I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __
I may be a bit naive here but has anyone blocked off the rear drains on their RF and has there been any negative results ? Just thought this might be a simple remedy to having debris work its way down through the convoluted plumbing system in the RF. I am wondering wether the rain will just run off around the boot and exit under the rear bumper with the rest of it.Blocking the drains off could be achieved by pinching the pipe together connecting to the drains.
I’d say that’s a really bad idea… Manually blocking off the drains would be no different to blocked drains, so you’d gain nothing. And I’m certain Mazda didn’t add those drains and that plumbing for fun…
I haven’t got mine with me to look at right now, but from memory those drains are on the rear window seal, and the window isn’t part of the raising part of the roof surround/deck, as it folds away when you have the roof down.
So if you parked nose down, and it rained, so that buttress area filled up with water, if the drains were closed off then that water would rise to above the level of wherever the moveable rear window seals against the rest of the bodywork and then leak in through that seal.
Thank you for you prompt response and thoughts. I will have a look in more detail but feel a blocked drain at the bottom of the system is more serious than one at the top
When I was clearing the holes out on mine, I think I felt that the design was that the window seal acted like a small gutter, collecting rainwater. Then the holes/pipes let that drain away so that the gutter didn’t overflow. I think it it overflowed you’d then have a puddle against the moving seal to the bodywork, which is unlikely to be watertight against a puddle pressure.
Stopping the roof half way up/down makes it easy to get to the corners to remove leaves etc at the top of the pipe, so I try to keep on top of doing that in the hope that it then won’t get too much stuff going down the pipe to block it further down.
After 5 years I’m fairly convinced the RF drains are an utter waste of time if not worse. With birch trees nearby they’re blocked fairly often, and nose down the water just sits there. @AJB on circa 1in4 the water only gets maybe 1” up in the rear window before it overflows round the outside of the buttresses.
I also think the internal grates are z more likely to be blocked by leaves etc wafting around in the back of the cabin rather than any tiny debris that might make the impossible journey through the tiny tubes!
I’ve learnt to watch the weather forecast, nose down ( more comfortable for entering the car) is only for summer and any prolonged dry periods.
Interesting. So the seal presses against the bodywork well enough not to leak with an inch of water up the window? I’d assumed that it’d leak pretty much as soon as the water was above the edge of the seal across the bottom of the window.
Yup. The rubber seals go round and up the side buttresses. Although what might happen when it’s old enough for the rubbers to go hard is another matter.
