Sunroof Issue or something else - 1998 Cruiser

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COLandCrusher

COLandCrusher

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Apr 21, 2009
Threads
43
Messages
175
Location
Colorado
Hey guys, I read a lot of info here about cleaning sunroof drain tubes. I have a 1998 Cruiser and I cannot seem to figure this one out.
I have pushed a wire down though the tubes but it would only go about 18 inches max. So I undid the driver side plastic trim by the floorboard to look at the tube. I had my son pour water from a water bottle down the sunroof drain and the water flowed fine. I got underneath and noticed the water drain out through the slits. Came out good.
I actually could not find any other drain. there was one black rubber plug, but when I pull it out i see no tube. Looks more like a carpet or something. I poked my finger up and with a flashlight looked in there and saw no tube. I also peeled back teh carpet and it was not damp or anything.

Here's what is happening. After a strong rain, or a car wash, when I turn left or right water drips down through the door light that is located on the ceiling between my seat and the passenger seat, and it also drips down through the console above where the sunroof and light controls are. I also felt water drip on my left foot at the floor board once or twice.

I do not know what the heck is causing it. The only thing I'm wondering is did the company who replaced the wind shield not do something correctly?

Or is this maybe the rear seal or a sunroof seal problem? I questions that because I placed my garden hose on shower and sprayed the sunroof for a few minutes and there was no leak this way.

Advice on a 1998 appreciated. I wonder if the tubes or drains are a little different on a 98?:steer:
 
How does replacing the windshield, create dripping inside of the car at the above referenced locations? I'm planning on calling the windshield company today and I know these guys are going to ask me how they could have done something wrong to cause a leak. Please explain, is it in the way they sealed up the gutters? Or something else?
 
Alright, NOT the windshield. Apparently the top back of the sunroof has some play in it. It is allowing the water to come in, so how do I fix that so it seals up tight/ I can easily push it down about 1/8th of an inch to almost a 1/4 inch!
 
I'm not so sure any sunroof seals that well anyway. I see you found the front two drain tubes and they seem to work. Now to check for the rear ones. Park your 100 on an incline with the rear wheels lower than the front. Pour water down the sides of the sunroof (with it open) once again and see what happens.
 
Bingo!! Okay. Managed to pry the headliner down enough to get in and check things out. I pulled out some debris from the plastic track gutter. I also cut the rubber tube about an inch and reconnected it for a much tighter fit. Then I poured water in the sunroof rain gutter at a pretty moderate pace and it overwhelmed the tube drain and came out around it. When I poured it slower. Say a cup in about 15 seconds, it all went through the tube. It seems the sunroof plastic drain tray is not sufficient to handle heavy water. But should there ever be heavy water? I now am going to experiment by putting the hose on high and shower the roof, since the liner is down I can see what happens. I can determine if the not filly sealed back seal is maybe allowing too much water in at once. I also see how the turning let's the sunroof drains spill onto the middle headliner. Will keep u all posted
 
Hi Hoser, for the '99 LCs, are there sunroof drains to the rear of sunroof? I only know of the front two and would be interested in knowing where the rear ones are and how to clean them. It would make sense that there are rear drains, but I can't seem to find any information on them.

COLandCrusher, I found my '99 LC's sunroof to be leaky too and you'll find many people on the forum having the same issue. Mine is leaking where the metal supports for the sunroof wind deflector meet the sunroof rubber seal. It appears that the wind deflector metal supports create a small gap in the seal. Mine also leaks slowly on the real portion of the sunroof seal. Maybe it's time for me to change the rubber seal around the sunroof before the end of the year when rain comes again, and when I do, I might just remove the sunroof wind deflector to eliminate the small gaps created by its supports. In the meantime, I've been parking my LC facing downhill to have make sure the front two drains take care any leakage since I don't know where the rear drains are and if they're clogged (my front two drains were also clogged this past winter and I learned it the hard way with water leaking into the cabin through the same area that you described).
 
calski, I have not had my headliner down so I can't say for sure. But all the cars I've owned with sunroofs have had front and rear drains. I do not see how it would be possible to not have a rear drain. Maybe COL can help you.

COL, another trick to clear the drain tube is to use compressed air. But be careful.

On my VW, at the bottom of the sunroof drains, it had these little one way restrictors that would get clogged. The final fix was to chop those restrictors off. No problems after that.
 
