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about a month and 1/2 ago here in central florida we got smacked by a massive low pressure system that dumped rain on us for a week straight. im not talking normal rain. im talking about 5 to six hours of continuous screamin downpours that made it hard to do well, anything. then right after we got that tropical storm that dumped another foot of rain on us. cars and other things can stay wet for so long before something isnt happy. at that time i had my 95 Ls400, 90 Ls400, and my ford mustang which was and is still my daily. by the end of the week, i had standing water on the floors of the mustang, foggy damp interior of my 90 (didnt really know the car that well yet only had it a few days), and an absolutley saturated 95. the 95 never leaked, but after being retired as my DD at the end of 16, she hasnt seen much action since then and mostly sits under a tree in my driveway, so there was no way for it to dry out. figuring it was a fluke, and it not being THAT bad, once the rain stopped -finally, i drove it to my girlfriends house, (totally exposed sunny driveway) put two cans of damp rid in it and let it do its magic. well, it was worse than i thought as the damp rid was used up in two days. at that point i rolled all the windows down, opened the sunroof, and let it bake dry in the sun for the next two days. after that, the coast was clear and car was dry. a few days later we had another torrential downpour. i get off work and im greeted by this....
not only was it a little damp, it was soaked and i had a leak. tried tracing it and only came up with the sunroof as a possible culprit, even though i never had a problem with it before. the car had also been sitting idle for a very long time under a tree.
as the old addage goes, "worst thing you can do to a high mile old car is let it sit" and so true it is, because the car has all kinds of new complaints it didnt have before.
i looked over the sunroof seal. no cracks, it was soft and pliable, and banjo tight when closed. wtf?? i didnt have time to deal with it so i just vented the roof tilted so it could steam out. however, that did not solve the issue..
i dont live at my house. i use my house as a hobby house for my toys and get togethers and thats about it. my driveway only fits 2 cars on a good day, so a few of my old bombs started migrating to my GFs house, as she has a huge driveway and only one car. however, she was less than thrilled when there was suddenly 2 Ls400s and a mustang convertible in her driveway. i could only keep one car there, so back to my house my 400s went.
meanwhile, i discovered the drain tubes were in the sunroof and man they were plugged!
on the right, the drain wasnt even visable and had standing water in the catch pan. the other i could see, but looked like a horribly infected ear inside. downright nasty
first thing i did is i took a rag and wiped the water and debris from the drain, then i took a tiny screwdriver and pulled as much crap out of the drains as i could. they looked legit from the surface, was i right? -NO. very wrong..
several days later the rain came back (we have had an unusually wet summer this year) and the car got wet again, only this time it was worse. it was dripping into the gearshift from the roof... WTF!
pissed off and feeling defeated, i cleaned out the car, again, fired up the damp rid again, and repeated the process.
last sunday, i sold the 90 and bought a 2000. monday, the rain came back again, and wanted to drive the 00 in the rain to see how it behaved on wet roads, checking how good Trac, ABS, etc did, as those systems are insanley good in the 95, and figured the 00 would be even better, which it is, however, in the 00 its kinda too good, as its hard to slide the car around and have fun with it. now, i can swing the *** out of my 95 like hell and do screaming burnouts in it w/o TRAC on, so i hopped in the 95 to go hooning a bit. it was raining and the car was damp, however this was the first time i drove it in the rain, while it had a known leak. and holy crap the flood gates of moldy water hell opened! im thrashing this car around and litreally getting rained on with the windows and sunroof closed. i also found water running down hitting my foot from under the dash.
this leak is BAD. so bad i was afraid something was going to short out and blow the electrical system in the car, and aint nobody got time for that crap. this car is already on its last leg, and major water intrusion behind the dash is a quick way to the cusher. it legit felt like a flood car. pretty much every display was fogged, although still working, i was really scared for my car.
so i found out my neighbor had a big air compressor in his garage with all kinds of attachments. as a last ditch effort to unclog the drain before throwing in the towel -a dry one of course, and duct tape the edges of the sunroof, i pulled my soaked 95 into his garage, and absolutley blasted the tubes in the sunroof.
well, i didnt exactly know where the water was supposed to come out of as ive never had an LS400 with a leaky sunroof, well, except for the 94 $400 bomb that just sat and never did anything with, but this car is still nice enough to where i give a damn about it.
i thought the drain tubes went down into the A-pillar and out near the front fender wells. well, they dont. not in a 95 ucf20 atleast. there was some slight resistance and then poof! the car basically pooped out a bunch of slimey gunk from a crack under the car, right about where the door jam meets the floor pan. weird! i did that on both sides, had my neighbor squirt the tracks a second time while i listened under the car for a breeze. (yours truly standing on the door jam pictured above) well, i felt a rush of air at the bottom of the car, so i should be clear now!!
afterwards, i pulled the car outside, dumped a hose on the moonroof and waited to see what happened. after a few mins, no new seepage or water dripping onto the passanger seat, through the dome light, and out the sunroof controls hitting the center console, nothing. just heard water rushing down the drains and out of the car, much like listening to a bathtub drain! have i corrected it? seems that way bc im sick of riding around in a soggy swampy ucf20 that smeels like wet dirty feet, but only time will tell !
Yeah it can be the plugged up drains and possible mess in the catch pan or what ever its called. But if you use my special idea how to fix it all will be good. And since I never got a sticky of all my pictures and idea's good luck finding it all.
well it started storming like hell last night around 9pm. jumped in the car and went for a drive in a torrential downpour so heavy i could barley see out the window. lasted a good 30 mins. checked the headliner. bone dry!! must have worked!
I never had experienced to have a leaky moon roof problem until the day when a heavy rain storm attacked us last November. It rained whole night peaking more than 4 inches of rain/hour. Next morning I found the carpet of my 98 Celsior was wet badly. It was caused by the insufficient water flow of drain drain hoses, I found. Front sides were cleaned easily but rear sides were not. The local shop owner suggested me to use a camera and a copper pipe as is explained here.
It was done quite easily and after that, I never had any leaking problem any more although I had similar level of rain falls twice in 7 months.
06-14-18, 11:02 AM
leaky sunroof. we aint got time for that crap..
have i corrected it? seems that way bc im sick of riding around in a soggy swampy ucf20 that smeels like wet dirty feet, but only time will tell !
