The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[flint]

I just did a quick search and couldn't find this mentioned, sorry if this is common knowledge. I've just been patching the sills on my Colorado ('97), and found that most of the corrosion was around the drain slots in the sills, these are the small, rectangular openings where the inner and outer sills meet.  On mine these were blocked with mud etc., I don't think the previous owner had ever checked them. As the sunroof drains go into the sills (odd idea), these are the only exit points for any water that gets in there. They are easily cleared with a cable tie or similar. Might be worth checking.

[Google]

[diggerdave]

I will check on mine, but I don't recall anything similar to your slots.  Instead there are three (? I think) circular holes covered by plastic grilles a bit smaller than a 5p piece.  THey definitely drain the sills as I tried the old trick of filling the sills with melted waxoyl through the holes where the tread plates clip in, only for it all to run out onto my drive!

Mine's a 1997 swb GS without arch extensions: I guess different models may have different arrangements.

Does the sunroof really drain into the sills?  That's bonkers!  Mine's never worked anyway so I've never had the chance to see what lies beneath it.

[flint]

Maybe it's different on a SWB (mines a 95). After posting this, I did find that it has indeed been mentioned before, looks like it's the same on an 80. As a newbie, I can't post links yet, but if you put "sill drainage slots landcruiser" in google it's listed there under "water sloshing in the sills".  There are pics and links on rerouting the front drains. As your waxoyl ended up where it did, maybe yours are clear anyway !

[diggerdave]

Flint, I followed up your advice.  There are indeed the rectangular holes on my sills, as well as the round holes covered with perforated plastic covers (of which there are 5 - I assume they are to allow the sills to 'breathe' and make draining through the rectangular slots easier).

Most of my slots were gunked up with rust and dirt so I gave them a good clean out with a drill bit and squirted lots of WD40 up them after giving the sills a chance to drain/dry out.  Nothing obvious came out of the holes so I guess they had been partially functional at least.

Thanks for the tip!  

Another thing to check regularly as our vehicles pass into old age, along with the drain holes at the back of the upper control arm mountings on the rear axle...