Originally Posted by Don M

Not much at all.

Typically its the front drains that get the shrinkage problem. The rears only suffer from clogging.

I did not need to replace the rears on mine so I dont know how to do it.

To do the fronts you only need to remove the visors, front headliner panel, ( not the entire headliner itself ) the A pillar panels, the lower inside kick panels and the front carpet pieces. After you remove the headliner panel you will see small push clips that hold the stretch headliner up front. They just pop right out to expose the drain hoses and their sunroof connection point.


Once you remove the kick panels you will see some white felt that needs to be pulled lose from the kick panel body area. This will allow you to see the direction the hoses take and how to route the new ones.

Both sides take less than on hour if you look at the hose routing and form a game plan before you start.

The new hoses will be fed down the A pillar from the top to the bottom after you pull out the old hoses. They will easliy slip right down.

The trick at the bottom is to look behind the slot the felt lining you removed in the kick panel area to see the hole made for the hoses to go through.

Im convinced while being built, many 300TD's hoses were cut too short allowing them to easily slip back inside the
body of the car. If you cant see the hose sticking out between the fender and the door to the outside, you will get some water in the floorboards. Some more than others depending on how the hose ends up facing once it pulls itself inside the car.

Mine was so bad on both sides that the seat frames were nearly rusted through and a huge molded area under the carpet had formed. I had to replace the front and rear carpet and the seat frames. The carpet alone is over a grand. Luckily I had spare seat frames.

Don~