I’ve got a Skoda Fabia MK2 2008

 

I’ve recently noticed that my back seats are wet and there’s water in the boot trunk;

 

I’ve narrowed it down to the sliding roof, specifically, the rear drains — front ones drain perfectly.

i couldn’t see them, so I bought a spring wire for skins & drains to clean them. They went in pretty smooth — insterted from the rear end, and I could even see it coming from the other end, from under the sliding roof.

 

however, it still leaks when I pour water. It’s weird as there is some water going into the drain and some leaking from the rear A pillars. I would imagine it could be fissured somewhere, but I doubt both left&right were fissured..

 

any thoughts? I’ll probably just go on and remove the headliner to see exactly what’s going on.

I would be careful with spring wire... I would choose the plastic/nylon type pull wire that electricians use. Its quite cheap from Toolstation or Screwfix, etc but thinner and gentle. It has a metal bit at the end but is still safer then those wires. 

You say fissures- I assume you mean a break or tear in the tubing. Some of this type of drains has very soft, rubber-like tubing similar to windscreen wash pipes, others have more rigid plastic and some may even have channeling. Any of these could become split over time and also they may become detached from the point where they join the sunroof frame. It IS quite conceivable that they have both become damaged although this does seem unlikely on the offset.

 

My daughter had a Clio which had a channel but no drainage so in poor weather, the roof filled to overflow and on going round corners, the roof water poured into the car! The solution was a replacement rubber seal around the sunroof. This limits/prevents water ingress to a fair degree but over time, can only fail again!

 

You say you inserted the tool from the other end, to the roof. Have you tried the other way too? If this proves difficult for anything other then initial access, it might suggest the inner tubing has become detached or split!

 

Headlining out may be the only option then. Be gentle with the lining as its not much more then a glorified egg box and can damage/bend easily. There will certainly be lots of bits and bobs to remove too, such as inner door grab handles, pillar trims, etc.

Has the car been rear ended?

Is this the kind of roof? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w3RRP_3oEzo

 

First thing to do is check drains as mentioned. Use nylon strimmer wire. Clean drainage channels with mild detergent and hot water. The sunroof seal is not meant to be watertight, simply to allow the majority of water to bead off the car, and any water that penetrates to enter the channel or cassette and exit via the drains.

 

Not overly familiar with this sunroof, but may have just fixed a major fault with Audi Allroad panoramic roof (similar issue to Yeti).

 

If accessing roof lining, take your time. Easy to damage if you're hauling at handles, A pillar trim, etc. Weak point is the drainage tubes where they connect with the sunroof cassette. Again, investigation will pinpoint with roof lining off to a point.

Thanks a lot for all the advice everyone! It was really good.

I ended up taking out the headliner. I took my time as you said and fortunately, I haven't destroyed anything, apart from chipping the airbag clips a bit.

 

Here's a video with the leak.

I've added some pictures as well. Blue tubes are the rear ones.

 

@spartacus68 Yes, that's the roof. I think you were right; the drainage tubes' connection with the sunroof cassette is poor -- on both left and right rear drainage tubes; the leak comes from there. I presume this is due to a bad design.

 

The connection for the rear drainage are made of plastic as you can see in the pictures (brown tube), whereas the front ones are with a silicone rubber. The front ones seems like a much better choice.

 

How do you reckon I should fix this?

Should I add some silicon sealant OR buy & fit similar connections as the front tubes have? OR do you have an even better idea?

 

Wanted to add that some of the water does go through the tube, thus the tube isn’t blocked.

Blimey, that's a trip and a half! Amazing just how much water damage can happen if the car was left for a prolonged period, say airport car park while you enjoy a fortnight in the sun.

 

I'd use a specialist marine sealant, such as Sikaflex 291. Do it on a dry day, pull front drain tubes off, dry, then add a light bead of Sikaflex on the plastic cassette drain, then reapply the drain tubes. I'd add a light bead of Sikaflex around the drain tube edge to completely seal. You can smooth off with white spirit. Wear nitrile gloves.

 

I've hopefully fixed the sunroof on my other car (A4 Allroad), as this fault is common on most panoramic sunroofs, and relates to where metal carrier is fused with the plastic cassette carrier. Used a product called Captain Tolley from the outside which effectively seals using capillary action. Clever stuff, and looking forward to getting rid of plastic sheeting.