Inner sunroof seal..(fitting)

[PSH]

Evening chaps..

i have a new inner sunroof seal to fit, it was a gift from my son, hope to be getting the outer seal in due course too but for now I have this which looks like a simple enough job to install. However always good to ask if anyone else has fitted said seal in case there's any hidden issues. So guys over to you, is this a five minute job as it looks or are there any issues that I need to be aware off?
Thanks in advance for any info...

Pete

 

[Dan944t]

Hi Pete,
i changed mine on my lux in my teens and dont remember anything problematic at all, should be off and on IN minutes ??

atb
daniel

 

[PSH]

Thanks Daniel, that's what I thought, looks a simple 'U' profile seal..if the sun comes out tomorrow I'll get it sorted.....cheers

Pete

 

[Waylander]

Pete, look at it closely I am sure one side is slightly longer than the other (longer to the inside), if you can find some non drying mastic like plumbers mate to fill it up with that would be good, if the gulley around the inner seal fills with water the seal starts to syphon water into the car by capillary action, seen this quite a few times

 

[vitesse]

That's sounds very technical-for those who aren't in the know-Plumbers Mate is used for caulking things like the outlet pipe on toilet pans as it stays slightly flexible,sets to some extent but not really hard like putty does.Made by Evode initially -usually white -consistency a bit like blue or white tack version of putty.

 

[Waylander]

well it was all i could think of, but i have seen folk do this with clear silicone, and when they go to remove it for any reason it rips half the head liner out with it,

the sort of stuff I'm thinking of they use in the original hatch seal, horrid sticky and stays that way for 30 years or more, and its almost impossible to get off your hands

 

[PSH]

Thanks for the comments guys... i fitted the seal/trim this morning, only took a few minutes. The old one joined on the passengers side? it had a 1/4" gap and when removed was soaking wet. I know that the outer seal needs doing as well so it's on the list. I've had a lot of water ingress of late and trying to track it down is proving a little difficult as I can't see how so much water can get in? Today I took out the boot carpet and emptied everything out to clean/dry. The boot carpet is drenched and the spare wheel well had about 4 inches of water in it, both side compartments are reasonably dry. With the carpet removed it was easy enough to dry the boot area and pull the plug from the spare wheel well to drain off the water. Rear passenger side behind the front seat is soaked, along with the rear seat on that side, this is the side that the inner roof trim had the 1/4" gap in. I have installed the new seal with the join now at the back and no gap. I have checked all the wet areas for any signs of water attacking metal and all is well, clearly the car was very well built. I have tightened the hatch pins in case water is getting in there, there was a fair bit of slack taken up on the drivers side so hopefully this may help . I am drying everything out now or should i say, trying too...I suspect that the biggest culprit is the outer sunroof seal, hope to change that soon. I had noticed in a heavy rainfall a while back that water was coming in from the roof on the passenger side, well my wife did as it dripped on to her...lol I have checked the drains which are all clear and cleaned/polished the sunroof recess. The car isn't used as much as it once was and sits on the drive on a slope which leans to the passenger side so perhaps the water was building up in the roof recess and getting in where the 1/4" gap was? This doesn't really make sense as i would have thought that the drains are larger than this gap and thus would have expected the water to drain away before getting past the inner seal gap and over the roof lip? even if this was happening it wouldn't explain the larger pool of water that collected in the boot area?
I'll see if adjusting to the hatch pins helps, the hatch seal was new when the car was put back on the road nearly 3 years ago. What i may do next is ask SWMBO if she'll spray the hose over the car with me in it, directing the water at high pressure for me to see where it's getting in. At least the good weather is returning so hopefully i'll get chance to dry the interior out fully...

Pete