87 300TD fixed my sunroof leak!!! Thanks to forum info

[locry]

We had a downpour yesterday... outside and inside the car. Quite embarrassing. hehe... anyway, i thought it was the seal... as I had recently "cut" it so the corners would seat properly. (it had shrunk a little so the corners would tend to unlatch themselves from the body and prevent the sunroof from tilting up) The cut resulted in a 3/4 inch gap along one of the sides.

While this did increase the volume of water seeping through the seal it just didn't make sense to me that rainwater would overflow through to the interior... and yes it was quite a waterfall, water pouring through the entire left side sunroof opening and even through the grab handle.

Turned out it was the front sunroof drain that was partially clogged.

I poured 1.5 liters of water along the channel. Water was draining a bit slowly IMO. So I stuck a wire through there to free it up. Water now gushes out the drain. I tested it by pouring 1.5 liters in around 10 seconds. It drained quite well. I'm pretty sure water that gets past the seal won't amount to that.

Just clean the drains as preventive maintenance. Do it now. front drains are naturally at the corners. the rear ones are harder to access... they exit through the side of the rear bumper.