Sunroof Woes

TIGGER · Feb 24, 2025

Hey guys, I have not been on here much lately. Just been driving my junk and lurking every once in a while. So the sunroof on my 89 has been leaking for probably a year now. It started to leak every once in a while but last fall it has been constant. It only leaks in my driveway and only when I back in( my driveway is sloped) It leaks on the passenger side. Water is coming up underneath the seal. I can see it. I blew the drains out and nothing is plugged. I then thought the tube was kinked because the dome light wire runs right by it. No that was not the issue.

So my question is if the body gasket needs sealer on the pinch weld channel thing? Or is it leaking because there is no headliner material on the pinch weld currently. Or does the glass need adjusted? Glass seems to sit flush height wise. The reason I ask is once the weather is nice, I want to put my headliner in. At the end of the summer I stopped by SMS fabrics and ordered some headliner material. Nice weather got away from me before I was able to glue it down and install it. Now I am glad it did or it would probably be soaked. I have a new body seal, I think it is a dennis carpenter from years ago. Seal currently on the car is not OEM either. The friend I got the car from changed it years ago when it was leaking thru the yellow plastic retainer things that poke thru the body.

I want to stop the leak so I know it is watertight before I put the headliner in. The headliner material was not cheap. Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated. Thanks

TIGGER · Feb 24, 2025

Here are some pics. You can see the drip.

TIGGER · Feb 24, 2025

My driveway

Shakerhood · Feb 24, 2025

Are the drain tubes clear? You can try blowing compressed air but dont use high pressure.

Noobz347 · Feb 24, 2025

What he said.

In your image, the water does not appear to be coming from over the seal, it looks like it's coming from under it.

Check the drains first before anything.

Noobz347 · Feb 24, 2025

Oh... and they are probably pretty fragile so, no poking coat hangers and such down there.

High pressure air = "poof" lines dismantled

KRUISR · Feb 24, 2025

To see if each drain line is clear, remove the sunroof and pour some water into the channel by each drain hole/tube and it should drain away pretty quickly. If not, work on the line until it does.

85GTStangGuy · Feb 24, 2025

From his original post...

TIGGER said:
.... I blew the drains out and nothing is plugged. I then thought the tube was kinked because the dome line wire runs right by it. No that was not the issue.

Noobz347 · Feb 25, 2025

85GTStangGuy said:
From his original post...

The trouble is though, that the seal is doing it's job. It not designed to seal from the rain channel, it's designed to seal to the glass... That is all.

Mustang5L5 · Feb 25, 2025

Something seems off about this seal. The ribbing and the ripples. Doesn't look like mine at all and i'm running the same DC repro seal.

General karthief · Feb 25, 2025

I used a thin layer of RTV to the body to glass seal, watch how much the glass compresses the gasket when you latch it down. Does it squeeze the gasket some ?

TIGGER · Feb 25, 2025

Noobz347 said:
What he said.

In your image, the water does not appear to be coming from over the seal, it looks like it's coming from under it.

Check the drains first before anything.

That is correct, it is coming from under the seal which is why I asked if sealant is needed under there. Not sure what the factory did because I did not remove the headliner nor replace the original gasket.

KRUISR said:
To see if each drain line is clear, remove the sunroof and pour some water into the channel by each drain hole/tube and it should drain away pretty quickly. If not, work on the line until it does.

I have not tried that but I will. We are supposed to have some dry weather later this week.

Mustang5L5 said:
Something seems off about this seal. The ribbing and the ripples. Doesn't look like mine at all and i'm running the same DC repro seal.

Honestly, I do not know what brand seal this is. I am pretty sure it came from LMR though 15+ years ago. My friend changed it when the sunroof first started leaking but that leak was from the yellow plastic retainers.

I have a new seal but was waiting to install it when I did the headliner. I am pretty sure the new one is a DC but I have not laid eyes on it in a while. Maybe I should just change it when I check the flow of the drains and see what happens?

General karthief said:
I used a thin layer of RTV to the body to glass seal, watch how much the glass compresses the gasket when you latch it down. Does it squeeze the gasket some ?

Gasket does compress. I know the sunroof flex's/moves some while driving, like on bumps. And I want to say I hear air/wind thru it when I am on the freeway but it is hard for me to tell for sure because the drivers window channel is wasted so I hear wind all the time. The window channel is another thing I wanted to do last year before the weather changed on me.

Thanks for all the ideas. I appreciate it

Mustang5L5 · Feb 25, 2025

I need to go look at mine now. Like i said something looks off, but i haven't looked at my sunroof since last summer.

KRUISR · Feb 25, 2025

Mustang5L5 said:
I need to go look at mine now. Like i said something looks off, but i haven't looked at my sunroof since last summer.

Agreed. The skirt part of the seal looks wrong - way too long. If I recall the seal is very similar to the hatch seal that surrounds the door opening.

Mustang5L5 · Feb 25, 2025

Here’s how my seal looks. Aftermarket, so doesn’t sit perfect on the glass, but it grabs the headliner/roof pretty well. Pretty sure this is the daniel carpenter brand seal

It's a lot more "finished" looking where it grabs the metal lip/headliner. Has a rounded edge. Compare to the pics in the original post.

TIGGER · Feb 26, 2025

Mustang5L5 said:
Here’s how my seal looks. Aftermarket, so doesn’t sit perfect on the glass, but it grabs the headliner/roof pretty well. Pretty sure this is the daniel carpenter brand seal

It's a lot more "finished" looking where it grabs the metal lip/headliner. Has a rounded edge. Compare to the pics in the original post.

Apparently the spare seal I have is a fairchild. I am not sure if I bought it or if it came with the car. I am thinking it came with the car as Jeff had the whole weatherstripping kit but never installed it.

Thank you for posting the picture I think I figured out why it looks different to you. It was installed backwards or inside out. What you were seeing on the inside of my car was supposed to go outside in the channel. This may be why it was leaking. I flipped it around and this is how it looks in the channel now.

TIGGER · Feb 26, 2025

I also checked the drains before I washed it. Both fronts seem to flow evenly. We are going to have a few days of dry weather hence why I washed it today so we will see what happens when it rains next...

KRUISR · Feb 27, 2025

How about the rear drains? If I remember right the tube goes down through the quarter panel reinforcement and drains at the rear of the rocker.

General karthief · Feb 27, 2025

I had so much fun with the front drains I forgot about the rear drains
Told that story in my thread

TIGGER · Feb 27, 2025

KRUISR said:
How about the rear drains? If I remember right the tube goes down through the quarter panel reinforcement and drains at the rear of the rocker.

I blew them out the same time I did the fronts but I didn't flow check them yesterday because I would have had to flip the car around in my driveway to test. Anyway, to date, the sunroof has never leaked when I park the car nose first in my driveway. It just leaks when I back it in. Hopefully flipping the gasket around has solved that.

Sunroof Woes

TIGGER

TIGGER

TIGGER

Shakerhood

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

KRUISR

85GTStangGuy

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Mustang5L5

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

General karthief

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

TIGGER

Mustang5L5

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

KRUISR

Mustang5L5

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

TIGGER

TIGGER

KRUISR

General karthief

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

TIGGER

Similar threads

Sunroof Woes

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency