Sunroof Discovery !

After being " initiated " into the world of Discovery ownership with my first " shower " from a leaking sunroof, I think that I may have found a way to, at least, prevent the water getting past the main roof to glass seal.

( I must add at this point, that I am aware that the leaking sunroof consists of 2 problems. 1, the seal, and 2 the internal drainage system. )

So at best this suggestion is not a cure !.

Thoroughly cleaned the glass and seal.

When winding the roof handle back down is complete, the handle " clicks " into the centre " parked " position. However, if at this point you depress the handles control button, you'll find that the winder can be pushed a bit further to the right, ( closed position ), causing the glass to be pulled a bit tighter onto the seals .

This obviously only applies to manual sunroofs, but mine hasn't leaked since I've done this.

I think my Disco is great.

Del.

I had a badly leaking sunroof in an old Renault Clio, put up with it for weeks. Then I smeared fairy liquid along the rubber seal and it never leaked again. It seams to make the rubber more flexible.My disco is bog standard, no sunroof so one less place for it to leak!

50 pence said:

After being " initiated " into the world of Discovery ownership with my first " shower " from a leaking sunroof, I think that I may have found a way to, at least, prevent the water getting past the main roof to glass seal.

( I must add at this point, that I am aware that the leaking sunroof consists of 2 problems. 1, the seal, and 2 the internal drainage system. )

So at best this suggestion is not a cure !.

Thoroughly cleaned the glass and seal.

When winding the roof handle back down is complete, the handle " clicks " into the centre " parked " position. However, if at this point you depress the handles control button, you'll find that the winder can be pushed a bit further to the right, ( closed position ), causing the glass to be pulled a bit tighter onto the seals .

This obviously only applies to manual sunroofs, but mine hasn't leaked since I've done this.

I think my Disco is great.

Del.

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Our sunroof leaks like a sieve 'tip one' don't use the sunroof and stick insulating tape around the glass surround. 'tip two' never buy a disco with a sunroof - get one with air-con. H

The Blonde said:

Our sunroof leaks like a sieve 'tip one' don't use the sunroof and stick insulating tape around the glass surround. 'tip two' never buy a disco with a sunroof - get one with air-con. H

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Sticky tape!! where's yer spurs Roy.

Fook air con it costs a fortune to fix and yev got windows.

I thought you had a freelander, totally confused, so I am.

Also I take it the head gasket was oil in the wiring loom of the td5, my merc did this and it was fed from the timing sensor on the front of the engine, which had to be modified to stop it doing it with a new loom.

I am worried, seriously worried! My '94 300 has two sunroofs, both open as they should and neither leaks! Can this be the only Disco with watertight sunroofs? I don't want to be different from other Disco owners, so what should I do to get my sunroofs to leak?

Disco Blue said:

so what should I do to get my sunroofs to leak?

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Swap em with mine !!!.

Disco Blue said:

I am worried, seriously worried! My '94 300 has two sunroofs, both open as they should and neither leaks! Can this be the only Disco with watertight sunroofs? I don't want to be different from other Disco owners, so what should I do to get my sunroofs to leak?

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I take it you lifted the carpets in the rear area and it was dry underneath, coz from what I have seen there aint any, coz they pish in water from the roof area until the floor falls out.

A 94 reg, probably find the floors fairly rusted if not holed.

I've just done the sunroofs on my 2003 TD5, all the usual symptoms that many recall here.

My observation is that in my case the problem was definately the seal between the plastic frame and the metal of the roof. Nothing to do with the rubber seal that sits in that frame to seal against the the glass. The downpipes weren't blocked; only very slight leakage where the plastic moldings are 'glued' to the tin drip tray (that must have been a Friday afternoon idea surely?!), but not the kind of amount of water that meant a pint on my shoulder (or the wife's) out of the seatbelt trim, or a built in shower for the dog when in the back.

For me the water ingress through that pathetic spongy seal on the plastic frame was definitely the issue after a couple of weeks observation with the headliner out. As far as I can tell the tin 'drip tray' is designed to handle only tiny amounts of water, such as you might get if you briefly opened the roof when it was raining etc. I've based this observation on the fact that, 1) the drain rate from the tubes is very slow, it doesn't drain any quantity of water quickly. 2) if you're parked even slightly facing backwards downhill the drip tray will fill and overflow at the back before the water can get anywhere near the drain tubes at the front.

So my experience suggests that the main issue is to concentrate on the ingress between the vehicle top and the frame. I think I'm right in saying that the seal attached to the black plastic is not available as a part, and even is it was I wouldn't give you tuppence for it. The Dealer 'solution' to this is to offer you a new frame at £300 - ha, I don't think so. Following the advice of others I bought 2 tubes of SikaFlex 291 (dunno if that's the best one, but it looked OK - time will tell. I think one tube will probably do both sunroofs actually). I scraped off the old seal from the frame, cleaned both frame and vehicle top scrupulously and put a continuous bead all way round the frame. What size bead I hear you ask? Want to make it big enough so it gets nicely 'squished' when pulled down, but not so big that you have oodles to clear up after. On the 1st one I did I put a beading about 6-7mm all way round and it was about right, except i didn't get much squish out at the front edge (slightly wider). So on the second one I made the bead slightly larger at the front edge of the frame. (This is according to many where the water gets in).


BIG (industrial) Wipes (I'd never heard of before) were good for clearing up the mess. Caulked up the seals between the plastic drain corners where they meet the metal with a little more SikFlex. Dunno how long this repair will last. Guess next time I might not bother to strip it all out. Just mastic round the frame!

Obviously it's not easy making sunroofs, they are the latest in high tec vehicle manufacturing aren't they? Oh no - wrong, just remembered, my dad had a nice tilt and slide one on his Granada in the mid 70s that never leaked. hmmm.

revmarkp said:

Obviously it's not easy making sunroofs, they are the latest in high tec vehicle manufacturing aren't they? Oh no - wrong, just remembered, my dad had a nice tilt and slide one on his Granada in the mid 70s that never leaked. hmmm.

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Snap 5 fords with Sunroof - Never leaked

Jaguar Sunroof - Leaked
Disco 2 Sunroof - Leaked

Now if we lived in a Ultra dry climate I could understand that British car designers would have problems knowing how to design a Non Leaking Sunroof!

Also not helped by them being built by monkeys with a "That will do" attitude

No wonder UK manufacturing is dying

Did mine similar to the rev, but I did take out the inner rubber seal & wash in soapy water, they were both covered in green slime.

Over a year on and still holding dry.