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As long as those drains are cleared your good to go, especially if you collected the same amount that was put in. Thank god they put a separation from the rear seats and the front seats. I can confirm with the (non hybrid anyway) that no water can go to the front area. I pulled my front seats out and checked. Did the sound deadening carpet backing dry? Mine was taking forever and had a smell so I just replaced it with house carpet backing. Didn't notice any increase noise in the cabin.
The carpet underlay absorbs up a phenomenal amount of water (perhaps it is designed this way to a certain spec), my dehumidifier has been on since this morning and the underlay is still wet on touch. I’m planning to keep it running until it’s bone dry. I’m just not sure that house carpet underlay will have the same absorption capacity as the cars underlay so I won’t be changing it out.
We have an industrial-strength canine hair dryer that is great for drying out wet carpets. It is designed for drying large dogs while they are in their crates. One of those would work much faster than your dehumidifier.
I just had the same issue with my 2011 RX 350. The rear drain tubes. They only had minor debris in them but found that during a heavy rain storm the left rear leaked. The issue seems to be that the rear drain tubes are kinked about 12 inches from were they exit the vehicle just like in this post. So if they are restricted and a lot of water flowing it backs up into the top drain hole of the sun roof and over flows into the head liner and down the left side into the rear pillar area onto the floor. I found that the rear drain tubes are to long witch makes them kink. I had to cut about 2 inches off the end to help straighten them out. The tube still has a minor kink in them. But the water drains with no issue now. Only issue is how to remove the kink from the tubes permanently.
I am going to go to Home Depot with the piece I cut of to see if I can find something to fit over the tube or in the tube to keep the kink out. I will update with pics and progress.
Got a piece of clear PVC slightly bigger than drain live and slipped over the kinked area to stop the line from kinking. Works great did both rear sides. It is a 7/8 OD with a 5/8ID size. See pic
I also re checked all drains and water flows freely, cleaned all sunroof seal surfaces and drains. Vehicle is dry and disinfected. No mold. Now back to putting everything back together.
Hope this helps.
I just found a dead beetle clogging my A/C drain hose. Carpet was soaked in the back floor and damp in front. Pulled the passenger side center console panel loose up front and pulled A/C drain tube off. When I did, a dead, wet beetle fell out of the drain pan. I used an inspection camera to stick in the drain pan and everything else looked clear. Hopefully this fixes my issue.
Successful draining cleaning operation on 2006 ES330. Thanks for all the tips - just wanted to share what worked for me.
Water was leaking in the back and soaking the rear seats and carpet on both driver and passenger side.
First I pulled off the c-pillar cover, these are held on with clips. Then I removed the rear grab handles - pulled on the handle and used a flat head screw driver to pop the plastic covers off. Then used a ratchet wrench to remove the two bolts. Did this on the other side too. Then, carefully pulled down the back of the headliner.. This gave me enough room to find where the drain tube meets the sunroof channel.
Pulling off the headliner to get to the drain tube
Once I got up there, I saw why the weed whacker line was not working for me.. Unlike the front drain holes the water flows to the rear via the entire channel. The channel flows into a plastic "reservoir". The reservoir attaches to the drain tube which flows out the rear. If the tube is clogged or if the reservoir is full of debris, the water will spill over the channel and down the side the car around the grab handles (which is what was happening to me). I will try to illustrate as best as I can here using OP's picture.
Water flows down the sunroof channel, into the reservoir and out the drain tube
This is the reservoir and where it meets the drain tube
I removed the tube from the reservoir and blew compressed air down the tube and up into the reservoir to blow all the debris out. Reconnected the tube and tested by pouring some water down the sunroof channel. No more leaks.
I removed the back seats too and soaked up the water that had pooled up under the seats.. now just letting everything dry out and on to giving the carpets a good clean. Hope this helps someone else out there.
04-28-21, 12:56 PM
Kink solved in drain tube
