Panorama roof glass trim falling apart
08-26-14, 12:50 PM
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Panorama roof glass trim falling apart
My wife has a loaded 2007 ES350 with about 60,000 miles on it. She has the Panorama Roof. All the edge trim on the roof glass, which looks to be some sort of rubberized plastic material, is cracking, splitting and just plain falling apart. There are no leaks, yet, that we can detect. She called 3 dealers about it. None of the 3 even wanted to see the car, just said it's basically not their problem and to go to a body shop.
We just returned from a very good local body shop and they said it would be about $4,000 to fix it. My view is that this is not a replaceable item so it should last at least as long as the other weatherstripping on the car and that this is therefore a material defect. Our extended warranty won't cover non-mechanical items and, as I said, local Lexus dealers don't want to see us.
My questions are:
1. Has anyone else had this problem and if so, how did you resolve it? The body shop said they'd never seen anything like it and suggested we contact Lexus Corporate.
2. We are going to be contacting Lexus corporate next and I'm wondering, for those of you that have dealt with them, what kind of experiences you've had?
We just returned from a very good local body shop and they said it would be about $4,000 to fix it. My view is that this is not a replaceable item so it should last at least as long as the other weatherstripping on the car and that this is therefore a material defect. Our extended warranty won't cover non-mechanical items and, as I said, local Lexus dealers don't want to see us.
My questions are:
1. Has anyone else had this problem and if so, how did you resolve it? The body shop said they'd never seen anything like it and suggested we contact Lexus Corporate.
2. We are going to be contacting Lexus corporate next and I'm wondering, for those of you that have dealt with them, what kind of experiences you've had?
08-26-14, 03:20 PM
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My new to me 2011 ES with panoramic roof has chipping on the front and rear edges of the front (I call it the "sail panel") and the sunroof panel and the front edge of the rear glass panel. But, it has not gone beyond that. I was going to post at some point and ask if anyone had that issue. I was going to ask if anyone had used Plasti-dip or if it could be used to coat the edges. Or, what could be used to coat the edges.
Sorry, I can't give you a resolution. I will say this, looking at the underside of the sunroof, I think that thicker part of that material on the underside does more for wind noise than water sealing. The sunroof has its own seal that the glass sits directly on about an inch inside that outer edge piece. The outer edge sits on the gaskets ahead of and behind the sunroof gasket and the outer roof edge gasket. But, you probably already know that as you've had the car a lot longer than I.
If this is in my future, I would appreciate hearing what you find out. I would think $4000 would be a whole new glass roof. If it happens to my car and there is a bad side effect like water or terrible wind noise, I would strongly contemplate figuring out how to remove the sail panel and sunroof glass to repair it myself. Maybe trying to paint on an all weather vinyl sealant or a thin 3M gasket. Don't know. Hope it doesn't happen. Sorry you've got to deal with it.
Sorry, I can't give you a resolution. I will say this, looking at the underside of the sunroof, I think that thicker part of that material on the underside does more for wind noise than water sealing. The sunroof has its own seal that the glass sits directly on about an inch inside that outer edge piece. The outer edge sits on the gaskets ahead of and behind the sunroof gasket and the outer roof edge gasket. But, you probably already know that as you've had the car a lot longer than I.
If this is in my future, I would appreciate hearing what you find out. I would think $4000 would be a whole new glass roof. If it happens to my car and there is a bad side effect like water or terrible wind noise, I would strongly contemplate figuring out how to remove the sail panel and sunroof glass to repair it myself. Maybe trying to paint on an all weather vinyl sealant or a thin 3M gasket. Don't know. Hope it doesn't happen. Sorry you've got to deal with it.
Last edited by BC93; 08-26-14 at 06:53 PM.
08-26-14, 06:14 PM
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I have the same issue with my UL and started a thread some months ago here:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...g-peeling.html
What I actually ended up doing was using permatex sealant ( ) to hold together the places where it was splitting and pushing out and it worked pretty well. Good luck
ETA - As far as your second question, like I wrote in that thread my (very limited) experience talking to corporate support was not very pleasant, perhaps that was an anomaly or it was just the rep acting aggressively because she was expecting me to be more aggressive than I was, nevertheless it was enough to sour me on the "Lexus Experience" but not on the car!
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...g-peeling.html
What I actually ended up doing was using permatex sealant ( ) to hold together the places where it was splitting and pushing out and it worked pretty well. Good luck
ETA - As far as your second question, like I wrote in that thread my (very limited) experience talking to corporate support was not very pleasant, perhaps that was an anomaly or it was just the rep acting aggressively because she was expecting me to be more aggressive than I was, nevertheless it was enough to sour me on the "Lexus Experience" but not on the car!
Last edited by chbow; 08-26-14 at 06:24 PM.
08-26-14, 07:21 PM
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I have the same issue with my UL and started a thread some months ago here:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...g-peeling.html
What I actually ended up doing was using permatex sealant (Amazon.com: Permatex 81158 Black Silicone Adhesive Sealant, 3 oz. Tube: Automotive) to hold together the places where it was splitting and pushing out and it worked pretty well. Good luck
ETA - As far as your second question, like I wrote in that thread my (very limited) experience talking to corporate support was not very pleasant, perhaps that was an anomaly or it was just the rep acting aggressively because she was expecting me to be more aggressive than I was, nevertheless it was enough to sour me on the "Lexus Experience" but not on the car!
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...g-peeling.html
What I actually ended up doing was using permatex sealant (Amazon.com: Permatex 81158 Black Silicone Adhesive Sealant, 3 oz. Tube: Automotive) to hold together the places where it was splitting and pushing out and it worked pretty well. Good luck
ETA - As far as your second question, like I wrote in that thread my (very limited) experience talking to corporate support was not very pleasant, perhaps that was an anomaly or it was just the rep acting aggressively because she was expecting me to be more aggressive than I was, nevertheless it was enough to sour me on the "Lexus Experience" but not on the car!
I'm a bit new with the car so my only experience with the roof has been figuring out how to clean under the sunroof thoroughly and thus looking at the underside of the sunroof a lot. And trying to figure out how everything goes together and how to snake all of the drains. I still haven't figure out a way to get to the rearward drain inside of the outer edge gasket under the rear glass. I worry that if those get clogged, water will build up under the rear glass and freeze in cold weather resulting in something similar to what chbow experienced on his side gasket. Don't know.
09-03-14, 03:50 PM
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Thanks all. I'll have a look at the other thread. The body shop told us to check with a good local auto glass guy and he came out to the house to have a look. He said no way he would pay that amount to replace the glass panels, since there's basically nothing wrong with them. He said all the weather sealing is on the underside and this stuff that's peeling is cosmetic. He said a lot of manufacturers are just going with a finished bare glass edge now. He said if it was his car, he'd just peel it off as it loosened but he said if the looks bothered us, we could try simply, and carefully, trimming if off with a razor.
02-02-17, 08:38 AM
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Thanks all. I'll have a look at the other thread. The body shop told us to check with a good local auto glass guy and he came out to the house to have a look. He said no way he would pay that amount to replace the glass panels, since there's basically nothing wrong with them. He said all the weather sealing is on the underside and this stuff that's peeling is cosmetic. He said a lot of manufacturers are just going with a finished bare glass edge now. He said if it was his car, he'd just peel it off as it loosened but he said if the looks bothered us, we could try simply, and carefully, trimming if off with a razor.
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