Sunroof issues newbie :(

Hi guys ive had a go at diagnosing my sunroof/water ingress and this is what i found so far ??

Ok with the disco on my drive which is a uphill incline quite steep it leaked into the rear roller blind and formed a pond, water was dripping from the inner plastic trim joints at the top of the door on the inside, then when i reversed off after drying it all out another flood came onto parcel shelf blind and leaked in through rear electric roof switch onto the leather seats and also down front seat belts onto me, must of been collected somewhere..what a nightmare..


Ok so i done some searching and had some advice already and this is my findings so far...

1, Removed rear lights and found roof drains used airline and blew backwards towards sunroof and nice flow of air at the front edge of sunroof on both sides, ran a stiff cable through also got it near enough to sunroof area, squirted a gob full off water up pipe also from rear light side and blew that up to roof and it squirted out fine, SO roof drains are not blocked..front 2 anyway is there anymore ??

2, I then filled the sunroof (rear) channel a touch, with a cup of water nothing came through drains, as it appears they are at the front of the sunroof not the back and the disco was nose end high RESULT PEED STRAIGHT INTO PARCEL SHELF INSIDE CAR

3, So i closed sunroof and did a water test on side windows then roof side windows one at a time NOTHING SO FAR COMING IN, then tried tailgate door bottom to top STILL NO LEAK, so i decided to insulating tape the glass to the the sunroof frame as a tempory seal, leaving the sunroof frame to body un touched, WATER TEST TIME i put approx 5mins worth of hose pipe flooding over the intire sunroof (rear) which drained all over the rest of the rear of the disco, again not water leaked in

4, Then i water tested front sunroof as well all seemed fine

Now from this it appears the water is coming through the rear sunroof glass to seal and filling the sunroof recess and leaking into disco, as becouse its nose upwards on drive its draining to back Hence the parcel shelf filling up. And once i dry that up when i reverse off drive onto level ground i get the remaining water leaking from everywhere else ie, electric sunroof switch and front seat belts...etc..obviously collecting in a channel or something..

Although the water that came in when i reversed off the drive did seem more than i actually tipped in the channel in the first place

Both the front and rear sunroof seals are clean and grit/dirt free and look in good order ?

So ive a couple of questions on my findings if you guys could try and advise..

Q1, Is there no drain holes to the rear of the rear sunroof casette
Q2, Do you agree its sounding like glass to frame leaking in
Q3, Does this sound like i still need to strip the whole roof out and start from scratch...

I am comtemplating letting someone else do this anyone recommended in the north east who aint a fortune ??

thanks guys Rob

I am in the US, but I have a 1999 disco II. I got it extremely cheap because the sunroofs leaked and it killed the headliner. Anyways, I speant a nice day with my 16 year old Daughter taing out the headliner and removing the sunroofs. I sealed them with high temp (i live in Florida) gasket sealer and replaced them. I put some bleach through the drains and now i have no leaks. I should get the headliner back from the upholsterers next week and be done. It was not that hard. but remember to pull the door seals to get the side interior pieces loose. (not the entire door seals, just the upper parts.)

Scoot

No drain holes at the rear of the sun roof, they are there to remove water draining from the glass if there was water on it while opening water will run forward into the channel each side, hence at the front only.

There are only two seals, glass to sunroof and sunroof to body both can leak but the glass one is most likely.

You only have to remove the sunroof to replace the body seal although u can seal externally around the edge if carefull.

Cheers guys some good tips there...

discool said:

No drain holes at the rear of the sun roof, they are there to remove water draining from the glass if there was water on it while opening water will run forward into the channel each side, hence at the front only.

There are only two seals, glass to sunroof and sunroof to body both can leak but the glass one is most likely.

You only have to remove the sunroof to replace the body seal although u can seal externally around the edge if carefull.

Click to expand...

From my experience and from what I have read on various forums the most likely leak is from between the sunroof frame and car roof. It will take about an hour to remove the headlining then removing the sunroof(s) and re-sealing is a piece of cake. Did mine 6 months ago and has been bone dry ever since (touch wood). Close all the windows and from the outside of the car look closely at the sunroof when you slam a door shut and you might see the problem area.

Hi
had the same problem on my 1999 td5. The were 3 areas where my sunroofs were leaking, these were:
(1) The seal between the sunroof frame and roof.

(2) Where the drain pipes fit onto the sunroof metal tray.

(3) The rubber seal for the sunroof glass ifself.

I completely removed the head lining and both sunroofs, takes a couple of hours and is not too difficult. I then removed the rubber seal and cleaned both the seal and the groove that it fits into. Both were incredibly dirty. Next job was where the drain pipes attach. These are plastic attachments that are bonded to the metal tray and this is where most problems are caused. They develop cracks in the material used to bond them. Mine were leaking quite badly. I went over mine with a 2 part plastic resin to reseal and reinforce them but any decent RTV sealant would work.I then removed what little there was of the original sealant from the external sunroof trim and the roof and upon refit replaced this with a sealant that was effective over a wide temp range and flexible as the disco roof is a large area of metal and must flex a lot with variations in temp. I did this 12 months ago and have had no leaks since and we have had one of the wettest winters on record. Hope this helps.