crawdad689

Hi all,

About 5 weeks ago, the sunroof in my GS wouldn't close. I took it to the dealer, and they quoted me $2600 and 12 hours of labor to fix it. I said no thanks, and told them to just get it closed.

They charged me $145 and told me it was closed. After they finished, there was a slight recess on the passenger side, between the rubber around the glass, and the top of the roof. I made it clear that it needs to not just look kinda sorta closed, but to actually be closed. He said not to worry, that it's not supposed to be an airtight seal, and that there is a drainage system designed specifically for this purpose, for when it rains.

It's rained a lot in the past month since then - I've kept a close eye on the headliner, to make sure there were no signs of moisture. I thought all was good, until a couple weeks ago when I went to grab a bag that I had kept behind the passenger seat. The bag was completely soaked, as was the carpet underneath. You can legit feel water sloshing underneath the carpet, as you run your hand over it.

I brought it back to the dealer last Friday and they gave me a loaner.

Today, they call me and tell me that it's the A/C drain that's clogged, and that the sunroof drain is fine! On an 11 year old car, it seems way too coincidental that the A/C drain would clog just after I had the dealer rig the sunroof shut, and that the carpet is ONLY wet in front of the rear passenger seat, and that the sunroof looks less-than-closed on the passenger side.

How do you think I should proceed?

Is there any easy way for me to confirm whether it's the sunroof drain or A/C drain? The sunroof is broken, rigged, shut, and can't be simply opened.

Should I take the dealer at their word? Maybe I'm paranoid/cynical, but might they be trying to pull one on me?

As far as I know (he didn't tell me from the voice mail message he left), they haven't worked to solve the problem yet. Should I take the car back from him and go get a second opinion?

Thanks,
Matt

aneidiaz

Listen man read up on here. I'm having the same problem. My rear carpets are drenched and my driver floor. Apparently YES there is a drain plug under the car. You have to get this done yourself if not take it to a very nice and cheap mechanic. Explain to him there's a rubber drain plug grommet above the tranny. Kind of side by side with the driver side mirror as an indicator. Lift the car. Tage the plastic cover off the bottom with 4 screws and 2 bolts. And stick your hand up the driver side with a little phone endoscope camera to spot the plug if you have no camera then use your hands and use your right hand to go up the passenger side of the tranny to get to it with a plier and pick it off. There's a thread on here. READ this CLUB LEXUS works but you can't be lazy you have to read and educate your self. If not get head cracked and get your money robbed from the stealership. Good luck buddy and GodBless.

crawdad689

Thanks man! I already read the thread and it is super helpful!

Here's an update:

I asked my regular mechanic what I should do. I still find it hard to believe that the leak was not related to the clogged sunroof drains. They had to rig the sunroof back closed just a few weeks ago when it broke, and there's definitely now a small gap between the rubber molding around the sunroof glass, and the roof on the passenger side, so water now pools in this gap. It seems really coincidental that, on an 11 year old car, the A/C drain would get clogged within a few weeks of having the sunroof rigged shut.

My mechanic suggested that I go inspect the car and run the A/C on full blast with the windows down (it's hot and humid today) for a while, and if I start to see water dripping from the car, then I'll know that the A/C drain is fine, and the water damage is from the sunroof drain being clogged / them not fully closing the sunroof.

I popped into the dealer and was all ready to make them show me in person that the A/C was not draining, but he told me that this would all be covered by insurance, less my deductible ($250). He said it's an estimated 18 hours to repair all the water damage - they're going to rip out the entire carpet and put new carpet in, as well as remove/replace the spongy padding/layer that goes under the carpet. He said he's seen this before many times, since it's a known issue, and the total bill comes in at $4,500 to $5,500 usually.

To my surprise, he said that removing the actual A/C grommet is an easy and quick fix (less than an hour of labor, no parts), and that while it would not be technically covered in the insurance claim (only water damage is covered), they would be able to work with the insurance company so that there's enough money left over to cover it.

He also told me he would be able to get the claim high enough that he'd be able to defray part of my deductible. I'm not sure how all of that works.

At this point, I think it's a no-brainer to go through my insurance. I've got a new RX loaner until it gets fixed, so they can take as long as they want.

I figure that, even if they're being shady and trying to get insurance to cover all of the damage they caused by not properly clearing the sunroof line, it's fine by me (and if they're being shady and blaming this on an A/C grommet when it's actually the sunroof drain, they'll also fix the sunroof drain on the low.)

Anyway, that's where we are now. I'll keep everyone updated.

aneidiaz

Hey you never kept us posted. I got mines out the hard way. Ima try to dry up the carpets real nice tomorrow. But for now ima just pray I have no sunroof drain problems and that it was just that little fffffiiiinnnnnn plug lol