CL leaking window/roof

mpwnbr

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A good source of knowledge and advice, I'm hoping you fellow forum members might be able to help me out again.

When I bought my CL 12 months ago, there was a green mark on the suede roof lining. This is driver side over the right shoulder of the rear passenger seat, where the roof slopes down towards the rear window. Anyway I cleaned it and thought nothing more of it.

Long story short, with the heavy rain we've had of late, when I've got into he car of a morning I've noticed a not too pleasant smell in the car, which I've now traced to be coming from the area mentioned above, which is soaked with water, clearly coming from a leak either from the roof or the window. Obviously as water can't flow upwards I don't believe the water ingress can come the rear passenger side window, instead is either from a broken seal of gasket at the rear windscreen, or could it be from the sort of groove in the roof that runs along the length of the roof.

Has anyone experienced this before? What was the issue? How was it resolved? Does anyone know if it's easy to take the lining off this part of the car to investigate? I'm concerned if this continues the water could get into electrics causing all manner of problems, and of course be causing rust wherever the water finds itself through gravity.

As ever your help is appreciated.
 

Flyinspanner

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Could it be a blocked drain line from the sunroof?

Is there any damp/smell in the boot, if it's flowing down through that pillar, I imagine that will be the next place it appears?

If it's screen seal, cheaper than replacing is a liquid sealer "seek & seal" which I used on my Scimitar SE5a windscreen to good effect (many moons ago) - leaks were common issue on them.
 
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mpwnbr

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Could it be a blocked drain line from the sunroof?

Is there any damp/smell in the boot, if it's flowing down through that pillar, I imagine that will be the next place it appears?

If it's screen seal, cheaper than replacing is a liquid sealer "seek & seal" which I used on my Scimitar SE5a windscreen to good effect (many moons ago) - leaks were common issue on them.

Blocked drain line? I haven't got a clue. I'll google to see what it is and where it is. The boot is dry, no water at all, and no damp either, which is good because the battery is back there (I think).

I like the sound of the liquid sealer. I'll search for that too. I'm hoping for a dry day tomorrow, try to take the pillar lining off and hose the car to see if I can trace where the ingress is from. In the meantime it continues to rain outside and I know the inside of my car is getting wetter and wetter!
 

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From what I can see on an epc, the drain appears to be in the front near side corner of the sunroof.
It may be worth sliding the roof back, ( have some towels over the seats just in case!) and see if there is standing water in the roof, if yes, your drain is most likely the culprit.

Clear any dirt or debris which may be in the sunroof rails etc.

Maybe a long thin plastic 'rod' of some type could be carefully fed down to clear it?
Or compressed air?

If it looks clear, maybe pour a little water in to see if it runs out the bottom.

Hopefully someone with better info than me pops along with an answer, as these are just 'best guess' ideas before you have to start taking out interior trim :)
 
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television

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We used to get 4 drains on the sun roofs, if it does not rain in the morning I can check mine.
 

television

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I have read the info in WIS and it looks to have a drainpipe on all 4 corners, so looking like they could be blocked.
 

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I had a similar problem except the water was around the top of the driver's 'A' pillar and nearby headlining. It was cased by a faulty sunroof drain. I can't remember for sure but I think there's a drain in each corner; there's certainly one on each front corner.

As others have said, the drains can block but another problem is that the metal corrodes where the rubber drain hose connects to the corner of the sunroof frame. This allows water into the headlining. Correcting this is a fairly big job.

Looking at the exterior sunroof seal on mine it was obvious that it wasn't as flexible/effective as it should be after years of weathering. My simple solution was to make the sunroof more watertight by inserting a length of 3mm diameter neoprene sponge cord (from eBay) between the existing sunroof seal and the car roof while the sunroof was open. See before and after pics. At first the sunroof was a very tight fit against the seal and had to be helped closed by a gentle push (otherwise the safety cut-out operated). I left it closed for a couple of weeks until it all settled into it's new size/shape. The sunroof then operated perfectly.

After 2 years it's proved 100% effective. I reckon you'd have to be a real car geek to know that it wasn't part of the original design. Total cost of fix was £6.75 plus 10 mins of my time.
_
 

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mpwnbr

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Thanks for your assistance guys.

I did a hose test on the car, aiming it at high pressure to the windows and over the roof in the vicinity of the leak, and there was no apparent problems. Having said that I'd need the whole thing to dry out first to be able to test properly. Form this test though it seemed a fair get there was no issues with the window seals.

