Every time it opens, it smells....bad!

[rsfdoc]

Hope someone out there can give me a clue to my problem. Every time I open the sun roof, it smells like mildew. Checked outside and in, but no standing water. The only things that are wet are the felt pads under the diffuser (the notched wind thingy that pops up in front when the roof opens), and they don't smell. It stays in the garage at night, I'm anal about it staying clean, hasn't rained much, and only has about 9k miles. Any suggestions other than deodorant or femstat are welcome. Thanks.

[Graygoat]

Check the drain tubes. There's usually four of them, but sometimes just two, draining out through the pillars. (Check the diagram in the shop manual for tube locations and count.) If one gets clogged at the draining end, it can hold water in the tube and cause mildew buildup.

How to check? Run a small stream of water over the roof and into the sunroof opening ... check that water is leaking from under the car in four places ( or the drain tube locations, if there's only 2 of them.) You're wanting to check the drain tubes here, so don't run so much water that it is running off the sides of the car.
If there's one that's clogged, you can usually open it up by blowing compressed air through the tube from under the car.
Then check for proper draining again. If that got it, clean out the sunroof trough area with a bathroom-type cleaner that kills mildew.

Hope that helps.