Discovery - How to repair a leaking sunroof guide

The Mad Hat Man said:

This is not the place to ask q's. yu need to ask in the Disco section. This is the place for FAQs.

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islandsteamer said:

Being new to this game, can someone tell me which is the 'A' pillar and what other pillars there are, and do both front and rear drains go the same route. and from outside the sun roof were are the drains!!! Can they be seen from out side.

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You need to use the thread you have posted in the Disco II section for your answers

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f8/leaking-sun-roofs-218860.html#post2461582

Have recently done this job on my 1998 disco. Had expected it to be a nightmare (especially as the Haynes manual say leave removal of the head-liner to the experts) but it actually turned out to be quite easy; it just takes time as there are lots of screws to undo.

I found there was no need to move the trim on the B-pillers; the headliner just sits on the top of these and will lift off them. The little plastic flaps covering the screwheads on the sunvisor fastenings will break off - I saved them and will just araldite them or similar. The flaps on the grab-handles are more robust and can be opened without breaking with a screwdriver.

I found a roll of sandwich bags useful; I dropped each component or it's screws into a bag and tied the top. That way when I came to put it all back together I knew which screws were which and they were all there.

Lots of torx 20 screws involved - there are 14 on each sunroof tray. A proper Torx screwdriver would help a lot with these. (I just had a torx bit in a socket which wasn't as easy or fast to use.)

Rear door is not quite wide enough to get the headliner out without having to bend it slightly. Care and an extra pair of (clean) hands help. I could find no product that I could use to clean the headliner - it's very delicate - so resorted to giving it a very gentle hoovering. Eventually I'll bite the bullet and paint it (various good threads on the forum about this).

Edit on 14.05.2013... I would like to meet and firmly kick in the bollocks the ars*hole who designed these f*cking useless sunroofs. They have designed something even more hellish than the ford focus dual mass flywheel and the electronic handbrake on the volkswagon passat.

Having 'fixed' my leaks I pulled out of the station car park this evening and several pints of water poured into the boot. It has to be the rear sunroof. I know there is no way on god's earth that the water is getting in between the plastic of the sunroof and the metal of the real roof. I know the plastic drain pipes from the sunroof tray are clear and attached to the tray, although I am not convinced any water sitting in the tray would naturally run towards these drain tubes.

I have replaced and vaselined the rubber seals between the glass and the plastic.

The only possibility is that the water is getting between the glass and the rubber seal. Anyone know how to adjust the glass to plastic interface (tighten it up) so that when the winding handle is in the closed position the glass is clamped tighter down on the rubber of the seal? (Please don't tell me I have to take that headlining out again and remove all my new sealant, as that will make me even unhappier than I am now!)

Wet and unhappy in Cardiff.

M

Drumnagorrach said:

Got to agree, Just spent the afternoon taking my rear sunroof out and resealing it WHAT A PILE OF CRAP never seen such a cheap nasty bit of kit.
What were Leyland thinking when they bought those sunroofs,no wonder they leak. While I'm at it ( ranting that is )Whats wrong with using primer under the boot floor paint,so that at least it would have a bit of a chance against the water leaking in through the roof. Not as if Disco's were that cheap when they were new.:doh:

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As a link to this, I met a guy last weekend at a Fiesta who was over for a holiday..Got around to talking about Disco problems.
Turns out that years ago he was invited to tender for sunroofs by Landrover and submit a design and cost etc. He did this but the tender/ design was rejected by Landrover. His feedback was it was down to cost !!

I have water coming in but only when pointed downhill, windscreen seal seems ok, it shows itself along the headlining above the screen either side of the centre light switch, any ideas???

wyrmat1 said:

I have water coming in but only when pointed downhill, windscreen seal seems ok, it shows itself along the headlining above the screen either side of the centre light switch, any ideas???

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Yeah - your sunroofs are leaking, classic symptoms.
Headlining out roofs out and get the mastic on them.

water pours in over drivers door arter raining at night only if I park with the rear wheels on slope any ideas

Don't park with the rear wheels on slope.

water pours in over drivers door arter raining at night only if I park with the rear wheels on slope any ideas

Yes

Don't post in a FAQ

Hi anyone fancy doing this for me for £?. I'm in Sevenoaks in Kent. Thanks.

