Another moonroof post, sorry!!!!

[bradvr6 0]

Hi guys,

 

I fitted a passat estate moonroof last year and all seems to have been ok until we had a lot of rain recently. Now it just seems to be flooding in at every opportunity!

 

All the scuttle drains are definitely clear so the only thing I can see it could be is a problem with the water catchment tray. For some reason, there seems to be a very tiny gap between the edge of the tray and the roof of the car. It's my guess that water is entering the tray (as the passat roof seal doesn't fit snugly) and tipping over the edge of the tray.

 

Not great when you've just retrimmered the headliner in leather too! :(

[bradvr6 0]

OK, so I'm guessing no one has had this problem or maybe because it's hard to notice, you may be unaware.

 

Problem

 

Afeter a few weeks of testing, I've found out that the passat sunroof, no matter how you fit it, will let in excessive amounts of water. During the bad weather we had this winter, I noticed that the car was steaming up quite a lot and having replaced a leaky C sunroof years ago, I didn't thnk it could have been the passat moonroof.

 

It turns out that as the passat roof fits great along the straight edges of the sunroof recess, the gaps around the corners are much more visible than the original sunroof. I always asumed that any extra water that may get in would just drain into the catchment tray and down the scuttle channels. As it happens, because the working of the moonroof differ from the C, the extra water which comes in cannot escape qucik enough and when driving (accelerating and breaking), the water seems to escape over the top of the tray.

 

I suspect this has been happening for years but because it's only a small amount, it just seems to get soaked up by the headliner. Never the less, it's making this damp and causing the car to steam up. After driving the car with the headliner out, sure enough, I hit the brakes and a few drips come down.

 

Here comes the DIY fix 8)

 

Replacing the seal around the moonroof may help but will not cure the problem. In the end after testing out lots of things, I used a black silocone gasket adhesive. I just smoothed it around the insides of the corners of the sunroof recess. This stuff drys unbelievebly tough and is very flexible, alowing the moonroof to slide up aginst it and therefore sealing the gap. When fully dried, I trimmed this to neaten it up.

 

So far (touch wood) it's kept the roof really dry and the car no longer steams up when it's raining.

 

So for all you guys who have a moonroof conversion and your C always seems to steam up....this could be your answer.