yeti Leaking Panoramic Roof - The Cause and the Cure

[moris]

@Stubod

- it is cheap, it costs 5 eur in Bg, in Uk will be almost the same, i got 126/40 cm, orafol stone guard, asked several times for good removal options of the material,  almost half left

- for whole roof is not very good idea, not to mention efforts for cleaning and installing, soap water and tools, also removing will be chalenging

- permanent solution is not very good idea , also need to think for comfort module / open/close windows/ , dont forget to apply in the middle , and use double for 

- use captain think in the summer/ dry conditions , it is best option, i am waiting for summer or warm garage for atleast week/s to dry and

 

*my remarks from application

Do you see guys, other option of ingress, in the roof, not in the pano? Front window, rails mounting, some other interesting place ?

You could see condensation, it is not very good, i cleaned and left it dry for several hours.

I am asking, because , i got water inside, from roof and even after application of the folio. It was after water jet clean, i was very gentle, from distance and  got water inside from both sides. Definitely no water from stripes, I have checked  and they are very good condition, only condensation in the middle.

Anyway way , i am waiting for dry conditions and removing roof panel to see from inside .

 

Cheers

George

 

 

[United232]

On 13/02/2020 at 10:30, ClimbingPaul said:

Can you inject all of the sealant via the joint in inner channel only? Or do you need to also inject sealant into the joint in the outer channel, to achieve a complete fill?

Hi @ClimbingPaul, truthfully I don't know, so forgive me but this is just an opinion...

 

The recommended sealer has a very low surface tension (around half that of the water we're fighting against), so if it can find a way into the crack it will get there ahead of the water. So it'll probably be OK just to treat the inner channel on the basis that capillary action will pull it where it's needed, but is 'probably' good enough? I suspect not. Remember it's the outer channel that carries all of the water away (that's the water that passes between the glass closure and the roof skin) - the inner channel remains largely dry. It's critical therefore that the repair extends to the outer channel, howsoever it's effected. I agree that access to the outer seam isn't great, but it's not impossible with a steady hand and a little patience, and my recommendation would be to ensure it's treated too. Do heed my caution that the area is thoroughly dry though.

 

@moris, good call on the temporary fix! Let us know how it works out, but don't attempt it until you've had at least a week or two of warm, dry weather.

[ClimbingPaul]

Thanks @United232 for the advice.

Sad to report that storm Dennis caused a few drips over the weekend, so here’s hoping for some warm dry weather soon!

[moris]

@here, whole roof packing for me is not very good idea, will be a lot of efforts for installation and removal @United232 has pointed the issue with ingress and pdf has clear instructions, that will solve the issue with leaking pano roof. Unfortunately for me,  i have very long way  to solve my issue, i packed all possible roof ingress, pano, rails and  now front windshield is main suspect. Even you don't have roof, it is worth looking for white spots in the door sealing, this is beginning of the waterfall and you should take measures. Also checking black roof channel "sealing" for gaps and reinstall/replace is good idea. I am looking for good rubber sealing replacement or other solution.

 

More news from me, i still had water ingress, so the water is not coming from:

- pano roof,  after packing  the pano .

- roof rails mountings, after packing roof rails,  / for removing use M6, Torx is not suitable /

Water is coming inside from front upper part of the roof, just behind sun visors . After each packing i have very gentile test in the jet wash, but still there is water, little relief is that water is not that much.

 

Now last suspect before having  cabrio and going to the south, is front windshield + the channel with black "sealing". Black "sealing" is not very reliable,  see picture with a big gap.  I packed this area and later will go for a test wash. Not to forget, i will apply capt tolley , in good weather   /we have very good days with sun, but it is still winter/

 

Cheers

Moris

 

[Perfluo]

This issue is, thankfully, history for us now as we sold our L&K back into the trade  for this very reason.

We had a panoramic roof leak a few months back on our Yeti a few months out of warranty. Main dealer supplied and serviced from nearly new. 

Dealer could not fit us in to even look at it for more a month, even though we explained the footwells front and back were saturated, it was stinking and mould was setting in; so I was forced to take it a leak specialist. Spent £1,000 on investigation and strip out; drains cleaned and extra sealant applied. Leak fixed and rain-tested, but no guarantee it would stay fixed as the specialist I used (at below half the labour rate of our main dealer) has seen a succession of cassette failures on Yetis and VAG group. 

