1. Yes, if you pull down the headliner about two inches you can see them with a flashlight.
2. The sunroof doesn't matter, you want to be using silicone on the hose ends OVERNIGHT and leave the car inside a garage while you do this! It can't be left out in the cold, and moisture keeps the silicone from curing.
3. When the sunroof glass is out, you can easilly grease the sunroof track, and yes its always a good idea to grease the sunroof track. That grease is a little too heavy i think for a sunroof track, you can use it in little quantities though. i would use a silicone lubricating compound.

 

Aaaah, you were a little faster than I thought. I bet you just replied while I was resizing the darn photos.... Anyway...

I braved the weather (about 20 degrees today) since it is sunny, and I continued my little project.
It took me a little while to figure out why the backseat upper section doesn't want to come out, but I finally did it. I also removed the cover panel by the rear window (the one housing the speakers) - have no idea how should I call it. The C-Pillar trim covers sit in place against it, so it is hard to pry'em loose without removing the speakers panel.
It is still a bitch to remove them, but since they were cracked, I just forced them out so I could understand the configuration for the future. It seems that once installed it is nearly impossible to take them out in one piece.
Oh well, I pulled the liner out of the weatherstripping, and was able to lower it. The drainage "holes" are right at the top of the Quarter Panel, slightly off the very back of the rear door.
So far so good. I didn't open the sunroof, but I inspected the hoses and both seem ok! Therefore, now comes the dilemma.

When the sunroof cover got soaked, I remember being slid back. Is the cover suppose to be closed when it's raining? Is that what the problem actually is?
I am asking because without the sunroof open I can't really see the exact position where it would not obstruct the cross drainage channel. I have the impression that when slid back, no matter if just a little bit or all the way back, it sits over the cross channel and obstructs it, hence the water just drips on it. (The pillars actually never got wet)

In addition, the sunroof cover has a trailing cross"bar", if I can call it that.
What's its purpose? Does this trailing crossbar suppose to be underneath of the sunroof weatherstripping when the cover is shut?
When I touched its roof-facing side (so upward side), it feels as it has a recessed profile, so the water could easily collect in there and then run toward the drainage channels. Yet when the cover is shut, this trailing crossbar does not follow closely the cover, unless you can somehow reach the cover's end and pull the fabric strip forward (which it seems impossible).
I post a photo so you know exactly what I'm talking about.




Thanks a million, sir. You're a priceless help.
Soon enough I'll get my Repair manual and I'll quit asking stupid questions.

 

Wow you took the whole headliner out! I have no idea what that crossmember is, i know the entire sunroof track weighs about 50lbs so its probably just a support brace.
The great news is this though, since you took out the entire headliner, sit inside the car and have another person pour water over the roof using a hose until you pinpoint the leak. Its still probably gonna be the hose end, they never look like they are broken, they just leak. The sun shade shouldn't be getting wet which has me worried, so double check where the leak is coming from and check back.

 

I took the whole headliner out indeed!
Bet you believe I must be out of my mind...LOL But, hey, that's how the "Audi experience" accumulates, doesn't it?
Pull them apart so you know how they function....or how they've been engineered.

Only the very front is still in place because of the sunshade hooks (the small ones with metal connection for the lighted vanity mirror). It would have been nice to have the whole headliner out , but that's not the end of the world. I have no idea how to pop them things out (I don't see any screw, yet they seem to be screwed in!), so I will work around the hanging headliner.
It even crossed my mind to unscrew the whole sunroof.
I've seen about three nuts on each side (probably a 11 or 12 metric), so probably would just fall down inside, but by myself I agree that will probably be hard to hold it. Actually the back nut can be seen in the 1st photo, right by the drain hose.

Anyway, that crossmember slides behind the sunroof cover panel, either forward or toward the rear!
I wonder if it suppose to be locked in place. Maybe the previous owner had some work done on the sunroof and whomever worked on the car forgot to screw/bolt it in... Since it has so much slack on that fabric strip, it would make more sense to me that it should be stationary, so it would prevent the cover panel to slide too far back. It sort of makes sense, because sometimes the cover panel slides way back and I cannot reach the plastic grooves to pull it back forward...

Besides this, the second dilemma is related to drain hoses themselves.
If the hoses would have leaked, shouldn't the headliner have been soaked in the C-Pillar area? I will use RTV Silicone on them, but I really don't think the hoses are the problem.

