O3 Legacy Wag. Sunroof Leak?

Hi, Drain plugged up?

Dealer says no and they cleaned them out anyway, but that would be my guess. Am I correct in assuming there must be some kind of tubing or drain system run down the body panels to discharge outside? With the sunroofs open I can see no openings where the water would go.

Wayne

I had the same issue on my '00 OBW and found the rear drains were clogged. The roof has four (or six) drain holes and tubes that allow the water to exit out from behind the front mudflaps and rear quarter panels. My drain blockage was both front tubes and one in the rear. For the the rear, which is where your problem, is I had to remove the gas cap and fill neck mount to allow me to get inside the right-rear quarter panel where the drian tubes fit to the drian hole. It was filled with 5-years worth of mud, gunk and some nice-smelling sludge.

A simple test is to park the car on an incline, open the rear roof and pour water into the drain channels. If the drains are not clogged, you would see the water drain out from both rear corners of the vehicle. Also, on level ground the water should drain from these two points but also from behind the front mud flaps

Thanks John,

Helpful information. I will give it a try.

Wayne

A#1 advice John,

I did the water thing and 3 of the 4 drains flowed. All but the one by the gas cap on the right passenger rear. So I pulled it all apart, gas cap, inside panel, etc and low and behold as soon as I yanked on the drain line it let go. My guess is it was kinked as the drain manifold it goes into with another hose was OK. It is just held in place by a chunk of foam that is wrapped around it. Imagine that!

Bottom line, it flows!

Thanks,

I would be tempted to go back to the dealer and demand a refund. They didn't fix the problem and pushed you aside. Not acceptable. A non certified person with the help of a newsgroup did what there tech couldent. While water leaks can be difficult to find, sun roofs are the first place we look.

You are quite right. The car was in for it's 70k checkup anyway. I will have to look at the bill and see what they tacked on for this service. I am more PO'ed that they held on to the car an extra day so they could park it and pour water over it until they found the leak. You make a good point. With a little help I found the problem in about

10 minutes. I shudder to think of what they would have charged me to pull the gas cap and interior apart to get to the problem and fix it though; cha ching!$$$$$$$.

What would we do without the internet!

Thanks all,

Wayne

We'd all be dead without the Internet.

:-)

-John O

Hello,

I have an 01 Forester that does the same thing. When it's parked at an incline with the front end facing down, it doesn't leak, but the other way does leak, and in the same place (through the rear seatbelt opening in the ceiling, and down the rear sides sometimes. As far as I can tell, there are only two drains for the sunroof, both of them on the front corners of the sunroof opening. Looking down into the opening when the sunroof is open, you can see the two drain holes. There don't appear to be any in the rear of the sunroof. This may explain how it doesn't leak when pointing down -- the water pools toward the two front drains. But when it rains a lot (or if snow is melting on the roof), I get a lot of water coming into the back of the Forester. It's got to be the seal around the sunroof. I think it's designed to let a little water in and that will drain properly, but now there is probably just too much water and it gets past the drains.

Did you happen to solve your problem? I'd like to find out how to fix my sunroof leak. Thanks!

Bill