So, i noticed on heavy rains I would get some water under the passenger side rug of my 2001 CLK55 and after some searching for answers here I figured I'd take apart the vents beneath the windshield and see whats clogged up with leaves and debris.. on the passenger side of the engine there is a compartment that was filled with leaves and dirt, cleaned that out and cleaned out the rubber drain tube at the bottom of the reservoir. NOW the problem, on the drivers side there is a smaller compartment below the wiper motor that is also full of gunk but I cant get to it as its right up against the metal shroud that separates the engine from rest of the car.. shining a light I can see its full of mud and leaves.. also, i noticed it looks similar to the plastic "ducting" that resting on the floor pan when when I pull up the passenger carpet. Can anyone shed any light on what that ducting is on the floor pan and how to access that drain under the wiper motor.. thanks

 

Hi there CLK55_NYC, I've just had the same problem as you so I can give you some tips if you didn't manage to figure out. The best wait to clean the windshield drains is to take the plastic lid off completely. The problem is it's a real pain because some of the clips are right up against the firewall and tricky to get off as you found out. I'm assuming you already took off the left and right cowl vents/grilles on top of this lid by the way and that's how you managed to partially clean out the box. Anyway, when Mercedes do it they use a special tool to remove those hard to reach clips. So I racked my brains as to what I could use instead and after rummaging through the drawers found a cheap set of wire BBQ tongs which I cut in half. The end of the tong is perfect to fit over the plastic clip and the steel handle is just about long and strong enough to let you lever the clips off. I found that you do need to disengage every single clip, otherwise the lid just won't come off no matter how much wiggle it.

Once the cover's off you can just use a vacuum hose to clear out all the muck and leaves. I also stuck it in the cavities in the corner of the engine bay at the same time (where the drain goes into).

There also supposed to be a filter that sits under the cowl intake vents which on mine has almost completely disintegrated, so I got my local dealer to order it in (only a few pounds/dollars).

As for the ducts under the carpets there are the heating ducts for the rear seats and there are also some wiring ducts that run across the car from the centre console and along the sills. The clips for the wiring duct covers are similar to the windshield drain cover except much easier to access and the plastic is thinner and more pliable I found so can unclip them by hand fairly easily. The rear passenger heating ducts exit out under the front seats and are connected up to the heater matrix behind the centre console. You have to remove the seats to get at these but once you do they're held down by just one screw at the inside rear of the duct then once this is out press down near the front end of the duct, in the middle on either side of the chassis rail for the front seat mounting points. What you're trying to do is squash the duct enough to disengage that piece from the rest of the ducting leading from the centre console and slide it under the chassis rail towards the back of the car. If you don't do that you'll find you can move the duct from side to side but it won't come free. You have to remove the these ducts to get the rear carpet out (along with many other bits)

For yours and other people's benefit, as I found only bits and pieces on here and other forums on how to remove the rear carpet, I've summarised the main steps and can give more detailed instructions if anyone's interested:

1. Remove the front seats
2. Remove the door sill covers/scuff plates
3. Loosen the footwell side trim panels
4. Lift out the front carpet(s) (I only removed the passenger side as the driver's footwell wasn't flooded)
5. Unscrew the foot plate protecting a couple of electronics units
6. Remove the rear seat bench
7. Remove the seatbelt lower mounting point(s)
8. Loosen the rear quarter panel trims (bottom and side edges are enough to get the carpet out)
9. Remove the lower covers below the glovebox and instrument cluster
10. Remove the passenger and driver footwell air vents
11. Remove the centre console (which includes removing the radio, aircon and various switches)
12. Remove the underseat air ducts
13. Hey presto you can now remove the rear carpet and dry out all the water

Tools you need are various size hex and torx sockets, ratchets and extension bars, star screwdrivers, plastic pry tools and BBQ tongs!

When the panel below the glovebox is off you can remove the heater box cover to drain the water out if you haven't already.

Hope that helps.

 

Instructions w/pics

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w208...footwells.html

 

Yeah, those are the instructions I followed as well for the windshield drain, with the exception that the original poster cut the hard to reach clips off, and were very helpful

 

I have just had this problem with my CLK 230 cabriolet. It resulted in the heater fan and pollen filter sitting in about a gallon of water. I finished up with a bill of £278 from my garage. I think it's a design fault because it's so difficult to gain access to the drains to keep them clear,

 

Kick-*** write up.. very helpful. Ive managed to tear the whole thing apart seat out and carpet drying. Also, the main problem I was having was the drain under the wiper motor. I started stabbing it with a coat hanger and found there is a little rubber flap just above the transmission.. once that was clear the water flows really nice. I really like how this car is put together.. a lot more solid than my ford ranger