamb, it was double kinked at the sunroof drain/drain tube junction. The plastic became soft over time and caved in.
Rest easy, fix is simple. I'm sure you don't need to remove headliner completely but will need to remove from A Pillar including peripheral widget/visor removal.
NEED: 8 inches of 1/4 clear plastic drain tube for stint on both sides.
The end of this inlcudes a pic of rear sunroof drain mounting for MKIV wagon. I posted this cause I noted a thread where someone else asked some time ago and picture not posted. So if you are searching for MKIV WAGON REAR SUNROOF DRAIN scroll to bottom.
First is pic of sunroof drain as discovered:
The black nipple is the sunroof frame drain nipple, the blue is the silcone drain hose that runs down A pillar terminating inside door jamb drain to exterior.
http://pics.tdiclub.com/showphoto.php?photo=128215&title=mkiv-sunroof-drain&cat=500
Pic of piece of stint tube, about 3" per side is enough.
http://pics.tdiclub.com/showphoto.php?photo=128216&title=mkiv-sunroof-drain&cat=500
It was a tight fit, I goobered the heck out of stint and pushed in with big phillips screwdriver. Very confident drain will remain open now.
Pic of after:
http://pics.tdiclub.com/showphoto.php?photo=128216&title=mkiv-sunroof-drain&cat=500
Picture of rear wagon drain tube location and routing (Passenger side) driver side is same routing:
http://pics.tdiclub.com/showphoto.php?photo=128218&title=mkiv-sunroof-drain&cat=500

I was lucky to find my kink right where it goes into the rubber duckbill grommet that it exits from. Trimmed an inch out and mine was good. Good post. Thank you for sharing to help others.

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I'm going to have to do this or something like it. Concerned my drain isn't attached either at the top or mid way through the A pillar.

Thoughts on how to go about replacing the entire tube?

"Pic of after:"
is a duplicate of the second link in OP.

brandonkraemer said:

Thoughts on how to go about replacing the entire tube?

Click to expand...

Why not the clear plastic 1/4" all the way down?
I don't have a sunroof, and shudder to think of having to put up with one if I want to find another nice mk4.

STDOUBT said:

"Pic of after:"
is a duplicate of the second link in OP.



Why not the clear plastic 1/4" all the way down?
I don't have a sunroof, and shudder to think of having to put up with one if I want to find another nice mk4.

Click to expand...

Yeah exactly, but I don't know if its easy to fish a new tube all the way down as I think it joins in pieces halfway down the A pillar. ????

I would be inclined to use PEX which will not shrink.

Yes, thanks for that post; will add to my "to do" list for my '05 wagon. Pics help out a great deal.

brandonkraemer said:

Yeah exactly, but I don't know if its easy to fish a new tube all the way down as I think it joins in pieces halfway down the A pillar. ????

I would be inclined to use PEX which will not shrink.

Click to expand...

Blue, as it is basically a cold water drain.

Pics are great -- just wish they were easier to post on this forum.
So I looked at my drains this morning and found a fair bit of really fine silt in the exit duckbills... I hadn't figured it would be too bad as my Jetta's parked indoors most of the time, but I'm glad I checked.
The base of the duckbill felt quite solid, as it was apparently full of fine stuff from the dirt road I live on. I was able to dig a bit of muddy material out with a small screwdriver, then flushed tube with water poured into the drain hole up & under the sunroof. Water first came out cloudy, then clear. All done.
I'll try to add some additional pics of the drains so others can find them easily.

Well, I give up, for now. Posted one pic, hope that helps some folks... (I'd never noticed that duckbill exit before!)

Pics etc. work fine on this site. It's not real simple, small learning curve.
You can just post links like the OP, but you also have the option of 3 sizes. Thumbnails (small) are the best for multiples.
To start you want to go ti pics.tdiclub.com, log in again and follow the prompts for upload.

Thanks, Bob, I'll try that again later. ("Small learning curve" -- that's about all i'm good for!!)

BobnOH said:

Pics etc. work fine on this site. It's not real simple, small learning curve.
You can just post links like the OP, but you also have the option of 3 sizes. Thumbnails (small) are the best for multiples.
To start you want to go ti pics.tdiclub.com, log in again and follow the prompts for upload.

Click to expand...

Even better is to use a site like imgur.com. I just upload a picture, then select a link from the list provided, which is usually the one labeled "BBCode (message boards & forums)".

romad said:

Even better is to use a site like imgur.com. I just upload a picture, then select a link from the list provided, which is usually the one labeled "BBCode (message boards & forums)".

Click to expand...

If you want the stuff to be here in the future use pics.tdiclub.com.

BobnOH said:

If you want the stuff to be here in the future use pics.tdiclub.com.

Click to expand...

I STOPPED using that years ago due to its limitations, being extremely cumbersome to use etc.

Is TDIClub going to ban imgur and other non-TDIClub photo sites?

Possible easier way to reach rear drains on MK4 Jetta Wagon.

I was really close to pulling the bumper cover, then I remembered the hatch openings on either side for access to the rear lights.

I had been into the drivers side a long time ago to add a cd changer, so mine may look different since the foam is a bit cut up.

Rear Drain Drivers side

Rear Drain Drivers side closeup

You access the area by pulling the hatch cover on the left side of the wagon just inside the rear

The passenger side was similar, but a little tighter access, the push fasteners on the first aid kit holder gave me fits, probably due to age. But you have to remove all three, and shift the holder up and towards the rear, then the front will barely make it out.

Rear Drain Passenger side

Rear Drain Passenger side closeup


I pulled the drain out on the drivers side, not a great idea, its a pain to put back in place. The tube will easily pull out so you can run some heavy trimmer line up it and use a probe or small screwdriver to make sure the drain end isn't glued with pollen or muck with the tube out.

On the passenger side after learning I could easily pull the tube, I just did that and made sure the drain end was not plugged.

I parked on a hill with the front end higher, opened the sunroof, sprayed some windex multi surface cleaner in the tray at the edge of the sunroof glass, that flowed down and out the tube, I was lucky, nothing stuck or mucked up like the front tube on the passenger side. trimmer line cleared the blockage.

Could not figure out inserting a photo, so I had to link an album on the site.

Thanks for all the help over the years!

Thanks for the reminder on this!

Both my rear drains have detached from the sunroof drain, so the hatchback area gets soaked each time. Going to cut out the headliner soon to fix.

Drop it, don't cut a hole in it. You have a hatch and it will come out the back (as it does with the wagons.)

Genesis said:

Drop it, don't cut a hole in it. You have a hatch and it will come out the back (as it does with the wagons.)

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Not going to mess with all the little plasticky bits that have to be prised apart to free everything up. That's how I ended up removing the entire inside of the hatch. Old plastic cracks and breaks.

Gothmolly said:

How to ruin a car in 3...2...1...

Click to expand...

Gothmolly said:

Both my rear drains have detached from the sunroof drain, so the hatchback area gets soaked each time. Going to cut out the headliner soon to fix.

Click to expand...

Just saying... Headliner isn't too bad, just a few minutes extra