sunroof rear drain holes..leak (images incl)

[Jaz]

Hi Guys,

I pulled back the sunroof and poured water into the sunroof drain channels to check flow and potential leaks. Soon found the rear lining soaking up just above the corners of the rear screen and , unzipped the rear head-lining ,and looked into the corners. and water was addtionally channelling/trickling through the arrowed holes (in addition to the normal torrent flow though the plastic piped connectors in the extreme corners) image below.

VIEW NEARSIDE LOOKING INTO ZIP HEADLINER FROM REAR SEAT


VIEW OFFSIDE LOOKING INTO ZIP HEADLINER FROM REAR SEAT



Are the arrowed holes supposed to plugged? or do they serve some other purpose other than to leak ? Not sure , any advise/pointers would be welcomed.

Cheers, Jaz

CAR: 1974 porsche carrera

[Flat6pac]

One of the holes holds the track locator pin the other is drain. Back blow the drain tube as it fills with leaf and dust debris.
Bruce

[Jaz]

Hi Bruce, the drainholes are clean. Is the arrowed "track locator pin "the bolted channel? The water is actually trickling from the third open channel. In the nearside image its the hole between the two protrusions -sunroof cable &the drainhole. I'm wondering if the motorized sunroof had been retrofitted , could they be trial holes for the sunroof cables, that had not been properly capped off.

[schwaggen]

Those are the holes for the track locater pins (which it appears you are missing) - plastic pins, roughly 5" long, with a fat end and a skinny end- the skinny end slides up in the sunroof track, the fat end fits in the holes you indicate.

The actual drain tube is in the LH side of your first pic.

[uwanna]

Here's the problem, the holes you see, should have a black plastic pin protruding out of them! The pin is the locating pin from the rear of the sunroof track rails. Yours are obviously missing, leaving the holes wide open. NOT GOOD! I had a similar problem, but on mine, I just had a leak around the pins. See my post below. You will need to remove your sunroof rails to fix this. The rails have a plastic pin inserted in a "channel" on the rails. With no pins on your rails, you will need to fabricate a pin out of some metal or plastic stock and insert them in the rails. (really quite simple) You will see the problem when you get the rails out! Once you fix the pin problem, before you reinstall the rail, you need to wrap the pins with some form of body sealer. (the gooey flexible stuff some call "dum dum") This will seal the pins from leaks when you reinstall the rails. My post below shows my leak before I finally removed the rails and resealed them. It fixed the problem. If you have never removed a sunroof, don't worry, it's easy. Just read up on it. Good luck

Mystery Water Leak

[Jaz]

Thank you. I get it now. As a quick fix for UK weather, I've patched up the gaps for now, with rubber bungs and a silicone until I get round to creating pins. I trust the pins are there just to keep the rails in a straight line. Thank you again Jaz

[uwanna]

Originally Posted by Jaz

Thank you. I get it now. I trust the pins are there just to keep the rails in a straight line. Thank you again Jaz

You are absolutely correct in your assumption on the pins. Good luck!

[john walker's workshop]

check it again for leaks around the rubber gaskets under the cable tube flange. silicone seal around them if necessary. i see a ton of leaks there as well as the pins. a bare pin in the hole will still leak. the factory used caulk on the pin prior to assembly.

[BarryJB]

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

check it again for leaks around the rubber gaskets under the cable tube flange. silicone seal around them if necessary. i see a ton of leaks there as well as the pins. a bare pin in the hole will still leak. the factory used caulk on the pin prior to assembly.

My car started dripping through the roofliner at right end of zipper after car washes earlier this year, just dried it on the spot so (SoCal) minor hassle, however winter rain driving for first time this year, my rear passenger carpet wet - same dripping from headliner. Darn, had to fix it now... and luckily this thread popped up first try.

I gently poured 1/2 pint of water into each channel with sun roof open and determined the right side rear drain tube was blocked, and as John suggested is common, BOTH cable tube flanges were leaking, although left side barely.

Cleaned out right rear tube using weed whacker line (only small stuff to hand) then opened it up more with all-plastic bicycle cable sleeving, "version 2" with end cut like a hypo with "sharp" part rounded slightly - theory was when it hit the the upper hose to hard pipe connection (rear of sunroof drainage channel) if you twirled it with very gentle pressure, the shape would allow it to walk over the metal tube end inside the rubber hose... rather than repeatedly shoving it hard and risk puncturing rubber hose. Seemed to work as planned. Blockage was a dried dust plug in roof part, it would seem. Left side clean as a whistle...

Seemed like it was easier to run line/tube in all the way past the tubes and hose with sunroof closed, then once a bunch is fed in, opening sun roof lets you get to the end for a bit of back and forth agitation - or just reassurance.

Both rubber gaskets John referred to above were shot and leaking. With the sunroof fully closed, motor and gearbox removed; the guide tube assembly slips right out if you get both guide tube ends clear of the holes so a little of the cable is exposed each end, then sneak the left side out of the opening first, then you can release the right side. I wrapped paper towels around the cables where they exited past the zipper to keep the grease off the headliner, made two new rubber seals (rubber washers) and added a generous blob of silicone seal as well, tightened them down and also put a bead of silicone around the guide pins (mine are white) for good measure.

The "pour test" showed no leaks this time - will try car wash this week and see if all is well (and it may rain here Friday).

I replaced a track years ago, and while removing the sunroof isn't hard, this thread saved me from that. Thanks everyone!