Thank you all for your posts about the sunroof drain grommets leaking at the firewall and have verified I have the same problem occurring on the passenger side below the A pillar that has ruined my bcm and remote start on my 2007g35x. After countless hours looking for the leak I was finally able to determine that it was the sunroof drain grommet at the firewall. To verify it, I opened the sunroof all the way,
took off the outer ac vent on the passenger side by popping off the dash side panel and removing 2 screws. I put a flashlight in the hole to shine on the grommet at the firewall.
Then I put a long screwdriver in the ac vent hole and held back the sound insulation around the grommet at the firewall so I could see the bare firewall under the grommet. I dumped some water in the corner of the sunroof tray and was able to see water coming into the car onto the screwdriver holding back the insulation.

I called Bloomington Infiniti here in MN to inquire about the amount of labor hours they would charge to fix the problem. They talked to their 4 mechanics and they said that none of them had ever dealt with the specific problem, and that they were not willing to give a price to fix it and would just charge straight time. The service advisor recommended that I take it to a body shop to have it fixed. From what I have read the whole dash needs to come out to perform the repair. Infinitidude stated the following:

"This is actually not as big of a mystery as you would think. This is getting more and more common than you think. I think I know where your leak may be coming from. If you pop the driver side a/c vent out look closely all the way to the firewall where the sunroof drain hose hooks up. There is a white plastic style plug that snaps into firewall and this is the piece that the hose hooks to. Open sunroof all the way and have someone pour water in the drain while you observe the plug at the firewall and i believe you will be surprised at what you see. The water runs right back into the car past this cheesy black foam seal thats on it. I just maneuver them out of the firewall and coat them really good with seam sealer and reinstall them. Hope this helps guys"

I think I am going to try to do this myself as my dad was a Nissan Mechanic for 40 years and can assist me. My only concern is that he is not as limber as he once was and will probably have trouble working in the confined space under the dash, and I don't want to break something else if I have to mess around with the dash/electrical components-air bag, wiring etc.

How did you access the grommet to apply seam sealant? What needs to be removed to get enough room to apply the seam sealer around the grommet?

 

I had the misfortune of this happening on both the passenger and driver's side of my infiniti. i repaired it both the same way. infinitidude was very helpful in getting me on the right track. here is what i did:

buy a set of 2 long needle nose pliers. i think i had this set - 16" long, one is straight at the end and the other has a 90 degree angle which was perfect for holding the plastic connector that attaches to the firewall: http://www.harborfreight.com/16-inch...set-38598.html

unscrew and remove only what you need to to pop out the a/c vents. only a couple of things. if you have to do anything with the dash then i personally would not do it with my lack of expertise. i also removed the a-piller. i dont think its possible to pull the connector+drain hose out into the main cabin area without removing the a-pillar and detatching the drain hose from it to give you slack. it was not difficult but be mindful of the airbag up there. you dont have to disconnect the airbag in any way. just take caution when removing the a-pillar that you dont damage the airbag up there. as long as you arent yanking things out like a mad man, you should be fine. but you may want to look at some additional documentation to make sure you do it right.


this is the drivers side, but should be similar to what you'd see on the passenger side:





using the needle nose, tear out or move the insulating material so i had an inch or so of room around the hole on the firewall


reach in with the 90 degree tip needle nose and remove the plastic connector. this is what pops into the firewall hole and what the rubber drain hose connects to

pull out the drain hose with plastic connector piece into the main cabin of the car

drain hose with connector removed:



connector:




firewall with connector and surrounding insulation removed:





so now you just want to apply a generous amount of adhesive sealent to the plastic piece. i did this while it was pulled out and in the main cabin area and with the drain hose attached. i.e. i was ready to insert it back into the hole right after applying the sealant.. you obviously want to put it all around that connector on the side that makes contact with the metal circular hole in the firewall. the sealant should be viscous enough that it doesnt drip off when you are re-inserting the connector into the firewall.

this happened on my drivers side around december 2013, and passenger side december 2014. i sold the car around august 2015 and up to then, the leaks had not returned

good luck

 

Good man ^

 

Thank you so much! Got the pliers at Sears and going to attempt this weekend. This forum and the awesome members are a lifesaver! Love my G, but this water leak had me questioning it as I was ready to pull my hair, and wallet out!

 

No problem. Any luck?

 

Yes, I got some clear seam sealer and pulled the grommet out through the vent, applied sealer then let dry for a day before testing for leak. Bone dry! After 9 months of thinking I had it fixed multiple times by trying sealer on the wire grommet then the pillar/firewall seam etc , then leaking again, I can say definitively I found and repaired the leak before I sold the car and/or ended up in the insane asylum. Thanks again!

