Front Cowl Drain Lines

Rodplunger · Post by **Rodplunger** » 25 Mar 2020, 20:20

Hi all. I have a 98 V70 GLT. I've been experiencing water in the foot well on the driver's side. No leaks from the sunroof, so I thought I'd dive into drains in the outside of the firewall near the wiper mounts. Passenger side I just pulled out and cleaned and replaced. It was VERY clogged with general detritus. The problem is with the driver's side drain. I can't get anything to get through it. I've tried high pressure water, a plumbing snake, coat hanger.... The issue is the bend in the tube as it goes around the brake system and the fact that I can't get under the car to get to the tube from the bottom... Any recommendations on how to clear it? Drano? I could remove it, but I can't get my hands in there too be able to put it back (probably). So I'm avoiding doing that. Might just put a new drain tube in, zip tie in place, and call it a day. But I'll take suggestions. I've got some time with the Covid lockdown. Thanks!

Post by **abscate** » 26 Mar 2020, 01:28

It’s not that hard to reroute it , I’ve pulled mine a few times to clean it out of leaves. The small hole up on the cowl has to be clear too, of course

Post by **jreed** » 26 Mar 2020, 05:33

I'm not sure if the drain lines on my '97 are the same as on your '98, but if so I found it helpful to remove the zip tie that holds the end of the drain pipe in place. For some reason on my car at least the zip tie goes thru the center of the drain line. Debris gets stuck on the zip tie and builds up, eventually blocking it. I wrapped a zip tie around the outside of the drain line, and then zip tied that to the body of the car to hold it in place.

Post by **abscate** » 26 Mar 2020, 06:11

Never would have found this without your earlier post on bowed plastic channel, or 'Draining channel' in VolvoSpeak

Drain tubes are different left/right but fit any P80, so it appears.

They install upside down in AUS markets, of course

Rodplunger · Post by **Rodplunger** » 26 Mar 2020, 10:49

abscate wrote: ↑26 Mar 2020, 01:28 It’s not that hard to reroute it , I’ve pulled mine a few times to clean it out of leaves. The small hole up on the cowl has to be clear too, of course

But how do you reach down to where the zip tie is? And back? I can't get my meat hooks down there.

Post by **jreed** » 26 Mar 2020, 15:50

I had to do it from underneath the car, reaching up. There was pretty good access from down there if I'm recalling correctly.

This image shows the left hand drain line... standard connection up at the cowl.

Th image below shows two of the drain lines on the left hand side, down by the steering rack. The black zip tie in the middle is the original Volvo tie that went thru the two hoses. The problem with that arrangement (in my experience here in NC where we get a lot of tree pieces raining down as shown in the first image above) is that the zip tie causes blockage because it creates a spot in the middle of the hose that catches and holds debris rather than letting it fall all the way down and out onto the ground. I wrapped the white zip ties around the outside of the hoses and around the original black zip tie to hold them in place. It has been working well so far for a few years.

Post by **RickHaleParker** » 26 Mar 2020, 21:25

Rodplunger wrote: ↑25 Mar 2020, 20:20 I can't get under the car to get to the tube from the bottom...

Depending on how big you are, drive the front wheels up on a curb and chock the rear wheels.

Have you tried a Vacuum cleaner? See if it will pull the clog up the pipe.

Post by **ZionXIX** » 26 Mar 2020, 21:36

My driver side was so clogged I had to pull the drain out and sling it around until everything cleared.

jeffsws · Post by **jeffsws** » 27 Mar 2020, 04:44

My driver side is also so clogged that even compressed air couldn't push through.. except throw up a bunch of dirt in my face and all over the engine

Next step is probably going to remove it and clean it outside of the car.

Rodplunger · Post by **Rodplunger** » 28 Mar 2020, 19:51

Ultimately I took it out of the car. It was so full of crap it took a good swing to get it all out... Then the glorious process of threading it back through, and getting the zip tie back through the holes. I did it all one handed and blind... What a crappy job.