Why, Mr. T? Why did you plug these holes?

I noticed the drain on the opposite side of the cubby area floor from where our ECU's are and posted about it. Seems despite things being flipped to the other side they never accounted for it by moving the drain to the same side as the ECU or at least add another drain versus a plug. I had a spare drain from a different project that I installed on the ECU side of our LHD cars.

Anytime I see stuff like this that doesn't make sense I realize that the devil could be in the details. Until you can ask an engineer the purpose, it just might have a logical explanation.  It could be that those holes are part of the manufacturing process and they plug up the holes to prevent infestations from the outside getting in.  It could also be an afterthought during the design of the car and they decided to cover them up rather than changing the stamps and molds as that would be a easier and less costly solution then to have to re tool.  

I wouldn't second guess it until I know for sure. There might be a good reason and if most Spyders generally do not suffer in this area its best to error on the side of putting everything back the way you found it. 

Hey it at least T put in drain plugs. I worked on an immaculate 2007 BMW X3 M-series with a sunroof this week. It had 3 inches of standing water in each rear seat foot well. The padding and 2-3 inches of thick foam were not able to absorb any more water.  My hopeless buddy DeWalt found the drain holes. I’m thinking I’ll Mr. T it with plugs when it eventually dries because being left open to underbody moist conditions will result in an increased chance of mold forming in the padding.

Yep, that's why I asked first.

I have laid eyes on a larger "drain" hole on each side in the rear. On the passenger side there is also a smaller hole in the rear section and one in front of the seat rail. The plugs are a bit different for those also. They might have a different purpose.

I considered rodents, as well as the obvious: a hole 9" above the pavement. If only there was a way to make a one-way valve, the rodent and moisture problem could be solved. I bet if I invented a one-way valve, just think of the millions... I already have a name: I will call it a "check" valve.

So that leaves holes for tooling or process. The larger "drain" plug is mounted in a protrusion, whereas a drain would be in a divot, so maybe it is not a drain. I wish it were, just this one time, but it really wouldn't have made much difference. The biggest difference, aside from the owner keeping the damn drains clean, would be made by the carpet padding not being glued to the carpet insert. Then the cleanup would have been super easy, relatively speaking.

It's not a disaster. Checked it twice today -- it is closed up for rain and because of the downright asinine amount of pollen currently -- and the car had a very faint swampy smell after being closed up overnight. Four hours later, still closed up, it was totally odorless. I am optimistic, but my Frog Dad self-esteem is pretty low right now. Its not like I was unaware of the drains. It was even on my urgent tasks list. At least I caught it early.

Oh, by the way, how does one remove the shift boot from the center console?  I know most trim stuff just pops on and off, and I tried that gently but got concerned I would screw up yet another thing. Looks like it should pop down and off, but I dunno. I was too pre-occupied to play.

The car is much less mysterious now. There's that silver lining. I would have leveled up with all this deconstruction, but I took a huge penalty for FLOODING MY %&@$ CAR, so I am still stuck at Level 2.

It’s easy to pop off the shift boot but harder to reinstall again without removing the console. 
You need to press down one corner and it should pop off and the others will follow. It’s basically a wire stitched in the leather that clips from underneath.

Personally,  I would remove the center console and turn it upside down to see exactly where the clip is that holds the wire at the base of the boot.  That way,  there is no guessing which way to push the wire out of the clip.  I'm extra cautious about that kind of stuff, since I don't really know what I'm doing and I don't want to break anything.   I replaced the shift boot on my spyder about 8 years ago -- just going from memory. 

Also, you will need the console out of the car to replace the boot, anyway, so might as well just take it out to begin with.  

. . . just my 2 cents worth.   Let us know how it goes.

Was just curious, but thanks for the info.

I am reassembling The 6 Thousand Dollar Frog right now.

He will be Faster*,

No stronger,

Much Cleaner,

Than the The Frog he was before...

* - replaced the PCV valve a week ago and he IS a bit faster.

Those are actually drain plugs.  They're meant to be popped out if need be.  They're plugged because otherwise, water spray and such would have the potential to get straight to underneath the carpet when driving in rain.  If you notice all other drains in the car, it would be hard/impossible for that to happen.

Who's the U boat commander?

♤♤♤  That's funny!

One way drain plugs exist. Have existed for decennia. Used to be fit to air filter boxes of seveties, eighties motorcycles. It is/was a one inch log hollow bung withe outlet ´squeezed´ so both sides form a visually closed slit.

Water in the box would collect in the bottom part where the bungs sits drip out the slit when stationary. Any water from the outside would not enter. Not even when wading as the water pressure pushes the lips shut.