Done this job today, main seal between sunroof and the roof had failed causing water to run in the tray underneath also the sealant around the plastic block connections for the drain pipes had failed.

Used black sikaflex 221 sealant of ebay for a total of £10.

Probably took me about 6 hours in total, well worth it for £10. left the roof lining off while I decide what to do with it, replace, retrim or paint?

dianehalsall said:

I know a great company that sells spam

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3 posts and at least two are to do with an excellent sunroof repair company. The cynical amongst us might think you work for them!!

dianehalsall said:

I know a great company that sells spam, hope this helped, x

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Geesh, have you seen the cost?

£450!

biggeeeee said:

3 posts and at least two are to do with an excellent sunroof repair company. The cynical amongst us might think you work for them!!

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well I don't! that is very cynical, people just cant do a good thing these days x

First post from me but have been lurking for a while, I've got a D2 on an 04 and have been suffering the leaking sunroof for a year or more but being lazy have found it easier to have towels to hand rather than fix it. If I park facing up hill it pours out of the seatbelt slot when I go round the first left hander and if I park facing down there's a puddle on the dashboard below the sunroof switch panel

A quick search on here bought up many threads on how to sort it but before I bite the bullet can I just run a couple of things passed you. I'm going to have to do this at some point this winter as the dogs are fed up with sitting in a puddle in the boot, so as I can't afford to have the roofs out for more hours than necessary I want to start prepared! Tools required, anything special or just a T20 Torx and flate blade for prising off covers and undoing screws? What would be worth buying before I start, I see Sikaflex 221 has been recommended by myjosef14, is that because of its intended use or because it's black, don't think it will be visible when used? Any seals or tubes to buy before I start, worth having the length of net curtain spring to hand for the pipes? I'd rather spend a few quid and not use something than have to worry about not having sunroof in for a few days with rain forecast. I can nick the curtain rod from the bedroom whiles she's out shopping

This weekend is to be spent replacing the air springs,another money saver thanks to the good people on this forum

You should really pop over to the "introduce Yourself section first" otherwise you may be ignored,

Not the best time of year to be doing this really When I did mine in the summer I stripped cleaned and re silicone everything. although it cured 90% of the leaks I still has a small gap between the rubber seal and the glass and had to buy both seals.

I would strip out headlining and test with water whilst checking for leaks with a torch so you know where the ingress is

Good Luck.

ps :welcome2:

I managed to get one of the sunroofs done today before it started raining again even though the forecast was dry all day Got everything out and blowing down the drain pipes showed they were clear but it sounded like they stop somewhere about half way down the A pillar?

What was once a seal on the roof looked like nothing more than a soggy rotten mess of draught excluder, scraped the old stuff off from the frame and roof, cleaned everything and replaced it with a line of Tigerseal under the outer frame. The rubber seal under the glass had a bit of green growth on it so I pulled that off and cleaned it all. Was this originally stuck down into the locating channel or is mine starting to perish, the rubber feels OK but a thin line of something was falling off the bottom of it. It'll be easy enough to see if it lets water round it anyway and I ran a line of vaseline along the top of it before dropping the glass back in.

One down, one to go!

Had a go at mine today, think it went well time will tell. No one warns you though about that feeling when you've spent 3 hours working on a sunroof, have stripped away half the trim, pulled it apart, re-sealed everything, unblocked the tubes, put it all back together... then, and only then, you realise you've put the winding mechanism back in the wrong way round...

Passenger Compartment Water Ingress - Land Rover LR3 (LA) VIN: 5A000360 and up

I,ve had a leaky sunroof on my disco 1 for about 18months,i,ve tried new seals(2), sealant etc and still leaking as bad as ever!! So i had a brainstorm,i went on e.bay and bought a 3metre roll of fridge magnet material (sticky on 1 side),you,ll find this is pretty well just enough to do the job,mitre the corners so they fit snugly then place on the roof of your disco/car around the sunroof (fit as precise as possible around the sunroof) finally cut a sheet of polythene to the same size a carefully place onto the magnetic strip and trim to size. The beauty of this method is you can remove it in better weather and drop it back on when required. This is,nt the prettiest of methods but it does work,i,ve pulled my hair out trying to sort this problem and tried everything even, removing the head lining and resealing everything in sight.GOOD LUCK and HAPPY NEW YEAR. MAL.