We had always regarded our Yeti as a "keeper" and apart from this issue it was and is a fabulous car. We never planned to sell, but this episode shook our faith in the car and in the Skoda brand.

I purchased Captain Tolley intending to apply in the Summer as part of routine preventative annual maintenance. As a precaution I also went back to our dealer to enquire about the cost of a replacement cassette.sunroof unit so that we would know the "worst case" should the issue turn out to be the cassette.  True to form the dealer had washed their hands of any problem because we had taken the car elsewhere (due to their inability to staff the service department adequately). Quoted us £3,500 for a replacement unit. No prospect of a contribution from Skoda UK if there was found to be a fault.

Would we like to trade it in? They would offer us auction value against a Karoq. The panoramic roof on the Karoq is a new design they said. (I have since checked with Skoda UK and the factory have confirmed basically the design on the Karoq is unchanged - still a jointed aluminium/plastic cassette as on the Yeti.)

We drove the Karoq. Lovely car, but unlike the Yeti we felt it lacked character. The lower headroom meant that we felt we needed the pano roof. But once bitten...

We decided to move away from Skoda, basically because we no longer trust the brand and we already knew the after-sales side was poor. 

We sold to WABC for the same amount as the Skoda dealer was offering for the part-ex. We could have sold for much more privately, but we couldn't in all honesty have allowed someone else to pick up the risk. Selling to the trade, we reasoned, meant the eventual purchaser would have some redress if there was a recurrence.

A few weeks later our Yeti has resurfaced. On sale at a main dealer for £3,000 more than we sold it for. Looks fabulous (as it always did) and if I was looking for a top of the range Yeti with all the goodies I would set my heart on it . However the car is not being sold as "Skoda Approved" and is carrying only a 3 month warranty despite a premium price tag.

So I get to drop a ridiculous amount of money, to protect myself against a future problem and some other hapless second-hand purchaser who cannot afford to buy new and has set their heart on a nice "top of the range" L&K Yeti that looks and appears to be in pristine condition, inherits the inherent problems caused by Skoda UK.

Hardly seems right to me, but at least I can sleep at night!

[Stubod]

Hi Perfluo,

 

..sorry to here your tale, but I am also out of VAG for my next car. Touch wood tons of rain the last 3 weeks and no leaks, but like you I have lost confidence in the brand in general due to the lack of customer support for design/manufacturing problems. I am still considering a Suzuki Vitara next, just wondering what you got as a replacement?

[Perfluo]

16 hours ago, Stubod said:

Hi Perfluo,

 

..sorry to here your tale, but I am also out of VAG for my next car. Touch wood tons of rain the last 3 weeks and no leaks, but like you I have lost confidence in the brand in general due to the lack of customer support for design/manufacturing problems. I am still considering a Suzuki Vitara next, just wondering what you got as a replacement?

 

Hi Stubod,

We went for a Jeep Renegade. We were lucky enough to find a new unregistered car which ticked all the boxes. Similar characterful feel to the Yeti. Not nearly as refined as the Karoq, Nor our Yeti, come to mention, but brings a smile to our faces.

The headroom and ride position is good and we found we could do without a pano-roof! 

Key for us was that, as it was unregistered, we got a 5 year manufacturer guarantee and a good price due to manufacturer support (Jeep is trying to build the brand in the UK). Doubt we will keep it beyond the 5 years due to it being mechanically and electrically a Fiat and we calculate that depreciation costs will be around £3,000/year over that period - so more costly than the Yeti would have been had we kept in for 5 years (but not, in fact, after the hit we took on  the trade sale of the Yeti).

[StuH78]

To be honest I found Captain Tolley to be pretty useless, I've found this to be far superior; https://www.flytesofancy.co.uk/chickenhouses/Burgess-Marine-Creepy-Crackseal--100ml--CCSEAL.html.  I found the Burgess stuff on a marine forum were members recommend it and don't recommend Captain Tolley.  

[elisetype25]

Well it's been a challenging few weeks. Probably applied 12 to 15 applications of Tolleys over the dry days we've seen.

