Sunroof Drain Location

[justinsmnz]

I live in Florida and have been experiencing some pretty remarkable cabin leakage recently during our heavier downpours in my ~200k 200LC. In a torrential downpour I have been getting a small, but steady stream of water from the passenger a-pillar alongside saturation around the upper areas of the headliner. Unfortunately, that means it has been dripping into my wife’s lap to the point that she asks if we can go back home to take her car instead (ouch.) During the last deluge, I felt around and found a filled-to-the-brim sunroof area, leading me to determine the culprit is completely clogged sunroof and/or roof rail drains somewhere downstream.

I’ve done my best to search the forum, but have found little on the topic other than “have you checked your sunroof drains?” and “oh, no worries - just clear your roof drains” - unfortunately, no concrete insight into where the drains actually terminate and therefore can be cleared.

Has anyone dug into this and found the termination points to clean out?

 

[bloc]

I live in Florida and have been experiencing some pretty remarkable cabin leakage recently during our heavier downpours in my ~200k 200LC. In a torrential downpour I have been getting a small, but steady stream of water from the passenger a-pillar alongside saturation around the upper areas of the headliner. Unfortunately, that means it has been dripping into my wife’s lap to the point that she asks if we can go back home to take her car instead (ouch.) During the last deluge, I felt around and found a filled-to-the-brim sunroof area, leading me to determine the culprit is completely clogged sunroof and/or roof rail drains somewhere downstream.

I’ve done my best to search the forum, but have found little on the topic other than “have you checked your sunroof drains?” and “oh, no worries - just clear your roof drains” - unfortunately, no concrete insight into where the drains actually terminate and therefore can be cleared.

Has anyone dug into this and found the termination points to clean out?

I cant remember whether the fronts terminate behind the mud flap or into the rocker panel on a 200, but you can get to the top end easily and just dig around with some weedeater line, following that with a glass of water to flush the stuff out. Don't use compressed air or you risk blowing the line off the nipple from the sunroof tray and trust me, you don't want to do that. With any luck the blockage will be right at the top near the drain hole in the pan and can be cleared easily.

The rears terminate behind the rear wheels under the bumper cover. And the bad news is it is basically impossible to get at the upper end.. they are all the way back in the corners of the tray.

You may want to consider getting new weatherstripping for the edges of the sunroof panel. Yes a blockage could be an issue, but also if the gasket is letting too much water through it can overwhelm even perfectly working drains. They are only designed to handle incidental leakage, and the gasket can tend to get compressed and UV damaged over the years.

The problem is I don't see a part number for just the gasket on any year LC and the whole panel retails for almost $800. Oddly the gasket is available by itself for all years of LX570. If you wanted to try and buy that to see if it's similar and might be installable, it is only about $30 from the discount sites. 63251-12190 To be clear I have not tried to install one of these.. might be worth a thread to get others to post pictures to compare.