Yummybud924

I'm probably going to get bashed for saying this but I'm thinking about siliconing or gluing the sunroof permanently shut by applying some glue or clear silicone between the sunroof seal and the roof of the car.

the reason I'm thinking of something crazy like this is that the sunroof still seems to leak after converting to manual roof, cleaning the drain tubes/replacing both seals.

one thing I noticed is that the sunroof seal seems to be too thick and the roof is not going down flush with the roof. I got the seal for my year from Paragon.


anyways, I think applying silicone or some tough glue , like clear auto goo would permanently seal the sunroof and it wouldn't leak any longer.

obviously if I ever plan on selling it's not going to look very good even if I keep the car in good shape. I personally never use the sunroof so all it does for me is make my interior wet and mouldy all the time.

and I know this is a pretty ghetto way to fix a leak but it beats having a swamp iniside your car.

I might get the porsche shop that will replace my motor mounts to take a look at it and see if it is an incorrect seal (it was a porsche seal for my year).
It may be possilbe that porsche has discontinued the proper thinner seal for my car (85.5) and are only selling the thicker seals.

ehall

What if I glue the sunroof shut?


^^^^You'd be an idiot.

Yummybud924

but what if you tried everything and it still leaks?

would you rather drive around with the interior soaking wet and water dripping everywhere?

all the drains, drain fine I poured water and the water drains fast. the only thing possilbe that I can think of is that the sunroof is not going down enough to seal because of the thicker seal.

I really don't want to glue anything shut but I can't drive in the winter with an inch of water in the rear.

Yummybud924

also weird how I used a garden hose and sprayed it directly on top of the sunroof and I looked under the sunroof and 5 minutes later still I couldn't see water dripping but when it rains all night in the morning the rear carpet and rear seat are soaked and tons of water under the rear carpet also.

water evaporating also causes water to drip from everywhere, teh roof the hatch glass/ winshield.

now I can see water inside my intrument cluster from evaporation.

ehall

FIX IT! Take it apart and fix it. Buy new parts and a new seal. Fix the motor, the gearing and the switches. Make sure your car hasn't been hit before and is slightly out of square. (if ya wanna call it that.) Double chack that you got the right seal. (did you keep the invoice and parts bag?...If not do that in the future.)
It sounds like the seal is incorrect. Don't give up and go ghetto. It just drops the value of these cars for everyone...though it is nice to end up with all of these parts cars.

Yummybud924

the electric roof was broken and I didn't want to bother fixing it so I converted it to manual. the roof vinyl is already destroyed and ripped in the back from the sunroof leak.

I'll have my shop look at it, they have worked on a lot of 944s and know them well so I think they may be able to fix it.

no I didn't keep the plastic bag from the seal but I phoned paragon and told them it was for a 85.5 944. The old seal on the car was the same as the new one, the sunroof does not sit flush with the roof it clearly sticks out a bit.

Podguy

You can try to glue the sun roof shut, but I doubt if it will work. Remember the seals are no designed to keep the rain out. So if you seal from the gasket to the car there is still the space between the sunroof panel and the gasket.

In the VW days people would tape thier sunroofs shut. Tape might be a better solution. When finished it can be removed and there is a chance it will not damage the paint. With any sealant that will hold up there will probably be some paint damage too!

Try this first. Open the sunroof and fill the channel with water. Watch where the water goes. If some of it coming inside the car then there are sealing problems with the rails. The rails and all the other components are supposed to be sealed. If someone removed the tracks and then reinstalled them without new sealer, then water in the track can seep into the interior.

Here is a link to my sun roof page.

http://www.kondratyev.com/porsche/te...or/sunroof.htm

ehall

The roof sticking out IS your problem. Figure that out and you solve your problem. It isn't brain surgery, and based on your description of the condition of the sunroof, you can't screw it up worse. Figure out the poor fitment and it's fixed.

ibkevin

Well, cat's out of the bag.



Too many of these cars are driving around with non leaking sun roof's, hatches are a diff story.

ehall

ps... I'll bet you left something in there during the conversion that has to come out or is stuck in the wrong position ever so slightly.

Yummybud924

what do you mean by rails?

I have poured water in the sunroof channel and it drains fast and I could see the water draining out from the rear of the car and the front, also didn't see any of it leaking into the car.

also when installing the new sunroof seal, both the body seal/ sunroof seal, I did not apply any kind of silicone or sealant before installing the seal, but the seals install very tight so I doubt that they need a sealant.

ibkevin

I'm guessing he is referring to the 928 roof from the link he provided.

Yummybud924

all I did was rip out the electric parts, plastic parts on the roof and then I just installed two manual sunroof latches at the rear of the sunroof like the front manual latches.

at this point when I installed teh sunroof the rear of the sunroof was sticking out badly so I put a couple of pennies under the rear clamps so they clamp harder and now the rear of the sunroof is pretty much fluch with the roof, but the front of the sunroof is sticking out because the rear is clamping harder.

before my conversion the electric roof which was shut also had the sunroof sticking out especially noticable in the rear.


yeah I agree gluing the sunroof shut is stupid, might as well do it the Red Green way and use duct tape on the outside.

ibkevin

Duct tape will at least protect the interior until you get the roof figured out.

Yummybud924

also the thing is my front seats/ carpet don't get soaked, it's only the rear carpet behind the front seats and the rear seats that are soaked.

I thought a lot about this and I can't really see why the roof sticking would cause a leak, the water is suppose to drain into the water channels and move towards the drains before it rises high in enough to overflow and get into the car right?