Hi All,
This is my 1st post, and sorry if I have not followed any “normal” format. My wife has a late 2017 MX5RF, which suddenly started to smell damp and lots of condensation. IN my wisdom I though I would check water was going down the window drain OK, it was… However was shocked a the large pool of water behind the passenger (left) seat, evdience of mould, dirt etc.
So I started to explore the system and now I am very shocked at the design. Here is the sequence of the water drain.
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Its starts with 2 holes in the corner window rubbers (Inner and outer channels) which run into a cup with a flexible small bore pipe.
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The small bore pipe couple onto a right angle union joined to a slightly larger short rubber tube, which drains into a plastic plate/trim with a channel
- The channel drains into a open reservoir that also collects drains from the door post pillar rubbers. There is a grill in the reservoir (which gets very dirty with mud like material and also has a blockage risk from leaves from the roof compartment). This reservoir overflows onto the roof compartment floor which is a direct path into the passenger compartment traveling under the matting (>1 inch of water in my case)
- The drain goes through the roof compartment floor, via a dogleg join and exits into a compartment behind the seat, in a white pipe with a rubber valve in it (which was stuck in my case).
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There is a flexible black tube that collects the water from the white tube and joins onto an orange plastic casting which has another rubber flap in it.
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The orange casting exits the compartment through the panel into the space between it, high up, between various chassis parts and brake pipes, (if you shine a torch up you can just see it).
Comment, this is amazingly complicated for something that could have been easily achieved with the rubber tube in (2) going all the way to the exit.
Why are there 2 filters and valves in non serviceable areas? With a single tube the worst that could happen is the rear winder drain floods over the outside of the body work, rather than filling up the passenger compartment. It seems an amazingly stupid design…
The passenger compartment carpet has fibrous pads under it, stuck to plastic sheets (so will never dry), the rear of the compartment allows water to travel to the front, as the cross member is not sealed. From the picture you can see some of the debris that has been washed down.
I have made cone filters to the fit the right angle union in (2), in an attempt to allow this to be more serviceable
Request: Has anyone found a way to improve this? Or punched a pipe right through?
Any other thoughts or suggestions?
Regards
EricR