Anyway, if you find something out about the "trailing" crossbar, please, please let me know. Also, anyone else with "sunroof" experience that reads this thread, I would appreciate if you could chime in.
I'm anxious to receive my EBahn manual (probably two more days), maybe it has some exploded view of all the components.

I will definitely report back, but this evening started snowing (^$^&$&), so it may take another two days until I can work on it again.
(I have no garage, and I have no friends around with a garage... it sucks, but c'est la vie)

Thanks again man. Your time to provide all this help is deeply apreciated.

chefro

 

How old is this car? It looks like a different design than im used to, those aren't the same drain designes that i was talking about. You are right about the sun shade, it shouldn't be able to move back far enough where you can't reach the handle from inside the car, it should either have a couple of stops on the track or it could be that strap thats there.
Were you able to identify where the leak was coming from by pouring water over the roof yet?

 

I just noticed that the descriptions for the pics are reverted. The first photo shows the Passenger side drain, and the second photo shows the driver side rear drain. As a matter of fact the C-Pillar tells the story... I'm losing my mind with this sunroof thing.

Anyway, my car is the very first A6 model - 1995 (is just that they revamped the older A100, isn't it?), F or 2WD, 2.8L V6 sedan (AFC engine). The production was (as per the door tag) - April, 1995.

Well, I haven't had a chance to do the water test since it snowed continuosly over the night and this morning, and now we have a blustery cold wind. Probably the temperature is in the low single digit right now, so I will have to wait.

Meantime, I will try to figure out a way to pop out the sun shades hooks and see if I can pull down completely the headliner. Then I could assess better what's going on up there. I will check back with an update, no worries.

Also, on top of everything else, I also noticed some while back a gap in the sunroof's weatherstrip. I'll have to plug that somehow, too...

 

Oh yeah, that could be the reason, i though you had a 99 or something. You should list that in your sig. You would see a water trail if it were leaking from that seal in the pic.

 

Thanks, man! I'll add a sig like many others have.

We suppose to have some nasty temp for the next two days or so (wind chill -24~ -26!), hence the project will be on hold for a while.
Nevertheless, as previously stated, I will report back when I have news, and definitely the writeup is still on the backburner.

Cheers.

 

Well, that got accomplished. It isn't as PITA as I expected to be, because initially I was rapporting myself to a different design, which I thought is the same for all models. (By the way, the pic in the link is from a otherwise wonderful writeup by Boston Driver, that actually didn't help me too much). Luckily, the 1995 model has the clips fastened in the "old" fashion - with screws.
However, for this model the plastic cover is the PITA and I broke the hook of the first one when pulling down. I glued it back without any problems.
The second one came out pretty smooth since I knew what I'm doing, this time.





As far as the sunroof, I will dismount it when the weather warms up, see what's going on, fix it and do the writeup.

 

Finally a little break in the freakin' weather pattern....

Although a cold wind spoiled a beautiful sunny day that should have brought the temperature around 40°, I took advantage and continued my quest.

Well, the gap in the weatherstripping was the least of my trouble. Actually I discount it as being a non-factor whatsoever, but I will fill it up with a piece of rubber. As it turned out, that crossmember I was talking about was the damn reason for the sunshade getting soaked!


Although this is the first time in my life when I deal with a sunroof, I was right in thinking that damn crossmember was out of place somehow. It shouldn't be stationary, as it actually slides back the same time with the sunroof, and in closed position acts as a "drainage tray" for the middle (of the car) cross section of the sunroof opening.
It is connected via two tilting arms (one on each side) to the sliding bracket/housing/howeveryouwanttocallit that holds the glass. Both connecting arms are broke, so the drainage crossmember never had a chance to slide back the same time with the sunroof. As a consequence, when it rained the water dripped directly over the sunshade which it was in a open position. That was lucky in some respect, because otherwise the headliner (by the edge of the sunroof cut) would have taken the whole brunt of the soaking.

Crossmember in correct position as I slid it forward :

Closer view:

If it isn't in the correct position (connected to the glass' holding bracket):

Passenger side view:


Driver side view:


Correct position (one more time):


Now I need to figure out what to do. I tried epoxy and it didn't want to cure (wtf? It suppose to cure even under water and it doesn't cure in 40°?).
I put some super glue on one side before it got dark, so I will leave it over night to cure, see what happens.

Auditech, thanks again man for your help regarding this issue. You gave me a good head start with the headliner suggestion.