BlueJay73

My CayenneS is a nice clean vehicle, garaged and not parked under trees, etc.
I figured my cowl drains would not be clogged, that's other people's problems.
Wrong.
During oil change and tire rotation maintenance, I checked on the cowl drains. They were clogged, chocked full of debris!

Question: is there any good reason that we can't cut those flapper leafs off the rubber drains; Or heck, just remove the rubber drains completely?

Thanks for any advice.

Jim

CAVU

IMHO, removing the water drain valves would still not allow all of the detritus to get pushed out with normal rain and car washes. When i cleaned the drain points out, after removing the valves, I had to flow water from the top to soften the material and hold it in place to pull it out through the hole and still use more water to push more of the crap towards the hole to get pulled out.

I am not a fan of engine compartment smells, fumes and heat making its way into the cabin air intake plenum. I think the design does a good job of minimizing it. But it is a crappy design.

My personal preference is to leave them in as designed and to clean them out in late fall.

No car is maintenance free. I will freely admit that the Cayenne has been the most maintenance needy of the cars in my stable. It is just another item on the punch list of ownership.

ScootCherHienie

Well, I guess I need to look at those drains too... is there some place with photos or a diagram that shows locations of drains on 957s? Is it OK to blow them out with compressed air or is that likely to disconnect any rubber tubing that may be used in the drains?

CAVU

Have a look at the DIY. I would be careful with compressed air.

CarGuyNVA

Same here, checked mine recently when swapping to my 21" tire set, thinking they'd be pretty clean since mine's garaged all the time also. Nope, quite a bit of debris.


As for the rubber pieces, I've been told that some dealers just remove them all together when the drains are cleaned. I can see where my dealer had trimmed the ends of mine from previous cleanings so they're a bit more open. So I just put them back on after I cleaned out the drains myself this time.

deilenberger

I don't have the reference handy - but I believe there is a service bulletin by Porsche suggesting the rubber drains be removed. Mine are gone, and given the location (behind the wheel-well liner, not open to the engine compartment) I have never experienced any odor from the engine compartment.

While removing them once clogged may not allow all the crappola (tech term for detritus) accumulated to be pushed out, once it is cleaned out - it appears it prevents the buildup in the future.

Mine were removed prior to my ownership - and I didn't know that so the wheel liners were pulled back and I went exploring. I found the holes wide open, and sticking a finger into one and feeling around - no crappola was found. Pouring some water down past the electrical box - it flowed freely out the drain.

My suggestion would be - remove the drains, clean the area and be done with it.

YMMV..