Leaking sunroof

[fooitm35x]

Went to a touchless carwash today and got a very unpleasant surprise when water started to sprinkle on my head from the sunroof... Is this a known problem with Ms or it's just my bad luck?

My car is still under manufacturer's warranty - do you know what Infiniti dealers do in such cases and how long does it take? Thanks!

[loystock]

Most likely they will just replace the weatherstripping, unless there is crack or damage on the sunroof/housing.. The actual job may be @ 1 hour but the 'curing' period for the glue/epoxy may take longer.

[tkeskic]

If there is no physical damage to the seal, you may need something as simple as the silicone lube for the door seals, I think the cost is like $8.00 - it can give the seals a better fit if they are dried out etc...

Car washes often spray very hard and sometimes there is nothing wrong with the seal, but the water pressure is enough to pass between the glass the seal; if the seal is dusty or "dry" it could make it easy for a water jet to get between the glass and seal, basically try cleaning the seals first and retest. use that silicon lube stuff also after you clean the seals with soap and water.

Also Check the fit of the sunroof against the the roof; I had one bolt that holds mine in not tight when I got the car a few years ago, and they had to pull it apart and fix it; One corner of the sunroof was a good deal higher than the other;

Good luck with the repair; It should be easy, and inexpensive...

tk

[qship96]

The rubber seal was never meant to be "waterproof", the small amount of water that gets by EVERY sunroof seal is designed to be carried away by the sunroof drains- most likely your drain tubes are clogged with debris,allowing water to buildup and overflow the sunroof rails.

Easy way to check this is to open sunroof and slowly pour water into the perimeter of opening and checking to see if it drains under the car{should be 4 drains,one in each corner of opening.

Common for drains to clog over time as bits of leaves,dirt,etc clog the small openings.

[fooitm35x]

What's the procedure to clean the drains?

[fooitm35x]

I am going to see an Infiniti dealer today after lunch - I'll post an update later.

[fooitm35x]

It took the dealer 5 minutes to look at the car to come back and tell me that they are going to order and replace the sunroof seal.I am going drop off the car on Thursday morning.

[jrfrias132]

It took the dealer 5 minutes to look at the car to come back and tell me that they are going to order and replace the sunroof seal.I am going drop off the car on Thursday morning.

My m35 just started doing the same leaking from the sun roof when they replace the seal how much did it cost you

[BlackCat81]

It took the dealer 5 minutes to look at the car to come back and tell me that they are going to order and replace the sunroof seal.I am going drop off the car on Thursday morning.

That's unusual. I've never seen one leak from a bad seal. Clogged drains, yes. Seal, no.

[jiggersplat]

I just dealt with this tonight... was getting water running down my a-pillar after heavy rain. I pulled the headliner and found this



You can see towards the left of the picture above the drain tube was basically smashed completely flat by the headliner. I had to stick a dowel in there to open it back up. It was stuck with crud and mold.

I opened it back up as best I could and put some zip-ties on it which I hope will help keep it open a little bit. I also tried to route it closer to the door opening than where I found it which was basically going straight from the nipple towards the front of the car.

[fooitm35x]

Wow! That's one very old thread resurrected...

It cost me nothing back in 2009 - the car was still under warranty, but if you need this done you don't need to go to Infiniti - any autoglass place should be able to do it, I know it because my dealer back in 2009 called their autoglass specialist to fix my leaking sunroof.

[juicehustlin]

Just had this done, the drain clogged I heard is always usually the problem!

[asavage]

Our M35 is normally garaged, but is now sitting in airport long-term parking outdoors five days per week.

Last week, when flying in after a week away, all the windows were covered in condensation. The passenger floor was very wet. Home, I removed the mat and hung it to dry, then used a wet/dry shop vac and removed around a quart of water from the front passenger carpet.

I opened the sunroof and poured a cup of water near the front passenger sunroof drain hole, and it all came running out at the seam at the top of the A-pillar-to-headliner.

I removed the visor, visor holder* (broke it: 96409EH100, $9), auxiliary visor (or whatever it's called) and unscrewed the flip-down roof handle. Pulled down the door weatherstripping, popped off the A-pillar cover. Now I could pull down the headliner far enough to find the drain hose completely disconnected from the black plastic nipple. No sign of drain hose rot, just not connected.

I do use drive-through car wash which has a powerful blower as the last stage. I can only assume that it was able to put enough air pressure on the area to dislodge the drain hose.

I applied a small amount of RTV silicone on the nipple and pushed the hose back on, then poured another cup of water in the sunroof drain: all made it to the ground, behind the RF tire this time.



An odd drain hose failure. Moisture kills interiors, and I've got a small fan running on the front floor to attempt to remove more of the condensed water that is everywhere. There were condensation droplets on the roof metal above the headliner! It's gong to take a while to get it dried out, esp. since it's spending so much time in a parking lot these days.

* Visor holder: I pressed too hard on the internal tab. It just needs a slight push, then turn the holder 90° and pull out of the roof. I broke the tab.

[szh]

Good work! Thanks for reporting and the pictures. Always valuable!

Z