After noticing bubbles forming on my right rear quarter I knew water had to be entering somewhere from inside.



I detected those bubbles early so I'll just take out my paint gun after I sand them down then throw in some filler.

Searching inside the quarter thru the tunk I found both the antenna and sunroof drain tubes curled upwards. The floor panel got badly rusted beacuse of this.



I knocked out most of the loose rust and dragged those drain tubes outward so they don't form anymore bubbles on the right rear quarter. I sprayed that rust with rust converter yesterday and will be welding sheet metal over it sometime next week. The metal peice that connects the 2 hoses was rusted away so I'll pick one up at the local salvage yard.

Does the metal connector that binds the hoses together slide thru the rubber grommet in the picture above? Also does the connector or one of those drain tubes have a clip or plug to hold it in place? When I complete this project I don't want those drain tubes ever sliding back in again.

 

I just took these two pics:

 

The rubber grommet in your picture looks longer so something must be pushed into it. Is that tube binding connector forced into it? If it is then it must either be clipped down on the inside or the rubber grommet just clings onto it to hold it in place?

My left side drain tube was fine and looked the same as in your picture. With that grommet the tube slides directly thru it and sticks out farther.

 

Yea, it looks like something should be sticking out of it. I cant tell until I get the car jacked up. My muffler/rear mount turbo are in the way and the car is too low to mess with it right now.

 

There must be a way to run the hose so that it drains outside of the car. Have u confirmed that the hose has no leaks or holes in it?

 

Larger hose is the sunroof drain, small one goes to the power antenna.

 

Those hoses weren't seated on the connector that slides thru the rubber grommet. They were curled upward at the same height as the antenna box. Water draing thru hoses at that height no doubt caused the inside rust damage along with the water bubbles on the quarter. I punctured tiny holes on those bubble to get the water out. I also dried then sprayed the inside section of the quarter were it welds onto the wheel hub. Water collecting in this section is what caused the outside bubbles.

I opened up the trunk on a friends 97 MAX and found that the connector just sits in the grommet. There is only 2 of those connectors left in this country 73693-01E10. I'm going to drill 2 holes on the sheet metal so I can fit 2 seperate grommets on it. Each hose will slide thru their own grommet so I won't need the connector.

 

Instead of welding sheet metal to a blind spot I decided to pop in a piece of plastic to hold those 2 grommets.



I used the dremel and an oscillating tool to drill and cut. Since I wasn't welding I sprayed rubberized undercoating onto that floor panel after I rust converted it.

The sunroof drain tube wasn't made long enough to reach the grommet because it mounted onto the back of that connector. I just had to slide a few inches of another tube in it.

Both ports of that connector were broken off and still mounted in those drain tubes. I think I found why that connector just rusted away.



The antenna rod I replaced several years ago sits quite farther down than the OEM rod did so it collected more water. Even though both drain tubes are now seperately mounted outward I'm going to fix the antenna rod so it collects less water.

 

My rust is worse, Much Much Worse.

 

Yeah mine is bad enough that it is starting to show through the quarter panel itself.