My sunroof seal is letting in too much water (had to replace headliner because of this) and overwhelming the drains. The drains are totally clear and flow water well (checked properly while headliner was out). The sunroof seal has been replaced and made no difference. No matter how the sunroof glass is adjusted (4 torx screws) the seal does not stop enough water. Water literally flows past the seal in some places. I was hoping the original seal was worn and the new seal would correct the issue, but it has not. The seal (on my car at least) does not appear to sufficiently bridge the gap between the panel and the roof opening. Someone else must have run into this and I am hoping they can shed some light.

BTW. for those that are interested I will be doing a seperate post on the headliner replacement.

Thanks in advance

 

Any pics?

 

Not sure what pictures you would like. With the sunroof glass in place and closed, the only way to know how much water is coming in is to open the inner panel all the way so that I can put my hand in toward the back (above me when sitting in the drivers seat). We had extremely heavy rain here in ontario yesterday and water was coming down the c pillar from the headliner and going underneath the rear seat and then onto the floor behind the drivers seat. I spoke to an aftermarket sun roof company and they told me if a single piece of paper goes between the seal and the opening then the gap is too big. I can fit a couple of sheets with no friction in places.

 

I was wondering if the fit could be visually confirmed...ive seen mine so much during cleaning, it might be obvious with pics if the seal is the incorrect size, something is missing, or misaligned. Without a direct comparison to another XJ next to yours, this forum is your best bet to see anything unusual. Pics from top, side, from cabin looking up, etc.

 

Unfortunately I have added some temporary rubber gasket (about 1/8 inch thick) to the roof opening to keep the water out until I can figure out a better fix, so taking a picture now would not show much. That said a camera may not show the problem anyway given that we are talking the width of a pice of paper or two. However, before doing adding the additional gasket material I did fit the glass panel to the car without the factory seal to see if the gap was equidistant around the perimeter and it was. The strange thing is it is almost exactly the same distance as the seal is thick. I would have expected the seal to be slightly larger in order to keep most water out and also keep wind noise to a minimum. I have been to a jaguar dealer to see other used XJ's and the fit of the sunroof on those does appear slightly better but not much.

The new seal on mine fits well to the sun roof and I can not see where anything could be missing. I must admit (although it may sound unlikely) I am beginning to think:

1. The opening may be slightly larger than it should be

2. The seal is a bad design (keep in mind that the complaint of wind noise is heard very often on the forum)

My next idea is to use some of that stone chip protector film to try and decrease the size of the opening by a couple of mm. I have to see how thick this film is and if it can be applied to the inner edge of the roof opening.

 

I will take some pictures and post them tomorrow.

 

Here are some pics of the sunroof. It is difficult to show detail at the seal with the seal and temporary gasket in place.

 

Don't mean to hijack, but I'm curious, you were able to replace the seal by itself? I thought it was bonded to the glass.

 

The seal is just a push fit - sort of an arrow head shape into corresponding shape in the rim of the glass frame.

 

It looks slightly high, not fully closed...but it is dificult to tell, you are correct. I'm going to take some pics of mine and post up.

 

The angle the picture was taken at makes it look as if the sunroof panel is sitting high, but it's not. Try putting some paper (single sheet) between the sunroof panel and the opening and see if the paper goes in easily. On mine it goes in easily in some places (at the corners where the seal has to go a greater distance). In the other places at has only slight restriction. Now that I have added a temporary gasket the drainage system is not overwhelmed and no leaks onto the headliner. Keep in mind that I would never have known this if I had not recovered the headliner. Water comes down behind the rear seat (via the C pillar) and makes its way under the carpet behind the drivers or passenger seat. Because the carpet is thickly foam backed it requires a sunstantial amount of water to pool before the carpet looks saturated. Also I am starting to think parking on an uphill grade obviously makes the problem worser because the rear draind would have to cope with all the water rather than all 4 if parked on level ground.

Had a look at another XJ on a dealer lot and its sunroof was no beter sealed than mine. At this point everything I have found leads me to think it is a combination of a number of things:

1. Poor seal to roof mating surface design i.e. very little (if any) compression of the seal when sunroof is closed.
2. Manufacturing tolerances.
2. Parking on an upward slope.

When I get time I am going to remove the seal again and measure the distance between the sunroof edge and the opening in the roof. My guess is that the seal is the same width or slightly less than the gap. This would explain all the wind noise complaints (mine too) as well as too much water getting to the drains and overwhelming them. If the seal is too tight then it would probably wear out quicker and would also impact the operation of the automatic retraction if the system thinks it has detected an obstruction.

Other cars I have checked have a square profile seal (more surface contact) whereas Jaguars have a round profile (less contact patch as well as an area for the water to pool). A friend of mine has a 92 accord and the sunroof seal (original) is tight all the way around with a very good fit.

 

Unless the car is parked in a perfectly level garage, the camber of the road and slight slopes in the road will typically have all the water draining to one or at best two drain lines. And should there be any pooling in the sun roof gutter, that water will move as you accelerate, brake, or go around corners.

It might be worth checking that none of your drain lines are clogged. In my opinion, a significant weakness in the XJ's sunroof design is that the drain lines are way too small in diameter and thus clog easily. I have to clear the front two drain lines about once every year or two, and recently had to have the front passenger side line replaced as it drained very slowly at best of times (even when new). By comparison, my wife's Acura sunroof drain lines are roughly twice the diameter and have never needed clearing, and only once has her car become overwhelmed in very heavy rains. You would think the British would be experts in handling rain, but I don't think the British are experienced in handling the torrential dumps of rain that are common to Eastern North America.

 

While the headliner was out all 4 drains were checked and cleaned and all of them flow water well. The problem is that water gets past the sunroof seal faster than the drains can clear it.