 

good deal

 

Bringing this back to life. Happened to me today. But I don't think the leak is at the grommet end. I have leaking on passenger side and I removed vent and looked at the grommet in firewall. it's bone dry. However the a-piller is wet and when I pulled the roof linning I see the origin of the leak is at the sunroof side itself. the leak is right next to where the hose connects to the sunroof. I'm guessing it's probably clogged at that location. I'm going to clean the drain hole in sunroof as well and run some weed wacker line through to see the outcome.

 

Post some pics if you can!

 

I just experienced this exact problem of water leaking into my passenger side footwell yesterday. After very heavy overnight rains I woke up to find what I would estimate to be 3 quarts of water in the passenger floormat area. Luckily I had the weatherguard floormats which were able to capture most of it. I plan on trying some of the fixes posted in this link including clearing the sunroof drains with week wacker line and compressed air and then if that doesn't work I'll try tackling sealing up the drain hose grommet at the firewall. Thanks all for your helpful posts.

 

Pics of the PITA job below. After removing water from the carpet and the under the carpet where it really pools; I tackled identifying the source. The source for me was a clog at the sunroof where the hole is. Using weed wacker cable I unclogged the hole. Unfortunately when you use that method, you risk pushing the dirt/clog down the tube. That is exactly what happened to me. I now had an unclogged sunroof hole but now the clog was at the firewall end where the tubing ends. It was a PITA to unclog that end. The passenger side gromet where the tubing ends cannot be easily gotten to to remove it like the driver side. You would have to remove the dash to remove it completely. So I spent 2 hours trying to unclog the firewall end. It's tricky getting the weed wacker cable into the firewall hole. It kept hitting against the gromet as opposed to going through it. I finally got it to go through and a few up and down movement cleared the clog and the pooled water in the roof immediately cleared. For good measure I clamped the hose at the sunroof end to keep it in place and put some silicone sealant on it. In retrospect I did not need the sealant; but oh well. I then tested by running a hose on the sunroof for 10 minutes. no more leak and no more pooling of water in the sunroof area. Pics:

apiller and air vent removed showing drain hose


drain hose connected to sunroof. the leak was at that point.


Weed Wacker wire used to unclog. Notice that dirt in the sunroof gutters. That was the cause of my clogging

 

Well, a new issue popped up today that i am sure is related to the water I had coming into my passenger footwell. My blower motor stopped working. I checked the blower fuses and they were both blown. I replaced the fuses and they immediately blew again so I suspect a short somewhere. I took out the glove box and saw that there was moisture coming from around the blower motor and removed the blower motor. There was some moisture in there. I'm hoping I can let the blower dry out and see if it works. Has anyone had this issue and if so can I just let the blower motor dry out or should I just go ahead and replace it? I think they are around $40 used. Thanks

 

Hey Guys. New member here. Sorry to revive an old thread... but for good reason. I've owned my G for probably two years now and this is what I'm currently dealing with. (See attached)

I brought the car to Infinti last week and they had it for two days. Charged me $160 in labor to address the issue and clear the sunroof drain lines, which according to the consultant weren't really clogged to begin with. Mind you, I have an extended warranty. Which apparently means nothing.

Fast forward to this morning... and here we go again. Front and rear passenger carpets soaked. Water filled up in blue bin. A bit of water by pedals on driver's side as well. I've read a few posts about sealing the plug that connects to the firewall. I pulled the AC vent and had a look. It appears dry around the plug but the insulation is in the way. Going to have to dig deeper over the weekend, but I need a pair of needle nose first. BTW, with the AC vent pulled I still have no idea how some of you found the room to actually work in that space.

This has been very frustrating to say the least. When I originally picked up my car from the dealership after they "addressed the issue" I asked the consultant what I should do if the problem happens again. Told me to bring it back in but they would again have to charge me labor... what a joke. Again pretty frustrated so any suggestions welcome.

 

G35 leak I found to be in the air intake.. to the heater removal and cleaning of fine debris from flap and surround. (If u read my earlier wordy bit disregard ..that was on my j30 ..sorry for any confusion)

 

Awesome writeup Mega. Question. You said to tear out or move the insulation. I just want to make sure this insulation isnt important or doesn't need to be replaced. Also I only can visibly see a little bit of it... is the insulation piece large? Just curious as I'm most likely going to be doing this project asap.