window leaks

[artm]

On a 97 SW, drips from the front, top corner of both front windows. Happens where the headliner meets the rubber strip. It's as if the water is on top of the headliner but that's not it (I hope).

Anyone experience this?

[DJ Menasco]

I have. And I haven't a clue how its getting in either! Well, maybe a clue. It began right after I removed the exterior roll cage, which consequently lead me to believe that I breached the seal between the roof and the cage. I can't be sure though because I haven't removed the liner.

DJ

[Chaucer]

I have this problem too...I don't know exactly where it comes from, but I have removed the whole interior headliner to investigate this. I could not find a single hole to the outside of that would allow water to come in.

I think it is coming from the sunroof. Stupid me: I when I applied the sound-dampenning material to the roof, I forgot to put some sealant around the seals for the sunroof. Now that summer's just around the corner, I'll have a few months to do this before it starts raining again...

[artm]

OK, so I finally took the front headliner off...what a bitch! Those stupid plastic pushin a pain, unless you don't care about trashing the fabric.

So I uploaded some pics of the situation:

http://home.earthlink.net/~amjas/d.html

d1: the leak is from "A", on the outer side of the blue metal. It would deposit on the headliner and pool near the front passenger side. When coming to a stop it would roll forwrd and come down and out. There is no water in B.

This would also occur onthe driver side but there is no pooling there. I suspect the water from the passenger side somehow shifted to the driver side along the front lip of the headliner. There is some deposit stain C suggesting this.

Once I parked passenger side low and when settled water then appeared on driver side.

d2: the outside of the passenger side corner. There are cracks in the sealer D which may account for water ingress. There is also hairline cracks along the top of the windshield rubber E.

d3: more hairline cracks along the top F.

d4: more of same G.

d5: more on the driver side H. On the driver corner J it is not that bad.

d6: more of driver corner J.

So, I need to seal these cracks up. Any suggestions? I will need something in a syringe to get in there easily.

BTW, what sealer is this? Anyone else have cracks? Like these I meant! :)

[DJ Menasco]

Wow, nice work Art! I appreciate your effort! As for a sealant, I would go with a silicone based product. Specifically one that interfaces with metal (I assuming the cracks are in the roof itself?) If you really need a syringe to apply it I just go to a pharmacy and pick one up with a 25 ga. needle. Although, you can always spread the silicone over it repeatedly to fill the cracks as well.

Thanks again for posting this!

DJ

[artm]

I don't know if these cracks are in metal or sealer. There appears to be something soft applied to the gutter top and above the windshield rubber. I think this is sealer.

I do not want to pile on silicone - it will fail eventually. I think injecting it with a syringe is best. So, how small is 25 ga. ???

[DJ Menasco]

Hmm, well 25 ga. is actually small. Here's a picture of 22ga (0.7mmx25mm). The larger the gauge, the smaller the internal diameter.

[mdmccallum]

Are you sure that is a 22g DJ. I think the blue hub is for a 25g needle. But it doesn't matter cause you ain't gettin no silicone through anything smaller than a 18g ( pink ) without extreme difficulty. Assuming that is the idea.

[DJ Menasco]

Yep! It said 22 on the box, but you're probably right. Now that I think about it most silicone based sealants are pretty viscous. Nonetheless, one would think that there has to be some type of applicator out there that can apply silicone in tight spots such as this?

DJ

[artm]

I'm looking into some 3M seam sealers. Some are paintable and will flow through a syringe.

[evilfij]

Rip the old crap off and redo the thing with all new 3m sealer.

Ron