Sunroof Seal (1 Viewer)

[Underdog]

Hey all,

Had my '94 parked facing downhill in a big texas downpour last week and when I got in water came in around the seam in the cloth on the A-pillar. My DS rocker also filled with water that didn't drain out.

So, checked the forum and cleaned out the drain in the pinch weld with a zip tie and all is well - drains nicely. Blew out my front drains with compressed air and poured water down them and they drain nicely into the rocker and then to the ground.

Question - I know the sunroof seals will always let water in but is it worth replacing them. Mine are getting old and I know if I park in the same place again my A-pillar will leak again. I doesn't take much water to get it to start overflowing the drain area and flooding the A-pillar. Anybody replace their seals and is it worth doing? Big buck$? My kick panel area looks OK but I don't want to start having electrical issues.

BTW - I've got one of those wind deflectors at the front of the sunroof, I assume it was a dealer add-on. I'm sure it interferes with the seal somewhat but also if I parked with the front higher I don't think water could get in at all (or at least it would drain to the rear).

 

[tenncrusher]

It is most likely your drains. The seal does not have to be perfect as there is a pan around the track which takes the water in and funnels it out the four holes in each corner. I had major leaking, about like yours. Mine turned out to be a pinched hose that was not allowing enough water to get out despite the fact that is was allowing some to escape. This should help. As it turned out, my wiring harness in driver kick panel was crimping the line.

 

[Beowulf]

Randy,
Last winter we had a rash of leaking problems and there is a lot of documentation on Keep's SOR archives. Jim, Simon, Tenn, and many others contributed to several threads with pictures and good detail.

As I recall, Jim documented that the wind deflector creased the seal. Tenn found the crimped hose. Several found clogged drains at the roof and in the rockers. C-Dan recently documented fixing a leak in the seals around the rear quarter windows.

I may be misstating but IIRC, the concensus was that when everything is "unclogged/uncrimped/uncreased" there will be no problem with Texas downpours and the design of the drain system is sufficient to handle hurricanes with the vehicle parked at any angle.

-B-

 

[Underdog]

I went back and read everything, SOR included, before I went out to look at the truck. Now that my rocker drain is unclogged I think everything's working properly but I know it will leak into the A-pillar again in the same situation. I think the wind deflector makes the problem worse b/c the water will pool behind it when parked nose down.

I am going to look at replacing the seal around the sunroof panel and removing my add-on wind deflector.

C-dan, you have a PN and List$ for the seal?

Thanks

Randy

 

[cruiserdan]

Randy,

  The "seal" around the edge of the sunroof glass on your 94 sells for $627.62. With that you get a "free" sunroof glass. 8) .
In other words, it's part of the glass.
Even a brand new glass will not seal water out. That's why there is a pan and drains in the roof.

 Not much help, am I?

 

[CDN_Cruiser]

Randy:

I too suffered from this problem (as you may have seen in prior posts).  Assuming that you have done what you can to improve the seal on the glass (ie keeping it clean and lubed), your best bet it to address the hoses.  

The hoses are close to 1" in diameter, so they can handle a fair amount of water.  To test, I would pour 1 litre of water (~ 1 quart) into the pan on one side and it would drain with no problem - based on the speed this would equate to something like 30 gallons/hr of flow!

If you really want to check them, it is quite involved.  First, you should check the connection and make sure there is no binding of the hose at the top as it goes into the pillar.  This involved poping a portion of the headliner (remove grab handle, remove sun shade and rearview mirror, etc - not too hard).

Then you need to remove the drivers side 'dead pedal' and kick pannel (2 screws?) to check the bottom end.  As Tenn noted, the hose shares a confined space with a wiring harness - make sure it's not binding.  While you are there, check for signs of water damage.  In my rig, I think small streams of water had been getting into this region and this is where LOTS of electrical stuff is located.  I ended up shorting the harness and starting an electrical fire behind the kick pannel  :'(- you should have seen how fast I removed the pannel (think NASCAR pit crew ).  Look for signs of corrosion (green stuff) and be careful to fix the problem if you do see problems.

All of this can be done in a few hours.

Cheers, Hugh