Sunroof drains clogged, sunroof doesn't work. Silicone?

[thezentree]

Any way to clear the drains without dropping the headliner and pulling the sunroof out?

I don't care about the sunroof enough to spend the money to replace the thing, but I really, really, really would like it to stop raining inside the car. I've set tomorrow aside to tear the interior out, but if I can get away without having to drop the headliner, that would be great.

Also, since the sunroof doesn't work and I won't ever fix it, I am planning on sealing the rubber gasket around the glass to the roof with clear silicone to try to keep water out. Any problems with doing that?

 

[99problems]

Any way to clear the drains without dropping the headliner and pulling the sunroof out?

I don't care about the sunroof enough to spend the money to replace the thing, but I really, really, really would like it to stop raining inside the car. I've set tomorrow aside to tear the interior out, but if I can get away without having to drop the headliner, that would be great.

Also, since the sunroof doesn't work and I won't ever fix it, I am planning on sealing the rubber gasket around the glass to the roof with clear silicone to try to keep water out. Any problems with doing that?

I used some clear liquid nails to seal a portion of the sunroof from the outside plastic into about 1-2" from the blacked out border. That helped, but didn't solve the issue of water entering through the sunroof, so I bough a can of compressed air to blow out the drainage hoses. Clearing the drainage hoses helped a bunch, and I've only had a damp headliner 1 or 2 tmws since then (and only I'm v ry heavy rain when the 4Runner was parked).

 

[3bears]

I used silicone on a Nissan I owned and it worked well,

is there a write up or a video on cleaning the drains and lube/service the sun roof ?

that's a hint to MTBTIM

 

[Badmotorfinger]

I used some 1 inch wide gorilla duct tape, it's waterproof tape, hasn't leaked a drop and it's not permanent.

 

[NoVAphotog]

I used silicone on a Nissan I owned and it worked well,

is there a write up or a video on cleaning the drains and lube/service the sun roof ?

that's a hint to MTBTIM

Speaking of the headliner and [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] a video on how to remove it would be absolutely incredible. Also, on the topic of diy's anyone know what happened to 4runners.org?

 

[mtbtim]

Speaking of the headliner and [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] a video on how to remove it would be absolutely incredible. Also, on the topic of diy's anyone know what happened to 4runners.org?

Sounds like something up [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] (aka Sean) alley because he seems to love tearing apart his interior putting in sound dampening stuff everywhere he can. The dude loves sick mods. The sicker the better and also loves the stickiest of the icky.

 

[NoVAphotog]

Sounds like something up [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] (aka Sean) alley because he seems to love tearing apart his interior putting in sound dampening stuff everywhere he can. The dude loves sick mods. The sicker the better and also loves the stickiest of the icky.

:drummer::surfer::dancin:

 

[averyislost]

I cleared my sunroof drains using some weedeater line. Just fished it through where the drains are. My sunroof also had a little crack in the surround and I fixed that using some windshield sealant (Permatex Flowable Silicone).
- Both fixes where done almost two years ago and I've had no leaks since then!

 

[thezentree]

Thanks for the input guys.

I spent all day on it. Like 9 hours. I took a ton of pics, but I don't have time to upload them and really do a write-up on it tonight. I'll start another thread for the write-up, since there's not really a great one that I've found.

I'm glad I did all this though, because there was a bunch of mold growing the headliner from all the water in it over the years. My sister owned this thing for like 12 years and apparently the sunroof has been leaking for like 11 of them. Man that thing was gross.

As I said in my first post, the sunroof doesn't operate, so I couldn't get to the drains in the sunroof "tray" itself. The tubes were pretty gunked up, so I ran weedeater line down the tubes and then sprayed the hose through them to clean them out. Side note - the drains run into the rocker panels? WTF Toyota? Can't wait to get road salt in there...

Then the sunroof assembly came out, and I cleaned it up as best I could. The mechanism is a giant clump of rust, which explains why it doesn't work, haha.

The headliner itself was a mess, so I bleached the top side (facing the roof skin) to kill the mold and left it in the sun for a few hours. Then I rented a rug doctor and cleaned the upholstered side of it as best I could. It's not brand new, but it looks (and smells) a hell of a lot better. The seats and as much of the carpet as I could get to without pulling seats got cleaned too. The recovery tank in the rug doctor looked like it was full of Guiness.

Putting it all back together, especially the sunroof, is a two man job. I did it by myself but I feel like I got hit by a truck after wrestling that thing all afternoon. I used some clear silicone around the sunroof, but I think I probably need to go back and hit a couple spots.

tl;dr: don't buy a car with a sunroof.

:beer: