ratfancy

I escaped to Montgomery, AL from Sarasota, FL (still in Alabama!). I got up on Monday morning and my driver floorboard had an inch of water in it. Yikes! It just rained a bit here - no big deal. So I went to the dealer, who was closing early Monday due to tropical winds from Irma. They gave me a ride back to my nearby hotel, which was almost walking distance. Turns out my sunroof tubes were clogged, and so were some other tubes. This caused pooling on the floorboard. I've never had this problem with any other car. Is this a design flaw with the E350? All fixed now, but I didn't need this!! How can I prevent this going forward?

dbldpr

Do not know if you owned car since it was new but someone must have parked the car where there were a lot of trees or sand that hits the car. Usually this is what causes the tracks to clog. If it is from your parking I would park somewhere else and you should not have that problem.

C Smith

It's not an issue unique to Mercedes, and is quite common in cars with sunroofs. Water carries dirt from the surface of the car into the drain tubes, and over time they clog. Cleaning drain tubes is a maintenance item, and is important for cars that spend time parked outside.

KEY08

Yeah, that stinks, but it is pretty common with cars that are not kept in a garage. Sticky sappy trees and other debris just builds up in the drain tubes over time until the clogs happen.
ha, I guess what they said ^

mikemargolis

How does one clean the drain tubes?

C Smith

You can usually clean them by blowing compressed air into the drain, or using something stiff and flexible, such as a string from a weed eater.

belarus27

Bimmers have this issues since 2006 at least... where the tubes get clogged , and people see water in foot well front and rear..pretty bad to the point where me and my friend had to take out front seats and carpet and dry that b... out.

Didnt see this much on mercedes though.

thefisch

I think there have been one or two posts about this in the past - certainly not a common issue. It reminds me to check the track and drain openings for signs of gunk. Unfortunately, this seems to be one of those problems that you don't know you have until it is too late.

mikemargolis

Awesome. My car stays outside 24/7/365 and both mine were clogged. Stuck the green string from my string trimmer down the hole, wiggled and spun, and they both poured water onto the ground.

Thanks everybody!

ghlkal

How much trimmer line did you need to use to unclog it?

belarus27

Lol

mikemargolis

Both sides broke free with about 12" to 18" (30 to 50cm) of string trimmer line.

ghlkal

Great, thanks for letting me know. I wondered if I needed 10 feet of line or not.

drwolf

Im noticing that slowly that the signals are becoming an issue for ML owners, was it ever addressed in a recall? it happened to me once too