I did a bit of research on drain lines last night, so set about investigating those on my car earlier today. I found two at the front of the sunroof, there was a bit of water there so wiped it down then poured more in to see if it drained. Both holes drained quite freely I'd say, although the one on the driver side was a little slower. These drained to the from of the car. I didn't know there would be four drain lines, so if that's the case then I'm therefore hoping/thinking the issue could be the rear drain line on the driver side; whether it be blocked or become disconnected. I'd assume that these drain lines at the rear of the sunroof will drain out towards the rear wheel arches, in the same way as the front ones?

Darkness has fallen, so I'll take a look at that tomorrow. It might seem a silly question, but surely the seals on the sunroof should be sufficient to stop water ingress? Or is this usual on a roof seal?

Thanks again guys, anything further you may have to offer would be welcome. And I might try the additional seal as suggested by Lexman8.
 

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I cannot be sure on 4 drain pipes but there usually are, I did look at the drawing in WIS and it appears to have 4, but again I am not 100%
 
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mpwnbr

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I cannot be sure on 4 drain pipes but there usually are, I did look at the drawing in WIS and it appears to have 4, but again I am not 100%

I just had a quick look, armed with a torch, and if there are two rear drain pipes from the sunroof housing then they're not visible or accessible. Damn I don't want to have to take apart that suede lining! :(
 

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Shall I print off the instruction, and you take a look.
 

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Please PM me your Email address, I will send ASAP
 

Lexman8

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surely the seals on the sunroof should be sufficient to stop water ingress? Or is this usual on a roof seal?
With a new car the seals are probably close to 100% effective but as the seals age through weathering (the UV in sunlight causes rubber and plastic to become less flexible) it's likely that some water will get through the seals thus the need for drains.

I'll try having a look at my sunroof later to see if there are rear drains.

If no rear drains, is the car parked facing uphill? This might cause the water to overflow into the headlining from the rear of the frame.
 

Craiglxviii

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My Mk.IV Golf had this exact same issue. Again 4 drain holes and 3 were blocked. I was quoted some shocking figure for a replacement sunroof cassette... ended up taking it to a bloke in Redcar who was a back-street sunroof specialist. He cleared them all out with what turned out to be a 5 foot long piece of bicycle brake cable (Bowden line). It was amazing the amount of gunk that came out.

The reason for the drain holes is something to do with the fact that they can't get the sunroof glass to seal effectively at the edges, as the seal both slides and twists. Something like that anyway.
 
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mpwnbr

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With a new car the seals are probably close to 100% effective but as the seals age through weathering (the UV in sunlight causes rubber and plastic to become less flexible) it's likely that some water will get through the seals thus the need for drains.

I'll try having a look at my sunroof later to see if there are rear drains.

If no rear drains, is the car parked facing uphill? This might cause the water to overflow into the headlining from the rear of the frame.

That would be great if you take a look at your CL Lexman8. I'm pretty sure there aren't any rear drains, or rather, if there are then they're not easily visible.
 
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mpwnbr

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My Mk.IV Golf had this exact same issue. Again 4 drain holes and 3 were blocked. I was quoted some shocking figure for a replacement sunroof cassette... ended up taking it to a bloke in Redcar who was a back-street sunroof specialist. He cleared them all out with what turned out to be a 5 foot long piece of bicycle brake cable (Bowden line). It was amazing the amount of gunk that came out.

The reason for the drain holes is something to do with the fact that they can't get the sunroof glass to seal effectively at the edges, as the seal both slides and twists. Something like that anyway.

And that's my fear; that if I take the car to Mercedes or an Independent Mercedes they're going to charge me a fortune to have this remedied. I like the sounds of the brake cable job, albeit while I cant see any rear drains I remain in a fix.

I'll try to source a sunroof specialist in the area........this is assuming the issue is the roof drains, and it's not something else?!
 

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I can't see any obvious drains at the rear but as the sunroof only goes so far back I can't say for certain if there are any there.

However, looking at the overall design of the frame, there is no slope built into the frame to channel water towards the front drains. Therefore if the car was parked facing uphill I reckon water would deffo flow to the rear. This makes me think that there should be drains at the rear. Whether there are any is another matter. But even if there are rear drains it looks impossible to clear them from above.

Given the way water appears in unlikely places sometimes, I'd definitely try clearing the front drains anyway. A length of curtain rod might be flexible enough but cover the end so as not to leave any sharp metal exposed that might damage the rubber hose.
 

Craiglxviii

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There's a thread on mbworld.org talking about this exact same subject, the chap there could only find drain holes at the front too.

Can the tubes be traced down to their exit point (i.e. do they actually protrude out of the bottom of the car?) if so you could try connecting an air line "in reverse" with the sunroof open and seeing what happens.

Russian website EPC doesn't have a working exploded diagram of the sunroof assy unfortunately, but that could just be my crummy works laptop.

Sorry I can't be of more help.
 


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