During moderate or heavy rain there is a spot about the size of a dime that gets saturated and begins to drip onto my left thigh.

The exact location the best I can describe it is near the top of the window on the drivers side but it's not part of the door. I guess you could say it was at 11 o clock from the drivers perspective.

I imagine it could be coming from either the windshield or the sunroof.

Is this something I should take to the dealership?

Any chance I could fix this myself?

Just curious.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Scrim '95 maxima 176k

 

I assume you have a sunroof so here it is........


The sunroof has drains on the 4 corners of its assembly (2 in the front and 2 in the rear). There are clear silicone hoses that connect to a drainage tube connected to your front and rear pillars. I bet the front left tube is disconnected or defective and that's why you could be getting the leak.

If you want to do this yourself (which I recommend), you will need to remove you roof liner and everything will be visible so you can inspect it thoroughly.

 

And most likely, it's the sunroof drain hoses. However, since something similar has happened to me and it wasn't because of the drain hoses, I would suggest this if your drain hoses are clear:

With your sunroof fully closed, open up your sunshade, have a friend pour water over the sunroof. From the inside, look at the sunroof edges and corners, see if any water is getting in.

Also see if the seal around the sunroof is worn/torn and if your sunroof is slanted. A slanted sunroof could cause water to collect in the sunroof rail (it cannot drain out) and might make its way inside.

BTW, the spot that saturates, is that in your headliner? Try to describe the location in relation to the driver sunvisor or imaginary handle (if the driver side had the same overhead handle as the one on the passenger side).

 

From this board I've learned that the spot that is getting saturated is probably the A pillar. It's on the same part of the car that has the overhead handle on the passenger side. To give perspective the spot is probably three inches forward and one inch down from the front of the handle.

I am going to take it to a private shop next week armed with all the information I've gotten from this board. I'm expecting to pay around $400 or so. Is that reasonable would you think?

 

scrim67

If it's on the same part of the car that has the overhead handle on the passenger side, it's not the a-pillar. The a-pillar is the metal bars that run along your front winshield, the b-pillar is the one for the seat belt, the c-pillar is the bars that run along the back windows (past the door). Together, the bars support the roof.

If you had an SUV, then you'd have a d-pillar.

The spot you're describing, sounds like it's on the headliner, at the roof edge. Very very interesting. If you take off your driver sunvisor, and driver b-pillar trim, you should be able to pry of the headliner carefully at the edge and see if you can pinpoint the leak.

Personally, I'm not comfortable taking a shop's word and paying $400 if they say so ... they might simply plug the leak with silicone and make up some mumbo-jumbo repair story and charge you $400. It's your call. If you're up for it, check it out yourself first. Silicone is man's best friend when it comes to leaks.

 

I pulled my windshield trim off and poured water into the sunroof drain hole on the driver side. Water poured right into the car. So I'm assuming my drain tube is disconnected. What 's the easiest way to fix? Pop off the roofliner.. I don't know it looks up there....