Cork triangle fell while removing the wheel arch cover - anyone knows what it is for?

[Co2]

I've got my sunroof drains completely clogged. They're clogged at the bottom, since I've already tried cleaning the drains from the inside and the tool goes in easily a fair amount of distance but then just stops completely.

The car is taking in water and my usual dealer has no idea how to proceed. Their idea was to rip the roof lining and have a look. I'm not to fond of that, especially since the clogged area is at the bottom of the drains, which is already on the exterior of the car.

I've been trying to reach the drains (front ones) from the outside but the buggers are freaking buried deep into the car. They're somewhere a bit further from the bottom of that little triangle window.

Earlier today I thought maybe I could reach them by removing the wheel arch cover. I'm glad I did that because I noticed the paint lacquer at the inner edged of the wheel arch is flaking. Unfortunately the drains are not to be seen, they're even deeper buried. Right now My only guess is to remove the scuttle which implies removing the whole wiper assembly.

While removing the wheel arch cover, a small cork triangle fell from beneath it, from the rear part of the wheel arch. Honestly I can't tell if it was just a piece of debris or if it had any function holding stuff preventing something from slapping around. I find its shape to perfect to be a debris of some sort.

Has anyone here that previously also removed its wheel arch covers found anything similar?

 

[TimSawf]

I've had the wheel arch liners off and didn't see any kind of cork triangle.

These are the instructions for cleaning out the drain tubes.

[URL=http://s192.photobucket.com/user/timsawf/media/E60-10001_zpsc283a295.png.html][/URL]

Drain hoses: cleaning
The front flexible drain tubes -arrow- run along the A stanchions until the engine cavity separation cavity. To clean, access hose from the direction of the sunroof opening.
The rear flexible drain tubes -arrow- pass along the C stanchions and terminate at the rear wheel housings. The cleaning process is carried out starting from the wheel housing. The wheel housing must be removed beforehand for this purpose.

For the cleaning process, we recommend that a probe head of approx. 2300 mm made especially for this purpose is used that has an outer diameter that has been adapted to the inside diameter of the drain hose (e.g. the core of a former speedometer cable).

 

[stuFR]

I found a rubber triangle, not cork, wedged under my front arch, it fell out on removing liner. Was tucked into top part of front wing near the back, must act as a support for wheel arch liner.[/I]

 

[Co2]

I've had the wheel arch liners off and didn't see any kind of cork triangle.

These are the instructions for cleaning out the drain tubes.

Drain hoses: cleaning
The front flexible drain tubes -arrow- run along the A stanchions until the engine cavity separation cavity. To clean, access hose from the direction of the sunroof opening.
The rear flexible drain tubes -arrow- pass along the C stanchions and terminate at the rear wheel housings. The cleaning process is carried out starting from the wheel housing. The wheel housing must be removed beforehand for this purpose.

For the cleaning process, we recommend that a probe head of approx. 2300 mm made especially for this purpose is used that has an outer diameter that has been adapted to the inside diameter of the drain hose (e.g. the core of a former speedometer cable).

I've also gotten those instructions. Problem is they would work well enough if the drains weren't already packed. The cables went down nicely until they got near the nipples. Then no matter how hard you pushed the packed goo wouldn't budge. And since the connections are made from a soft rubber if you pushed too much there's the risk of perforating them. And that would be a turn for much worse.

Already took care of things today. Ended up having to remove the A pillar trim, taking out the drain tubed from the connectors and work from there. Even with that easier access I had to fiddle for a couple of minutes before being able to clear the nipples. 6 years of debris without any maintenance gets you that. What buggers me most is the fact that this was and is a car that always had work done by the official network and no one bothered to perform maintenance work on those. The car was booked to go in next Wednesday for them to have a look and last week when I had a chat with one of the dealers they didn't even had an idea where the drains were on the mark II Leon. This could have been perfectly avoided with some simple preventive work. Mea culpa though as I could have done it myself. But being vehicle looked by the brand I had my conscious at rest.

Even worse I've noticed that some of the slots where the trim clips fit in had some ugly gouges done to them. The left side even has the steel slightly bent. I highly doubt that that was done by myself removing the trim since both top clips remained in place and the trim just slid out. As to bending the steel, I'd bet the trims plastic would break first.

I could understand one side eventually being undone to install some kind of power cable to the parking sensors (despite that not making much sense - and as I've seen there's no sign of such sign, there's however a sniped transparent electric cable on the left side loom which I can't even imagine what's for). I can't however understand why both sides showed signs of having been removed previously and why the hell did the slots have so darn ugly gouges. Only an ape would force stuff into place leaving marks like that instead of looking for the right fit.

Makes you wonder what goes on at stealerships sometimes.

I found a rubber triangle, not cork, wedged under my front arch, it fell out on removing liner. Was tucked into top part of front wing near the back, must act as a support for wheel arch liner.[/I]

Mine is cork. Even though it is blackened from the crap and dirt that gets there, you can see the cork texture. Since its shape was so perfect I had trouble believing it could be some sort of debris lodged in there.

I re-installed the liner without it since it was getting dark and I also had no idea where that was from. Drived today and didn't notice any odd noises. Did you manage to reinstall yours?

 

[stuFR]

I stuck it back up in between front wing and inner panel, where I thought it held best. Very much doubt it has any real purpose other than to keep moisture out. Best of luck with your sunroof.