I got in the 84SD and the seats were wet after a pretty hard rain storm. Sun roof seals are definitely shot but the side seals are NLA. Shouldn't the drains handle the run off and direct it to the ground and not the seats?



I pulled the panel and cleaned the drains not awfully long ago and am surprised that the issue has returned.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Yes the point of the drains is to keep the inside dry.

There are, however, limits to the system and what it can handle.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Yes, that is the point of them. The seals are mostly to block wind noise. I'd snake the drains out again, front and back and verify with a hose that water is coming out of all the drains.

-Rog

I rodded the drains with a snake bought from HF for the purpose. The unfortunate thing is that the back drivers floor is soaked and the weather is cooler.

I'm getting close to selling to get rid of some projects and because of my 16 yr old son driving insurance rates with 6 cars licensed.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

The rear sunroof drains are more problematic. You must remove the sunroof panel to access them. Not too difficult but still a PIA.

Hoses deteriorate / crack especially where the hose slips onto the metal tube on many sun roofs.

My headliner is out because it formed a water balloon the 1st time I had to learn about the drains. Hoses are good and it was warm yesterday so I flushed them. I was surprised that cleaning again so soon was necessary.

Parking under a tree outdoors?

I think the W126 sunroofs might be a poor design not capable of handling hard rain. My roommate has a 1991 350SDL and he was getting water leaking in from the sunroof. I took it apart expecting to find clogged drains or rust holes, but the drain hoses were clear, there was no rust, and hardly any sediment.

I cleaned the sunroof tray and cleared out the tiny channels under the welded-on brackets upon which the plastic deflector brackets set. During the next rain, the sunroof was still leaking.


It appears the sunroof trays on the W126 are far too shallow, and the path which water has to flow is too narrow for water to drain into the hoses rapidly enough.

Water drips from the very front of the sunroof. When I pour water into the front center of the tray, it overflows over the edge before the water can drain to the area where the hoses are.

All I can suggest is maybe cutting off part of the metal sunroof deflector bracket perches and grinding away at the plastic deflector brackets so the water can drain faster, as Mercedes couldn't get it right on such an expensive car, while previous chassis were adequate. I guess it's another example of newer cars not always being better.

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1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

Re: Fitting sunroof seals


I did this on a W123 by removing (well half removing) the tray - seemed like loads of extra work but when I read how other have struggled trying to fit them it does make me wonder

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

As stated elsewhere in this thread, MB sunroof seals are not intended to be watertight. That is why in the W123 they have four generous drain paths. Don't know for sure about other models.

The seals are in place mainly for wind noise reduction. Anyone who has driven a W123 without those seals will understand.

While the seals aren't intended to be water tight, they do keep most of the water out I would imagine. Perhaps the issue is that the seal has deteriorated to the point of letting in more water than the drains were meant to accommodate?

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2004 F150 4.6L -My Daily
2007 Volvo XC70 -Wife's Daily
1998 Ford F150 -Rear ended
1989 J-spec 420SEL -passed onto its new keeper
1982 BMW 733i -fixed and traded for the 420SEL
2003 Volvo V70 5 Speed -scrapped
1997 E290 Turbo Diesel Wagon -traded for above
1992 BMW 525i -traded in
1990 Silver 300TE -hated the M103
1985 Grey 380SE Diesel Conversion, 2.47 rear end, ABS -Sold, really should have kept this one
1979 Silver 300D "The Silver Slug" -Sold

Interesting! My SD also had water inside of it via the sunroof when we had massive rain dumped on us recently.

Does anyone have good shots of the rear drains?

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

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Pierre Hedary recentle posted a video on how to clean the drains

Good front and rear seals will channel most of the water to the side trays. I don't believe the front and rear trays can be faulted if the seals are bad since they were designed to have good seals above them to greatly reduce the water flow.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic