Q: Brad, each corner of my 2008 Acadia's sunroof has a very small drain hole. When these get clogged, water leaks into the interior of the vehicle. One time, water filled up the battery compartment, located under the floorboard on the passenger side, and shorted out the battery. I haven't seen any recalls on this but I am afraid to leave the vehicle outside in the rain. Any suggestions?
-Tom
A: Yikes! This vehicle, along with its Enclave and Outlook siblings, is known to have quite a bit of trouble with water intrusion and subsequent electrical problems.
Most sunroofs have four drain holes, one at each corner of the sunroof pan, which is designed to catch water that gets past the sunroof-roof seal. Normally, you can clear a plugged sunroof drain by gently probing it with a length of thick weed whacker string and a gentle shot of compressed air. (This is best done from the exit point, if it's accessible.) But your Acadia has many additional issues.
Shortly after your Acadia was built, GM issued a campaign (less than a recall, more than a technical service bulletin) regarding water leak problems. Apparently, many Acadias were equipped with drain tubes that were too short and could come loose from the pan connection. GM advised installing tube extensions, a three-hour job. It suspended the campaign in 2009.
You should be able to ask your dealer if the procedure was ever done on your vehicle. If not, the necessary parts should still be available.
But there's more.
GM later released additional service bulletins touching on other issues-too many to list and explain here. You should check these out.
To get those drains fixed, I recommend you access and then modify the front sunroof drain tube exit grommets by cutting out the deliberately restrictive crosshatch. What they were thinking when they installed these parts I'll never know. They clog in a heartbeat with dirt and debris.
There are several YouTube videos showing how you can access the exit grommets by removing the A-pillar trim and defroster grilles. These videos don't mention trimming out the grommet crosshatch, but the need to do that will be obvious once you get a look.
After answering a recent reader question about choosing the right octane fuel for your vehicle, I was called on the carpet by a few folks for not mentioning gasoline qualities.
Here's more: Most gasoline starts out the same. But as fuel is added to transport trucks for delivery, brand-specific additives are injected.
While government standards call for fuels to have a certain level of cleaning quality and deposit control, fuels identified as "top tier" do it best. For a listing of certified brands and good info on deposit control, check: toptiergas.com.
My lube and fuels guru, Ed, says drivers who don't use a top tier fuel ought to add a bottle of Techron Complete Fuel System Cleaner on a semi-annual basis to ensure cleanliness of the fuel injector, combustion chamber and valves. Clean parts increase performance, reduce emissions and mitigate problems with potentially damaging spark knock (detonation).
ABOUT THE WRITER
Brad Bergholdt is an automotive technology instructor at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, Calif. Readers may send him email at [email protected]; he cannot make personal replies.