Sunroof leak during heavy rain, Citroen Saxo

[Uriil]

I struggled to find information with illustrations, hopefully it will be useful for Saxo owners.
Issue didn't exist until 2 weeks ago when we had heavy rains in the UK. after that rain i started to drive and water was dripping from central interior roof light panel (where light and sunroof handle located, check picture).
First of all you can't clean drain pipe from sunroof because 2 holes(both are in front only) are hidden behind sunroof alluminum rail. The only way to check them is to remove handle above the door, sun shield and plastic cover from pillar, this will allow you to remove roof headliner.
I still dont fully understand why it was leaking. My sunroof frame corners are not rotten, water drains when i check my pipes, car roof aerial is dry.
Maybe my 26 yo sunroof rubber seal let too much water inside and 2 hole couldn't handle it. Or because i was parked with front part of the car higher than rear, water collected below 2 drain hole, when i started to drive it all couldn't leak from 2 drains immidiately and the rest of the water poured from the unsealed gap near sunroof handle. It's my only guess.

[mickthemaverick]

Thanks for posting that

[Stickyfinger]

Check the seal around the base of the ariel as well.....
You could try "rodding" from the wheel arch end up if you do not want to dismantle anything.....they [may be] blocked partially and overwhelmed by the downpours we had ?

[John Pankhurst]

Are there any drains at the rear corners? If the car was tipped back then drains there should have got rid of the water. I used a curtain wire to poke up the drain tubes, the drains on the BX can be accessed behind the rear lights, could the AX be similar.

[Uriil]

Are there any drains at the rear corners? If the car was tipped back then drains there should have got rid of the water. I used a curtain wire to poke up the drain tubes, the drains on the BX can be accessed behind the rear lights, could the AX be similar.

Saxo has only 2 front drain pipes, it's 100%

[Uriil]

When i first found topic where people found leak from aerial, it looked to me as an obvious cause which is also very easy to fix. But unfortunately it's not the reason i my case: solidly attached, not even little gap available. When it was leaking - aerial fixing was dry (i could see it when removed the light).

[Uriil]

Check the seal around the base of the ariel as well.....
You could try "rodding" from the wheel arch end up if you do not want to dismantle anything.....they [may be] blocked partially and overwhelmed by the downpours we had ?

No access from wheel arch(removed plastic arch cover and checked) or anywhere underneath the car.
I applied silicone mannol spray to the sunroof seal, will see how it will be after next strong rain

[Stickyfinger]

If you are confidant about the ability of the drains (they are always worth a good rodding however to rule them out), move onto

Clean the rubber seals (unlikely the reason)
Check the ariel seal, I have had a Xantia, a SAXO and an Ax all produce water from the headliner edge/headliner light fitting so it is a common problem.....it might look ok but they get dry and are under a lot of air pressure/water flow/screen wash fluid when driving.

[Stickyfinger]

Check the seal around the base of the ariel as well.....
You could try "rodding" from the wheel arch end up if you do not want to dismantle anything.....they [may be] blocked partially and overwhelmed by the downpours we had ?

No access from wheel arch(removed plastic arch cover and checked) or anywhere underneath the car.
I applied silicone mannol spray to the sunroof seal, will see how it will be after next strong rain

The pipe comes down inside to the side kick panel (right foot/drivers side-- left side left foot trim) and goes into the inner wing/bottom of the sill.....remove the small piece of trim to see where it passes through.

The WORST case is that the inner roof structure under the drain corners have rooted out....these areas cannot be seen without dropping the headliner.

We seem to have posted at the same time

Here is the drawing of the sunroof frame showing the inner and upper seals and rubber glass seal.

[Uriil]

Check the seal around the base of the ariel as well.....
You could try "rodding" from the wheel arch end up if you do not want to dismantle anything.....they [may be] blocked partially and overwhelmed by the downpours we had ?

No access from wheel arch(removed plastic arch cover and checked) or anywhere underneath the car.
I applied silicone mannol spray to the sunroof seal, will see how it will be after next strong rain

The pipe comes down inside to the side kick panel (right foot/drivers side-- left side left foot trim) and goes into the inner wing/bottom of the sill.....remove the small piece of trim to see where it passes through.

The WORST case is that the inner roof structure under the drain corners have rooted out....these areas cannot be seen without dropping the headliner.


We seem to have posted at the same time

Here is the drawing of the sunroof frame showing the inner and upper seals and rubber glass seal.

Luckily mine isn't rotten at all (check photo).

Did you clean drain pipe from underneath on Saxo yourself? I removed plastic cover in wheel arch, also checked disassembling videos. Pipe cannot be reached from underneath.
Also it cleaner and easier to reach pipe from headliner