Unclogging the sunroof drains on a Fox Mustang

This is really a yearly maintenance item for all sunroof equipped Mustangs, but we will look at a typical Fox Body Mustang in this article. The factory sunroof has a channel between the roof of the car, and the actual opening into the drivers compartment.

First lets remove the sunroof from the car so we can see the situation.

As you can see, the inner and outer openings form a channel, or a moat around the inner opening, if you look closely you will see 4 small drain openings in each of the 4 corners.

Each opening is about 3/8" in diameter. Each one of these openings has a hose connected to them that direct the water to the rocker panels. The front two are accessible behind the front kick panels, and the rear two are under the rear quarter windows towards the back of the rear seat.

As you can see it is a white rubber hose, about 1/2" in diameter. in the above picture it is just to the right of the EEC-IV Computer.  DO NOT pull on the hose, you could pull it out of the lower drain, or worse yet, rip it from the upper drain, which would require removing the headliner to fix.

If you already know what drain is plugged, then you can go on to unplugging it, if you don't, there is an easy way to find out. Take a small piece of electrical tape and tape over each on the 4 drain openings.

Now fill the channel with water about 1/2 way up. You may have to use a jack and raise up one side of the car to get the water level in the channel, otherwise only one or two of the holes will be submerge before water starts overflowing the channel.

Then remove the tape from one of the drains, and watch. If it drains, replace the tape and move to the next drain.

Ok, once you found the slow, or plugged drain you can begin to unclog it. What I have found to work well is a short piece of string trimmer, or "Weed Wacker" line. It is small enough to fit in the drains, yet big enough to push through the hose and lightly push what ever might be in the way. A piece about 6-8 feet should be enough.If the end is sharp from cutting, just take a lighter and melt it a little,and the sharp edges will round over. Use this string like a drain snake, gently push the line into the drain, slowly twisting if necessary. If you do this while the chancel is full, you will know when you get the clog  un-clogged, the drain will suddenly start draining.

Once the drain is un-clogged, check the remaining drains, use the string trimmer line to clean out the remaining hoses, just as a maintenance procedure, and be sure to thoroughly flush all the drains. A little preventative maintenance can go a log way!

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