Aquaholic247
New member
Need some help from my 4th gen family. Have had a leak somewhere from the rain into my 2004 sport for years. Water saturates the driver side rear floorboard every time I get a significant rain. A little background that where the vehicle is parked, it has a little bit of a tilt up on the passenger side and up towards the hood so the low point is driver side rear bumper. Wasn't a big deal over the past few years as it would rain and then I would let it air out but this year is the wettest first 6 months of a year in Tennessee in 50 years so has just remained saturated and is causing mold throughout the whole vehicle at this point. Distant history of there being some sort of water that was leaking down the B pillar maybe seven or eight years ago in small quantities and had a plug that was in there for the amp that had gotten wet that had to be flipped to keep the plug from corroding. Didn't think much of it. Years later noticed damp wet rear floor board.
I don't think the rack was moved but somebody at one point was chasing down a chatter around the roof and found that the trim strip in the linear channel down the roof under the rack was flapping in the wind so ended up tacking down the trim piece but unsure if the rack was ever loosened. Not sure if the wet floor board was happening before this.
Has gotten way worse. Fed trimmer lines down the sun roof drains and seem to run clear. Still getting wet. Only seem to be on the floorboard and never really seem to be a damp headliner. And this moisture is noted when the vehicle is parked in the rain. Not a function of getting wet while driving.
Took it to my local mechanic I trust and they went searching and after many hours of it under the hose couldn't necessarily get it to leak. They blew out the sunroof drains and said they were getting flow through the drains without issues but were not able to reproduce the wet floorboard specifically. They also used a pressure washer on all the door seals to see if they would leak and they did not.
Took it back from them and then took it to Toyota who had it for multiple weeks. They just got back to me and said that they believe the seal around the sunroof is letting in " more than we expect " But that the sunroof drains were flowing well. States they cannot visualize any water specifically traveling from that area to the floorboard but they state this is their " starting point". Asked them to describe if they figured out how the water was flowing from that area down to the back floorboards. The service advisor and techs say they can't understand necessarily why the headliner is dry but the floorboards are getting wet but stated they want to do this to start. Want to charge me $1,800 as a test to see if they can seal it up as they have to put in the whole sunroof assembly and can't just replace the seal. Service advisor basically said that this was a first step in the process but can't guarantee that this will fix it and if I spend the money I'm just out $$$ if the thing is still leaking after they do this part. Not too keen on spending $1,800 on a " possible " fix. But I need this thing to dry out
Anyone else have any insight? Contemplating just using 3M window weld and caulking the sunroof for a few months and seeing if this stops the problem and then later deciding if I just abandon the sunroof or if this seems to fix the issue then maybe the seal is the problem. Have used the sunroof maybe a dozen times in the 14 years I've owned it so don't really care if I have to abandon it. But if I can come up with an actual fix and not have to be recaulking the roof every couple years that would be preferred
Sorry for the long post But wanted to give as much information as possible to try to gain some specific insight as to things I could test / try to get a permanent fix on this situation or if the $1,800 solution from Toyota is the way to fix it.
Thanks in advance
Warren
I don't think the rack was moved but somebody at one point was chasing down a chatter around the roof and found that the trim strip in the linear channel down the roof under the rack was flapping in the wind so ended up tacking down the trim piece but unsure if the rack was ever loosened. Not sure if the wet floor board was happening before this.
Has gotten way worse. Fed trimmer lines down the sun roof drains and seem to run clear. Still getting wet. Only seem to be on the floorboard and never really seem to be a damp headliner. And this moisture is noted when the vehicle is parked in the rain. Not a function of getting wet while driving.
Took it to my local mechanic I trust and they went searching and after many hours of it under the hose couldn't necessarily get it to leak. They blew out the sunroof drains and said they were getting flow through the drains without issues but were not able to reproduce the wet floorboard specifically. They also used a pressure washer on all the door seals to see if they would leak and they did not.
Took it back from them and then took it to Toyota who had it for multiple weeks. They just got back to me and said that they believe the seal around the sunroof is letting in " more than we expect " But that the sunroof drains were flowing well. States they cannot visualize any water specifically traveling from that area to the floorboard but they state this is their " starting point". Asked them to describe if they figured out how the water was flowing from that area down to the back floorboards. The service advisor and techs say they can't understand necessarily why the headliner is dry but the floorboards are getting wet but stated they want to do this to start. Want to charge me $1,800 as a test to see if they can seal it up as they have to put in the whole sunroof assembly and can't just replace the seal. Service advisor basically said that this was a first step in the process but can't guarantee that this will fix it and if I spend the money I'm just out $$$ if the thing is still leaking after they do this part. Not too keen on spending $1,800 on a " possible " fix. But I need this thing to dry out
Anyone else have any insight? Contemplating just using 3M window weld and caulking the sunroof for a few months and seeing if this stops the problem and then later deciding if I just abandon the sunroof or if this seems to fix the issue then maybe the seal is the problem. Have used the sunroof maybe a dozen times in the 14 years I've owned it so don't really care if I have to abandon it. But if I can come up with an actual fix and not have to be recaulking the roof every couple years that would be preferred
Sorry for the long post But wanted to give as much information as possible to try to gain some specific insight as to things I could test / try to get a permanent fix on this situation or if the $1,800 solution from Toyota is the way to fix it.
Thanks in advance
Warren
