Last week, after almost 15 years of ownership, I decided to replace my factory original alarm with one that beeps when locking and unlocking. I've read on the forum that the internal rechargeable batteries seem to go bad in 10 to 15 years and eventually leak acid on the circuit board. I may be on borrowed time and I don't want that problem. Several years ago I had installed corfire's solution which worked perfectly. Then one of the times that I had a stratified battery I was convinced to remove that modification, which obviously didn't cause the problem. I never put it back in. If it wasn't for the possibility of acid leaking on the circuit board, I wouldn't be replacing the factory alarm. I ordered my new alarm from FCP Euro (Bosch 2198203226).

After removing the cowl I made sure that all five passageways were cleared of debris. The drains on both ends of the cowl had some small leaves and maple tree whirlybirds. The passageway on the passenger side with the rubber flap in front of the fan vent had some small leaves. None of those three had enough debris to cause a blockage. The drain under the wiper motor had one whirlybird which was held up by the internal rubber flap. The vent in the middle with the funnel up to the cowl looked clear. In 2019 I replaced my cracked washer fluid reservoir and removed lots of leaves from that area. At some point I need to do the same on the drivers side.

I have two questions for the forum.
1.) What is the purpose of the vent with the funnel in the middle of the cowl? Why a funnel? Where does the vent go?
2.) Has anyone figured out what the small foam part is that several others on the forum have found under the cowl? I have attached a picture of mine. Here is what is strange in my case. I cleaned out all of the debris with a shop vac and wiped the areas that I could reach with a rag on Friday (two days ago). Since then I drove the car without the wiper arms attached. The cowl was laying in place but not fitted or attached. Then today (Sunday) I decided to pour water down three of the drains. That is when I found the mystery part sitting above the drain on the far end passenger side. It wasn't there on Friday. The part is completely clean, unlike that area was until Friday. If it had been there it would have been removed by the shop vac or I would have seen it when I finished. The two tabs on the right side of the part as it appears in the picture obviously wrapped around a rectangular shape while the end with the Mercedes star was designed to be inserted into a rectangular hole.