Just cleaned my drainage tubes.

[WolvesWill]

Thanks

[JoeNorton]

I'm also one of the numpties that broke the valve by trying to dislodge the (substantial) amount of crap that had accumulated, any ideas?!

Mazda said £180 parts and labour, ouch!

[Dyl]

Dyl said:

Bump! I did as above a few months back, trombone cleaner down and pulled through bottom, lots of sludge then noticed the seashell effect. I didn't get another chance to sort until today...

As before, i put the trombone cleaner through, and felt for the flap, all was sorted and feeling fine. Thought "better put it through once more, clear it through". Cue the flap now being completely stuck and my fat fingers can't get in the hole without being ripped apart.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to reset the flap? Tried running trombone cleaner through again but to no avail

I've finally just got a chance to get underneath the car and have reset the flap... however I am still getting the seashell effect. Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this hasn't fixed it? (the other drainage tube is fine)

[MX-5 Lazza]

Because you are looking at the wrong drain holes. It's the sill drains you need to clear as it sounds like your sills are full of water.

[Dyl]

Is the 'seashell effect' not the echoey wind noise you get when the air can travel up through the drain tubes? I am definitely not hearing the noise of any water sloshing around. I'll have a look at the sill drains too just incase though.

[fatjon]

I did this on my daughters Mk3 on Saturday afternoon. I found it very much easier to shove the trombone brush up the drain from the bottom. When you pull it back down in inherently pulls the flap back down to the right position.

It's surprising how hard it is to write about shoving things up tubes and positioning flaps without descending into innuendo isn't it?

[MX-5 Lazza]

Sorry Dyl, I misunderstood what it is you were referring to.

[teeyell]

Having acquired a Mazdz MX mk 2.5 not too long ago I have been working my way round various things including, this morning, cleaning the hood drainage holes with the recommended trombone brush. Very little muck came out which was very welcome. However using my little finger I could find no sign of the rubber flaps at the bottom of the drainage tubes. I suspected there may have been a problem somewhere here because of the internal noise when the hood is up. Does anyone know of a way of dealing with missing flaps without full replacement of the tubes? Would a piece of open texture sponge work for example. It should still let the water out, albeit more slowly, whilst hopefully blocking the noise. Any thoughts?