 

No change, still significant ingress on the passenger side. The volume of recent downpours has also resulted in overflow in the roof console. This creates a rather entertaining waterfall effect from behind the rear view mirror when going downhill or under braking.

 

Decided an alternative approach was required, so applied some black silicone around the joint. I did notice that the joint also runs across the inner edge of the cassette and that there was a 1mm square area at the intersection of the upright and base where the the two sections meet.

 

Still to no avail. Heavy rain again last night and although the carpets are not sodden, the water is still running down past the bonnet release and around the base of the door seal.

 

Now seriously considering removing the fuse and sealing the roof. Although I'll probably attempt another fix in the spring.

 

The one thing I do know is that will be the last VAG car I ever buy.

 

Will let you how things progress.

 

Regards to all.

 

 

[moris]

My latest remarks,

 

Sealing roof doesnt help for me, i have water inside, now in less quantity than before and only in upper windshield location, just  below roof panel.

After sealing windshield water  is still there, but it is very low quantity, just few drops, but this is misleading for the quantity, because of the roof panel form.

 

@elisetype25, you could see above what materials i have used for sealing the roof. Don't use silicone or glue. it is only one way road with permanent fixing. Wait for good weather for few weeks, or use close place, temp should be more than 10o .

 

Cheers

George

[Dunkf]

Since reading the instructions from the OP I have been using Captain Tolley’s whenever the weather allows (plus keeping roof open when driving as much as possible) and have (almost) stopped the leaks. I also siliconed the drain hoses and used heat-shrink tubing on all inlet and outlet connections.

after a lot of rain the other day, I had a small amount of condensation on the windscreen, but nowhere near as much as I have had.

one small problem I do have is that whilst adding Captain Tolley’s the wind blew back the wind deflector and snapped the plastic mounting points.

I’m currently epoxying them back together, but assume that as the plastic is old (2009) it’s probably going to fail again.

does anyone know a part number or somewhere that I can get a replacement?

Thanks

Dunk

[MrSquiggle]

@United232 as many others have said, thanks for the in depth info. 

 

I recently went overseas for three weeks to find that, following some intense rain before we left, the interior of our yeti had turned into a petri dish, sprouting a forest of mold throughout the interior. And it's almost certainly due to water that was pooling in the foot wells unbeknown to me. Not nearly the amount of water as in your case, but enough to spread beneath the carpet reaching as far back as the rear foot wells.

 

And so now I'm embarking on the remediation of our sun roof and stumbled across this handy guide!

 

I have identified that the drain hose on the nearside front is indeed blocked, so I will have to sort that out, but I also plan to make the repairs outlined in your report (which I've read with much interest) as i'd rather not take the chance of not sealing these gaps while i'm at it.

 

I have begun the process of removing the headlining to check the seals on the drain tubes and trace them down to free up the blockage. However I have hit a snag with the sun visor arm bracket removal. I've taken the screw out but the arm clip that recesses into the ceiling is stubborn to the point that I'm afraid i'll break it if I pull any harder, despite wiggling it every which way. Any tips? I've read about others on this forum who've had the same problem...

[moris]

7 hours ago, MrSquiggle said:

@United232 as many others have said, thanks for the in depth info. 

 

I recently went overseas for three weeks to find that, following some intense rain before we left, the interior of our yeti had turned into a petri dish, sprouting a forest of mold throughout the interior. And it's almost certainly due to water that was pooling in the foot wells unbeknown to me. Not nearly the amount of water as in your case, but enough to spread beneath the carpet reaching as far back as the rear foot wells.

 

And so now I'm embarking on the remediation of our sun roof and stumbled across this handy guide!

 

I have identified that the drain hose on the nearside front is indeed blocked, so I will have to sort that out, but I also plan to make the repairs outlined in your report (which I've read with much interest) as i'd rather not take the chance of not sealing these gaps while i'm at it.

 

I have begun the process of removing the headlining to check the seals on the drain tubes and trace them down to free up the blockage. However I have hit a snag with the sun visor arm bracket removal. I've taken the screw out but the arm clip that recesses into the ceiling is stubborn to the point that I'm afraid i'll break it if I pull any harder, despite wiggling it every which way. Any tips? I've read about others on this forum who've had the same problem...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDNJbHEyfeE

 or

search for vw golf sun visor removal

[Dogbox]

Hi All, As others have said , thanks @United232.

