legacycentral bbs

I'm just wondering what people have done to fix their leaky sun/moonroofs. I've had this problem for a little over a year now, but have been able to avoid the worst rain so far. We talked about it a while back on the email list, and I'd like to centralize all the information that was brought up back then. So, what problems have you guys had and more importantly, how did you fix them?

-Brian

Clear your drain vents.

Pour some water slowly in the pan area of the sun roof.....if you don't hear water draining down on the ground....the drain vents are clogged.....there are four of these, one in each corner.

How does one go about cleaning these out? Does the entire headliner need to be removed? I'm just trying to figure out what's going to be involved. Thanks.

-Brian

Brian,
The four drains are basically flexible plastic hoses. If you can get your hands on one of those retractable metal snakes used to fish electrical wires through walls that would do the trick. If not, try (and I do mean try ) to get as many coat hangers together as possible. make sure they wont fall apart from each other and get stuck in there! Also I havent looked at mine yet but I dont recall moonroofs having 4 drains. usually they just have two, one on each side in the front. that drain into the "A" pillar area. For those of you who dont know where that is, its just behind where the front door hinge is.

Mike

My sunroof leaks, and after taking down the headliner and checking all four vents, i found that they were perfectly fine. What i was able to see, with the headliner off and while i had a hose running on the roof, was that the seal around the roof lets in a good amount of water. What i finally settled on is that the black sealant underneath the rails gets old and cracks, letting the water seep underneath. The only sure-fire way to re-seal this would be to remove the sunroof assembly, disassemble it, and re-do it.

It might be possible to simply try to put more of this sealant over whatever is there, but since it rains rather infrequently here, i'll probably ignore it till it rains again.

Dave

Darn, you guys forget quickly. I must have type a reply to messages like this 10 times already.

The leaking comes from the cracking black sealant under the rails. It acts like a wick to pull water inside the car. It is possible to replace this with normal sealant without removing too much of the sun roof.

I did it only removing the glass and the two brass nuts on the rail. This gave enough clearance to scrape all the old sealant out and use normal white bathroom caulk.

My sunroof leaked on both sides when I got it. Now it hasnt seen as much as a drip since.

Sorry ciper

There you go folks!

Dave

Ciper, you're the best. I'm going to give that a try this week.

-Brian

My suggestion is:
Dont touch the screws for the wind deflector (they strip)
Pull the rails up and rest them on the stud that the brass nut came off
Remove the fuzzy rectangle/round trim piece that is around the opening
Scrape all the remaining black stuff off with a screw driver
Put a small bead of caulk all the way down then squish it with the rail. Lift the rail back up and see the gaps.

Realize this black stuff will continue to dust up the car for weeks after, it gets everywhere.

Dont tighten everything down permanent until a couple hours later. You will most likely need to remove a couple shims from the glass so that it will sit flat.

Thanks for the added info. The other problem is that my glass is cracked as well. I'm wondering if I should get the glass replaced before attempting this fix. Any thoughts?

-Brian

I know one person who replaced their cracked moonroof, only to have it break almost immediately after.

If it doesn't leak from the glass, i'd leave it unless you can find one in a yard.

Dave

Good answer Dave. It isn't leaking through the glass, just around the glass, or so it seems. I think I'll keep it in there for now, or at least until I get the leaking fixed. Thanks guys.

-Brian

I just noticed i have this leaky problem too. it finally started raining consistently ,and now i have a leak on the drivers side of the sunroof. the water is at the front of the sunroof. i will have to check it out. two days ago, i was welcomed in the morning by a damp seat.

Yeah, I'm not sure if my problem will be fixed by Ciper's solution. My problem seems to be the clogged drains. The reason I say this is because the leak is much more pronounced when I'm coming to a stop or pointed downhill. I have a feeling I may have to clear out the drainholes and do the fix Ciper mentioned. So, what has to be done to remove the headliner? I'm truly dreading this.

-Brian

Anyone want to host an image? 67k shows location of all the drain tubes!

ciper,

send it to me - Thanks

you should know better by now......send it on over.

Thanks again to Ciper

If I remember right if you have the rear left passenger antenna the drains come together.

I took mine apart last night and gave my attempt at fixing the issue following the directions that Richard Buckner gave me..

We'll see how well i did by the end of the weekend, it's rainin like a mofo up here!

-jason

Jason, what were the instructions Richard gave you?

Also, has anyone had any experience with removing the headliner? I'm a little apprehensive about removing it, especially without knowing if the drains will be reachable that way. Does it go over it anywhere in the FSM's? TIA.

-Brian

I'm pretty handy around my legacy, so the directions Richard gave weren't the MOST detailed. I knew what he meant tho. I'll add in some of the steps.

A) disconnect and remove dome light and map lamps (you'll need to reconnect the map lamp unit later)

B) remove trim A, B, and C column trim pieces.
If you're hesitant about removing them, remove all the trim pieces that connect to them, it'll make it easier (and take on another hour to the job)

C) Remove headliner

D) reconnect map lamp unit. Use it to pop roof window up and remove (there are 4 nuts that hold the window in place).

E) "close" the roof now that the window is out.

F) remove sunroof assembly, pull out of car via one of the rear doors. put on shop bench to have enough room to work with, if you don't have space, get some HEAVY canvas and use your hood as a work bench.

G) remove the two small nuts that hold the front wind baffle in place (the shiny silvery thing)

H) remove the three nuts in the rear of the tray that hold the tray down.

the last step will enable you to pull up the rails that the window slides on.

I) scrape out all the old factory crap that's in there. vacuum. Clean off area with some laquer thinner or adhesive remover or some such thing. There will be gunk on the tray side and the rail side. make sure its ALL gone.

J) use some silicon sealant or window caulking and lay down some new gunk on the tray side. Use a heafty portion. you'll want to be able to see some of it squeeze out the sides when you lay the rails back on. lay some extra down in the front area and back area where excess H20 may seep in

K) reassemble.

total work time: took me seven (7) hours from start to finish including a break for a burger.

i'm sure i left something out, but this should be enough for an able-minded mechanic to be able to tackle the job!

good luck!!

-Jason

DAMN! Looks like I'll be busy this weekend. So basically you need to remove the headliner for this? If so, it should allow me to take a look at the drains right?

-Brian

Yes, and Yes.

Great! Thanks for all the detailed info.

-Brian