I went to the car wash today (touch free) and my mom and sister got a lovely dose of water from the car wash through the sun roof. After getting out, I looked at indeed there's a leak to the right side where the plastics are. I'd take a picture but too lazy right now
Anyone else got this problem? I'm bringing it to Volvo Villa tomorrow after the male service advisor at Volvo of Unionville pretty much said, "The sunroof is designed to block wind, not water. Sorry."
A high volume of water falling from the sky is not the same as a high pressure nozzle spraying water directly against a seal and possibly overpowering and pushing the water through it. It's also possible a seal was bent or something directly over the passenger side as a result of a twig or a pebble or acorn being stuck in there, etc. The same twig could have been pushed out by the high pressure and so you couldn't see it after the fact.
Have you been able to reproduce this problem at all? If the dealer hasn't I don't know how you expect them to solve it.
Every time by going to the same car wash with all our vehicles. G37S doesn't leak. E39 doesn't leak. Only S60 leaks. Water seeping through the doors but not penetrating into the cabin is a given. But to get a nice dripping shower.... That's another story. And like I said before, I don't mind if the sunroof seals have water droplets on them. Just don't get me and my passengers wet.
Since the vast majority of S60 roofs do not leak at all, I think it's safe to assume this is not a normal condition. Poor fitting seals or clogged drains would be the most obvious cause of the problem and should be repaired under warranty by any competent dealer service department. Finding that competent service department seems to be the real issue here.
The drains consist of a clear plastic tube running down the A pillar to the corner of the windshield, emptying into the air inlet area in front of the windshield and under the back of the hood...It usually clogs at the BOTTOM of this tube because it ends in a plastic elbow there...Running a wire down will not clear it because the wire cannot get past the bend in the elbow...A very flexible cable might work, but I seriously doubt it...Pulling down the trim molding above the side window reveals the tube...Sometimes the tube becomes disconnected at the bottom just inside the windshield, especially if an air hose is used to blow it out...If the clog is stubborn enough, the pressure pops the tubing off the elbow and the water is emptied directly into the car...The is a video on u-tube about how to fix it on an S-40, but the system is essentially the same on all models...
I've taken mine through high pressure touchless washes many times. I have checked for leaks and have never found the slightest trace of any moisture around the seals or gutters. It is not normal for any sunroof to leak in a car wash, so this has to be dealt with as a defect and should be taken care of under warranty. I'd be really upset if my dealer handled a water leak by telling me it's normal.
Is it posible that the sunroof seal is not tight enough?
Is it possible to replace the seal or is it one unit with the glass?
I have a similar problem with my 2004 XC-90. Water intrustion during high pressure car wash, but also water intrusion with heavy downpours. I can avoud the car washes, but not the rain.
Is it normal for the sunroof to leak after rain when you open it up? I thought all the water gets drained or something if done properly. There was a pretty amazing amount of rain that Waterloo received last night, and I opened up the sunroof. As soon as I accelerated, both my passenger and I got a nice dose of water on ourselves.
For some reason, I didn't expect that to happen.... But I can see it being a "normal problem" with all sunroofs because the water just collects there.
Hmm, I don't think it's normal...
I remember opening the sunroof after power washing the car and I didn't have any problems.
The only water that was coming off was from the 1inch cloth that's going up as an air breaker ... but that's to be expected.
I had a Saturn that had to have the sunroof replaced as it didn't open. They didn't insert the drain tubes into the assembly, and I drove in a heavy rain, and...it started dripping water from the roof material. After they inserted the drains, it never had an issue again, and no car with a sunroof, including my 2013 S60 R-Design has ever had an issue leaking in heavy rains or car wash.
I notice a slight leak (water dripping) after a car wash. What I noticed was with the sun shield open the rear velour seal at the back center of the glass was where the leak was. When closing the sunroof either with the auto function or holding until fully closed, the rear would ease up a bit at full closed. I could then bump the switch to open it and it would move downward slightly producing a tighter seal. Takes fiddling to get it right vs. it actaully opening back up a bit, but I found this was what was causing the leak. In the end, it only will leak under pressure, but I still do the "trick" adjustment before going into a wash.
The sunroof debacle is purely, inarguably despicable on the part of Volvo. It is completely unacceptable and is either a engineering flaw or manufacturing craftsmanship failure. Has anyone reported the issue on 2013s? I don't recall that anyone has. That confirms "a fix" was instituted.
Kinda hard to let this one go...especially after I flamed ya' on the auto manufacturer reliability topics. You should be pissed about this one. No way can Volvo believe their own crap they're spewing regarding in-specification. If the seal is "In-specification" but gushing water then it's a design flaw (manufactured brilliantly to that flaw). Your dealer just plain sucks.
When Volvo Cars of Canada doesn't care, I can't do anything about it. I've been to two dealers and to no avail. A service tech ran my VIN and like I said, I don't remember word for word, but I believe nothing can be done about it. I checked and I don't have the chat history anymore. I have told everyone related to Volvo that the problem is easily reproduced. Just take it to the car wash. Of course, they just tell me to avoid the car wash and to go to the touch ones, and get my paint all scratched up.
I'm thinking of maybe just washing my car with a hose, then let the car sit for a bit in my driveway. Then I'll open the sunroof and accelerate and see if I get wet. If I do, then I got another reason to go back. If I don't, well it still doesn't explain how after a thunderstorm overnight, the next morning I accelerate lightly to like 25Km/h and I still get wet. Even the lease manager says that's total BS and they should fix it.
Haven't really looked into CAMVAP. It looked like I needed to hire a lawyer or something to do so, which is why I never bothered much into it. Then I just did a search now and it seems that it's free to use... Time to look more into it. Thanks for bringing it up!
I took another look at the sunroof while I was washing the car today. Before and after I sprayed the car with my hose. There was no water inside, but the water was coming from the side, not straight down like it does in a thunder storm. And it looked like the sunroof area was clean of debris.
Interesting thread. Sorry to hear about the OP's problem.
I have had numerous washes, of my 2012 S60 R-Design, at at least 4 - 5 different automatic car wash locations.
In that entire time I have never had as much as a single drop of water end up by, near or below the sunroof on the inside of the car right after a given car wash.
You do realize that the sunroofs are not meant to be waterproof right? That's why they have all those drains. It's designed to let some water get past the gasket and collect into the channels to empty out through the sunroof drains.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
SwedeSpeed - Volvo Performance Forum
3.9M posts
157K members
Since 2000
A forum community dedicated to Volvo owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, builds, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, new releases, and more!