I know many of us have had issues with leaking sunroofs, and most of the solutions have been to clean the 4 drain holes (2 in front and 2 in rear). However, I finally located another leaking point today, something that has troubled me and my car for 2 years. The symptom has been that after raining or washing the car, the passenger side carpet has been soaked in the rear seat floor area and along the door sill all the way to the front passenger side foot well.

It turns out there are 2 square holes in the roof (under the
headliner) approximately 4.5 inches forward of the hatch opening, one on either side of the roof centerline. It seems that they are somehow related to the sunroof rail structure mounting. I had a nice little flood coming through the right side hole. I highly suggest that if anyone is still suffering from water leaks after repeatedly cleaning the drain holes, take the sun roof motor cover off, loosen the headliner in the rear (2 screws) and have someone pour water on the rear edge of the sunroof while you slightly bend the headliner down (gently...) and watch these two holes for leaks.

Hope this helps anyone with a leaking problem!

Cheers!

Carl Lindberg
1986.5 928S 5-speed
1980 928 5-speed

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I have a leak apparently in my sunroof. I bought this car resently and the prior own, or broker (the guys was not very honest), did not know much about 928s. Water us coming from the head liner and almost looks like a window seal leak but I had that checked out. I read the maintenance postings and I am thinking someone may have tried to use air and caused the drain lines to disconnect from the sunroof. How would I check this and get to these connections to check it out. Anyone have other thoughts on what this could be. I will probably just pull everything apart to ensure things are right.
Appreciate your help and feedback.
Tim Harbert

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Tim,

Do not be in such a hurry to pull the sun roof apart - that is unless you just like taking things apart to see how they work. There are a number of places where the sun roof can leak. Here is the drill.

Open the rear hatch and look for two holes one on each side of the roof.
These are the rear drain holes for the sun roof. The sunroof by German design is made to leak. The excess water collects in a channel and drains out of four holes - two front and two aft.

Park the car on level ground and open the sun roof all the way - I am being an optimist that your sun roof works correctly. Get a small cup of water and gently pour the water into the outside channel on both sides. The water should drain away and not leak into your car. If the water collects on one side or the other then your drains are clogged. If the drains are clogged then when excess water collects it will drain into the car - and make a mess.

If the drains are clogged used a small piece of plastic line - like the piece sticking out of the broken shaft on your power antenna. You can get some plastic flex rod at Tap plastics. Working the rod in from the rear hatch area and out from the front corners of the sun roof should clear the drains.

If water is not confined into the channel when it is below the overflow level then possibly one of the tubes on the rear of the sun roof frame came off. To get to these you will have to sit in the rear seat and drop the rear of the head liner. For full access you will have to remove the headliner which requires partly disassembling the sunroof tracks. The center of the headline is held in place with a plastic frame stapled to the headliner itself and then wrapped either with vinyl or leather and then glued in under the tracks of the sunroof. You will first have to remove all of the screws visible when the headliner is open, remove the metal pieces, wedge the track up and then slowly and carefully separate the glued portion of material from the body of the car. Removing the headliner is about a hour's job.

Once the headliner is down then all will be obvious as to how the drains work.

There are other common sources of leaks. The roof channels are held on by some glue and a rear bracket. The bracket in the end of the aluminum channel is held in place by a Phillips screw. If these have ever been removed it is common for some one reinstalling the clips to fail to put some sealer under the bracket before installation. Remove the bracket screw, slide the bracket gently back so as not to damage the paint and then put some sealer under the bracket and reinstall it.

There are a couple of plastic plugs inside the frame for the rear hatch - up high. These are there to allow for the attaching a ski rack. Yes the 928 was intended to go skiing. I did it once and all was fine once I installed some chains. These plugs can be left out. On the older cars the plugs were metal, on the newer cars plastic. They are not all the same size from year to year.

The hinges on the hatch are also another source of leaks. They are supposed to be installed with a rubber gasket underneath. Sometimes people forget to re-install the gasket when working on the hatch.

Finally the hatch itself can leak - although this sounds a little far away from your problem. The clips holding the trim in place have little gaskets.
If a clip is left out or the screws are not sealed the hatch will leak around the window.

One other place to check is the rear quarter windows. While these are commonly sealed to the body - or should be, sometimes the gasket is not sealed to the glass. Water will follow the gasket and drip into the car ending up often on the rear floor and under the rear seats - yuck.

The windshields have been known to leak as well. Overall the 928 is pretty water tight. I never got my 914 to stop leaking.

Hope this helps.

Dan the Pod Guy
Portia's Parts