fran.yang

Hey folks. I've decided to just post questions and share my experiences here since this is probably the greatest car community I've come across. So bless you all in advanced.

I've got a very leaky sunroof (i know they're rare stock) and I was wondering how ya'll go about fixing it. All the autobody shops around here don't work on it and I guess some upholstery places do? But I checked the water dropping and at least 2 of the 4 drains do work. But just looking at the roof the seal on the window and on the frame are deteriorated. I've never worked on windows or sunroofs before so I'm not sure if I need to reseal both the window and the frame. And if I do need to, is it suggested to do it myself or have a glass/upholstery shop do the work.

Corky

That's not a stock unit it's an aftermarket piece...Factory sunroof had no ribs in the roof's sheetmetal glass area....Check and see if your glass lock has "autoport" cast into the latch... Most likely that unit is a C.R. Lawrence{CRL} AutoPort unit...They were the main aftermarket sunroof supplier for what they called the "joggled" frame to fit the XJ roof ribs.... And most parts are available including the glass seal, hinge, etc. Do some searching and you'll find some info .It looks like someone tried to seal the glass in the frame at one time that will all need cleaned off. It's a job but you can either take the whole unit out and reseal the frame to the roof or just clean up and replace the glass seal and re caulk around the frame without taking the whole unit out..Being an aftermarket unit, that style shouldn't have any "drains" the water is not supposed to get past the glass seal..

ijeeep

It could be aftermarket. It could be factory too.
I forget what year it was when Jeep quit doing XJ sunroofs on the assembly line and started farming out that option to ASC en route to the dealerships. Aftermarket or ASC, his parts availability is probably better than assembly line sunroofs imho.

XJlimitedx99

I recently went through this with my aftermarket sunroof. Bought this drain snake and fished it through all my drains:


I'm not sure if it helped or not, as the Jeep hasn't left the garage since I snaked the drains, but it will give you something to try. Mine created a huge mess. I ended up ripping the headliner, carpet, and upholstery and letting everything dry for awhile.

I was under the impression that the drains were supposed to handle the water, not that the seal was supposed to keep the water out. Maybe I need to take a closer look at mine.

fran.yang

once you cleaned the drains
did it stop leaking?
because if so, then ill just prioritize doing that instead of going on this painful hunt figuring out which sunroof i have for the seal

XJlimitedx99

Per my previous post:

fran.yang

Hi All, here's my follow up. if you had the same strange experience like me, people don't work on aftermarket sunroofs, and if they do, your jeep might have one that was discontinued. It turns out mine is not a Webasto or some other big brand name. Mine is a discontinued company who poorly designed sunroofs so that the sunroof mechanism itself leaks water because of obvious design flaws, and the glass can't be resealed with a new seal. You would have to replace the whole glass, and even then the seal only holds out 90% of the water. So I used a 3m glass polyurethane sealant that was strong enough to hold the glass up and keep water out. I've been able to take out the rest of the sunroof mechanism and put back the headliner with minor adjustments.

poly link: