Porvair

So driving around last Sunday (2006 Cayenne S - sunroof but not panoramic) and heard a pretty nasty noise from the rear hatch, which turned out to be the Bose subwoofer protesting that it was swimming in 1/2" of water. I removed the subwoofer (not sure if it can be salvaged) and cleaned everything up and dried the standing water. No obvious leak and the headliner and rear cover over the spare seemed dry, but I had no idea how long the water was standing. Guessing not too long as the tools and spare rim don't seem to have been exposed to excess moisture for a long time, but that is not definitive.

So this weekend I took another look, and another 1/4" of water, and headliner and rear hatch floor are still dry. Its been a rainy week in NY, so this may just be a hatch seal issue, but I wanted to see if there were any other possibilities as hatch leaks are a real PITA to find sometimes.

One other thing worth noting is that the roof rail channels were missing when I bought the Cayenne a few months ago. Not just the rails - the actual channels had been removed and the mounting screws were all siliconed over. I picked up a pair on eBay and installed them, using some silicon around each screw hole, but I am wondering if I could have messed up the drainage tubes? I found this image but I am guessing that the rear tubes drain the sunroof and not the rail?

In any event, I appreciate any thoughts before I go tearing things up.

Thanks
Sean

deilenberger

The rear tubes are just for the sunroof. They are commonly the reason the subwoofer gets submerged. I don't think the channels in the roof connect at all to those drains, and unless you used some awfully long screws I doubt if they'd get to the drain tubes - but I will guess you'll become familiar with removing the plastic above the hatch opening..

nodoors

I 3M vinyled over my roof rails. I will never use them and they are not worth the risk of a leak to me. I am debating doing the same around the perimeter of the sun roof and just pulling the fuse. Seeing so many posts with people with water problems in these cars has made me a bit paranoid, I suppose. There are some connectors for the drain tubes up inside the roof that deteriorate and it could be possible water is flowing along the outside of the tubes into the rear if this is not a hatch leak. You will have to pull the headliner to investigate to be sure that is not your issue... or just seal the roof up from the top with vinyl!

Porvair

Thanks - most all of the postings on water issues seem to focus on the front drains and not the rears. I did locate the rear drains - 2" long rubber teats that sit up beneath the rear quarter panels that drain the sunroof. There was a bit of debris in them and I flushed them out so hopefully, that was the problem. I will post an update in case others search for the issue. Good news is that after drying the subwoofer it still works.