I have had the same problem with mine leaking. My sunroof leaks but usually it drains through the drain tubes. However, when it rains really hard, I think you have a bottle neck affect, and then I get moisture inside the LC.

I am thinking of replacing the rubber seal around sun roof. I have made adjustments to the sunroof but have not fixed it. Anybody ever replaced one of those?

Hoser where are pics of your bumper?
 
OK. so here are some images to help people see where the drains are. The headliner is a Mother $%#@er to get off and back on! But only because I could not get the grab handle behind my driver seat unscrewed. Need an impact gun I think.

First thing to do though is to just pull the felt trim around the roof opening off gently. Thats real easy to take off and put back on, and it will allow you to peek inside to see if water is getting into the headliner from the rear tubes. you can kind of see the front tubes also. When I did this there was about a 1/2 cup of water sitting in the liner and it poured out on my driver seat! Oops!. was not expecting that, but it allowed me to track down the rear driver side tube issue. Just because the water was coming out the rear slit drains, did not mean the tube was draining properly.

If there is water there, the only option is to drop headliner and fix the issue.

Removing headliner I started at the rear of the truck and pried up the plastic trim gently. Then worked my way around the driver side ceiling to pry the rest. I then persuaded the headliner to slide up and out of it's place so that I could get at the rear drain easily (see middle picture).

You just have to be slow and patient because if you break off the plastic fasteners, IT SUCKS! I learned that with another car. The trim was all floppy afterwards, So I was careful and they all remained intact.

The lights are held on by 4 phillips machine screws, and the plastic light cover flips out with a small standard screwdriver placed in the existing slots.

If you are planning on removing the front console where the roof opening is there is one phillips screw inside of where the "garage door opener" thing is. And then the rest are just little brass fittings that pry out. There are two plastic trim clips in the ceiling that I worked out GENTLY with a flat head screwdriver and a wood moulding trim pry bar. The kinds that have a hook on one end and a crowbar like end on the other.

I unbolted the 3 10 MM bolts to unfasten the driver side sunroof frame so I could access it, and then removed the phillips screws to lift up the plastic tray to look for cracks. None there.

I pulled out some debris that was in the tracks and I know that was blocking the tube. There is no way to clean out a clogged rear drain without dropping the headliner. It was a clump of tree seeds or something. It looked a bit like seaweed really. Anyways, I managed to get it out and a little stick also.

The design is poor, as the inside plastic drain channel is not as tall as the outer, which is easily how the water gets out on turns if it is clogged. However it did rain here in Highlands Ranch last night and I experienced no more leaking. Even though the sunroof does not sit completely flush and tight up against the roof, (1/8 th inch play) it really does not let water in.

I have to drop the damn headliner again tonight though because apparently I have missed a screw that fastens that long aluminum trim behind the sunroof. I 'll post another pic tomorrow if it goes well.

uughhh
98 CruiserSR Drains.webp
 
Thank you so much for posting the pictures. They were very helpful! Now knowing that there are rear drains too, one of these days I'll have to drop the headliner and clean them out before the next raining season this winter.
 
Your welcome, glad they are useful. Dropping the headliner is easy once the grab handles are off. There are grab handles that unscrew very easy, but the odd shaped one behing the driver and pass seat need an impact gun to get them off.
All this work and now my roof is stuck in the open position. Not sure what the heck happened, but the cables are quite rusty.
I'm going to plan on getting an impact gun and dropping the whole headliner down. I may have to change out the cables or something. uugh. Def before winter as my other car won't work so well here in Colorado snow
 
Anybody know where the rear drains let the water exit from the body? I ran water in the sunroof channels with car inclined nose up to run water to the rear drains. On the left side it exited out of a tube aft of rear wheel well. On the right side my water did not drain and there also was no tube for the water to exit like on the left side.
 
So now my sunroof is not openeing and closing so I am thinking I must have something lodged in teh track. I assumed I could just remove the glass by popping out the two screws on each side, but the one phillips screw came out easy enough, I absolutely could not budge teh screw in front of it?? what am I missing here? how do I pull out the glass so I can check to see if something is stuck in the tracks??
 
Update, OK, so now for whatever reasn my sunroof is openeing and closing just fine?? I am wondering if I may have a bad portion of the cable that will eventually come around again?
 
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