I can see I am very much 'not alone' with this one!  Anyone advise me how to treat the rear sections with Captain' T'? Mine leaks at the usual places on all but o/s rear position.  I have roof liner out and drains are all clear but water drips through at  the other 3 corners. I anticipate access to rear from the outside being difficult/ not possible.

 

[Paul52]

As the owner of a Yeti with a sunroof I follow this thread avidly. So far I've only had water appear in the cabin once and that day it was monsoon-like so I drive with my fingers crossed it was a one-off occurance!!  Unfortunately the number of Yetis with 16" wheels and sunroofs is probably too small to have statistacal significance but I do wonder whether the initial crack occurs when the car takes a serious jolt (a deep pothole ,say) and the deeper tyre depth compared to the usual 17" tyre is enough to give that little bit more cushioning. Although there are a decent number of Greenlines out there I believe they couldn't be specificied with a sunroof but also the 16" tyre fitted to those isn't as deep as those on the "Special Build" Yetis. Just a thought.

[Expatman]

I don’t know about the rest of you but pot holes around here are so numerous that I fear the suspension is going to wear a lot more quickly than when the roads were maintained. It seems that the jolting could potentially have a damaging effect on some parts of the bodywork but not sure if it could be blamed for damaging a sun roof. 

[mikeOS]

Thanks very much to you, United232 for your very thorough document. Brilliant stuff.

It would be great if you or somebody else who has used the Captain Tolley sealant method to fix a leaking sunroof in a Yeti could post a video of exactly where and how to apply it.

I think this would help enormously.

Also a link to the kind of syringe that's needed for the job.

Any takers?

[Stubod]

I also watch this thread with interest. I had all my "pipes" glued / sealed in place during the last service. I had only ever had a couple of minor leaks in 2 years of ownership and these were only a couple of minor drips (passenger side, a few drops running out from the bonnet release lever area). I think this was caused by that particular drain pipe being "squeezed" by over tightened cable ties reducing the effective area of the pipe. (The pipe was replaced during the "sealing process"). Did not have any leaks afterwards, but to be on the double safe side, (we have been having some terrible rain of late), I decided to tape up the roof with clear Gorilla tape. NB I stuck it to the glass roof and up to the edge of the rubber seal, (ie not on the paintwork). Seems to have remained in place so far, and I never open the roof anyway..... 

[mikeOS]

Hi Stubod - do you have a picture of how you use the Gorilla tape? That would be helpful.

 

Cheers

 

mikeOS

[Martinb100]

17 hours ago, mikeOS said:

Thanks very much to you, United232 for your very thorough document. Brilliant stuff.

It would be great if you or somebody else who has used the Captain Tolley sealant method to fix a leaking sunroof in a Yeti could post a video of exactly where and how to apply it.

I think this would help enormously.

Also a link to the kind of syringe that's needed for the job.

Any takers?

These will work just fine.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392602828582

[mikeOS]

Thanks Martin - they look good. I just need that video from somebody now about exactly where to put the sealant ...

 

Cheers,

 

mikeOS

[brummish]

Hi, please could @United232 (or anybody else who downloaded it) re-post the PDF document from the original post in this thread? The link seems to have expired.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Also thanks to everyone for the their contributions on this problem.

[br00n1e]

 Hope this is what you are looking for 

Yeti Panoramic Roof Leak.pdf

[brummish]

2 hours ago, br00n1e said:

 Hope this is what you are looking for 

Yeti Panoramic Roof Leak.pdf 912.04 kB · 3 downloads

 

Thanks very much!

[DenzilB]

United232 - many thanks for producing your detailed document. My 4 year old Yeti developed a leak at the beginning of the year - but I checked the drain tubes and they were all fine. Once I found your document it seemed clear to me that my problem seemed to be the same - I acquired some “Captain Tolley’s” and had a go at fixing it at the end of March. The joint between the aluminium extrusion and plastic section isn’t quite the same on my newer vehicle, but it was clearly the location to try. Of course, such a dry April that it wasn’t until a couple of days back that we had enough rain to test it out. All clear (or rather dry) so far! Thanks again.