My old sunroof was leaking and not working any more, so, when I found one at a local wrecking yard,...I pulled it out and eventually swapped it into my truck. After clean all the old sealant off the roof and the sunroof assembly,...I used Permatex clear RTV silicone to put what I thought was a thick bead around the sunroof black plastic bezel that sits on top of the roof panel. I dropped the sunroof into the hole and then installed the drain tray that I had re-sealed the plastic corner drains on to with fresh black Permatex RTV.

I had used enough RTV on the sunroof to truck rook area, that it was squeezing out a fair amount on to the roof in a few (but not all) areas around the bezel.

Now I have a water leak. it is coming out of the drain tray where one of the screws (left front corner) goes up through the drain tray to secure it to the main sunroof assembly.

BTW,...I DID blow out both drain lines with my air compressor before installing the replacement sunroof. Neither drain line appeared to be blocked at all.

I'm stuck, I don't know how to proceed with testing for leaks......Im assuming that it has to be either a bad sunroof seal where the glass seats,.....or,......I didn't use enough Silicone RTV when I was installing it.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on how to determine where the water is coming in?

Brian in Cedar Park

 

Looks like no one has been down this road?

 

Just finished that repair. The water is coming in between the sunroof assembly and the roof itself. There's a seal failure of the nonhardening compound used to originally seal the sunroof. Take down the headliner and sunroof drain pan, then push the whole sunroof out the top clean up the old seal material and use another nonhardening compound I used permatex #2. Good luck.

 

Get a friend to run a constant stream of water from a hose over the roof while you sit in there and watch for leaks. I did the whole repair last year and have another leak.. so out the headliner comes again.

 

I put the headliner back up months ago and just ran a bead of RTV around the Sunroof lip where it meets the roof. It looks a little schlocky, but,....I don't ever get up there,....so wont ever see it. Also disconnected the rear sunroof switch to eliminate any future leaks from starting due to the sunroof drive getting messed up.

 

Thought about just gluing them shut. I have this tick where if I own a vehicle everything must work unless it absolutely cannot. My sunroofs work well, noisy, but well. They stick on cold days, not that I know, haven't driven it in quite some time. They rattle a bit.. it's my roofrack that are making the new headliner wet again.

 

My headliner has been out 3 or 4 times now in the last 2 years. The fiberglass is in rough shape now in the areas where it has to bend or fold a bit to make its way out of the back of the truck. Any more leaking,.....I'm just adding RTV, no more headliner removal for me, both me and the headliner are getting too old for it.

 

I believe that the corner gutter bits are made of polyethylene. Nothing much sticks to it. Which is why they make waste pipes, and those blue barrels from it. Easy to clean etc. The thinking will be that they might clog less as a sunroof drain.

Silicone or rtv doesn't stick to it.

I screwed my corner bits and used some odd roofing sealant, which wasn't silicone based.

"Cyanoacrylate, epoxy, polyurethane, silicone (RTV for example), and most acrylic adhesives do not stick to polypropylene and polyethylene."

From:

Stealth 316 - Sealing and Bonding Polypropylene and Polyethylene

Chances are your corner bits are stuck less than they ever were.

Unless you screwed them, then ignore all this, as they shouldnt of got chance to shift around.