My car is a Clio 1.2i 3-door Oasis with manual roof. In taking the roof out, I noticed that there is NO DRAINAGE whatsoever. No pipes, holes, grills, anything.
Anyway, this is how I fixed mine:
This is for the MANUAL ROOF only.
I have no idea if the electric roof is the same.
This method is not for the squeamish, as you will be cutting the interior roof liner. If you have the time and the patience, you can remove the entire liner.
However, be warned that it is stuck to the roof with mastick, will take time to remove and is susceptable to damage if not done with extreme care.
**** DISCLAIMER ****
This is provided as advice only. This appears to have worked on my Clio 3-Door with manual sunroof. I cannot claim that this will work on this, or any other variation.
All I am doing is passing on how I fixed my leak. No guarentee, warranty or success rate is implied or expressed. You break it or get it wrong, don't come looking for me.
You will need:
To allow roughly four hours to do the job and another 24 for the sealant to cure.
T20 Torx Screwdriver
10 mm Spanner or socket
Stanley knife
Another person
Thompson Drain and roof Sealant (B&Q with the gutters) and dispensing gun
A garage or car cover is useful - just in case. ;-)
A driveway makes life a lot easier, especially when removing the sunroof itself. (You can have the doors open without worrying about passing traffic)
Drill and 5mm Steel bit
A fan heater if you're doing this on a cold day
24 hours without a car
White Spirit
Cloths
Patience
To read these instructions through, twice, before you even think of starting.
Remove top of dashboard (open doors remove 1 screw from each end of dash, remove 3 across top, remove dash).
Undo screws at bottom of A-Pillar covers by windscreen.
Remove grab handles (front and back) (pop-open panels at each end).
Remove sunvisors and retention clips (3 screws each in total, clips are a pain to remove).
Remove centre roof unit (5 screws, inc winder).
Remove black rubber from round the inside of the sunroof, where it connects to the roof liner.
Remove plastic top door trim completely (pops out).
Cut roof liner 3 inches back from where the sunroof "hump" is.
Carefully split the 2 halves of liner (mastick has been used to bond to the roof).
(2 People) Carefully remove front section of liner from car (is held in place by the white clips used to hold the door trims in place).
Remove 8 x 10mm bolts from exposed inner sunroof mounting. (4 from the front and 4 from the back)
(2 People, 1 holding, 1 removing) Remove remainder of bolts.
Carefully remove inner sunroof mounting from car (carefully as could be full of water!).
(2 People outside, 1 either side of car, both front windows open) hand thru window, push rear of sunroof up, push sunroof towards back of car and remove.
Lay the outside section of the sunroof upside down and support at either end. (otherwise you are letting the glass take all the weight.)
Wipe away all traces of water and dirt etc from the inside of the roof (makes possible future tracing easier).
Clean 2" round the edge of the hold in the roof, make sure it's completely clear. (You might see a mark in the paint from the original seal).
Now clean it again. You must be 100% sure that this it completely clear of debris.
Clean the inner mounting. Drill a couple of 5mm holes vertically about 10mm behind the rubber located at the front corners. (These will be your inspection holes. Saves waiting to see if the inner mounting fills up to see if you've been successful.)
Clean the underside of the black plastic edge section, especially the existing seal
Now clean it again. You must be 100% sure that this it completely clear of debrise.
(2 People) replace the outside section of sunroof
(2 people) replace the inside section of sunroof, all bolts - HOWEVER: only do the bolts up 2 and 1/2 turns.
Cut the nozzle of the sealant to allow a 6 mm bead
(2 people) 1 person inside pushing the whole sunroof up, so the outside is lifted clear of the bodywork. 1 person starting in the middle at the back of the unit, dispense the sealant as deeply as possible (don't be shy with the sealant: better too much than not enough). When you arrive back at the start, ensure your new seal overlaps with itself. Go round again
Once the sealant is done, tighten all the bolts on the inner section of sunroof.
Remove excess sealant using white spirit and cloths.
If it's a cold day, run the fan heater inside the car for about 4-5 hours, prop the heater on the steering wheel so the air-flow is directed at the sun-roof. (you need to alternate pointing at different sides of the car.)
Leave for 24 hours (the curing time of the sealant) as in DO NOT drive the car. The seal needs to be as good as possible, so it needs not to be disturbed.
After 24 hours, wash the car. DO NOT JET WASH THE SUNROOF!
Check the 5mm inspection holes to see if the leak has persisted. If it has, you did something wrong or your car/sunroof are badly warped!
If all is dry, reassemble the interior (reverse order - so roof liner first. You might want to put some form of grip-fix/no nails on the top of the liner, but it's not a necessity)
If you want to leave the liner out for a week or so to have a longer time to check for leaks, that's down to you. We were happy to drive around sans-liner to ensure the job was sucessful.
The Thompson sealant was chosen as is it supposed to be rubber-based and quite flexible once cured. Alot of other sealants were either not flexible enough or were not designed for "constant wet use".
We did weigh-up putting the sealant on before replacing the roof to ensure that it got right into the corner where the our section goes through the bodywork. The only concern we had with this was the disturbance of the sealant as the roof was replaced, as it needs to be angled in, not just dropped in.
Good Luck!
Alex
January 2009
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