The panoramic sunroof in my 19 ES started leaking a few weeks ago. It's been back to the dealer twice for it without resolution. It first started letting water in at front driver's side corner when I took it in the first time. The dealership said they couldn't replicate it leaking, but did adjust the fit of the glass against the seals. I wasn't upset, because it didn't leak all of the time and it didn't shock me that it didn't leak for them. I had the car for maybe a week and a half and it leaked on me three more times, and the fourth time I happened to be when I ran my car through the neighborhood car wash. I got a lot of water on my head and lap. The leak got worse and water is now coming in the left front corner and the middle. The dealership is only a few miles away so I drove straight there and showed my service advisor and tech. They were initially very responsive and acted appreciative of me bringing in the car to see it dropping water. They said they'd order new seals and replace them under warranty. That sounded fair to me and I was happy.

Fast forward 4 business days after dropping it off, and I get a text right before closing saying Lexus won't warranty it, so come pick it up. So yeah, I'm not thrilled. It's gone through the same car wash 3 to 5 times a week for the past two years and has been completely leak free until now, and got worse after they fiddled with it.
Yes my sunroof was closed and I hadn't opened it for months (and I'm the only driver of this car). Yes I'm aware that automatic carwashes are not great for the paint, this is my daily driver for a 120mi roundtrip commute plus work trips. Suffice it to say wash induced swirls are the least of my paints' concern and the lesser of evils. This isn't a high pressure, brushless wash either. With the condition of the seal now, I'd be soaked if I ran the car through one of those. And so would my interior.

Is this a common problem other folks are having on here? This is the first serious issue I've had with this car and I'm not thrilled with the lack of support from my dealer. Kind of just needed to vent
Here's it dripping after, with I would have captured it shooting out into the car

 

What is the reason why they are saying it isn't covered by the bumper-to-bumper warranty? It sounds like you put a lot of miles on the car. Are you past the 50,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty limit?

 

Why isn't that covered under warranty? Hasn't happened to me, but if it did I would expect it to be covered under warranty.

 

I think the car has something like 35,000mi, definitely still in the warranty period. I guess I'm lucky in this case that I have been able to spread some miles out over our other cars the last 1-2 years. Plus my miles are down somewhat during the pandemic. Otherwise in normal times I'd probably be out of the original warranty by now.

Lexus' stance is that it's the car wash's fault and there's no repair needed. Here's the text from the dealership:

 

That response is unconscionable. I would raise heck.

 

Actually, that is a very common issue and there really is nothing they can do about it. Now, if it leaks when raining, that's a different story. Over the years, back when I was lazy and went to auto car washes, I had 2 vehicles that leaked like that in a certain car wash. I just remembered to bring towels with after the first couple of times, or I went to a different place. All seals have a weak point.

 

Wow - I guess I rarely go through an automatic car wash so never experienced that. Perhaps the pano roofs are more susceptible to leaks? I know the standard sunroofs have drains through the A pillars so even if water gets through the seals, it should not enter the cabin unless the drains are clogged.

 

I can't say that I've checked the 2 pano roofs that I have, but I'm assuming that they have drainage systems similar to those on standard sunroofs.

But I think that is related to the point that Lexus service is making to the OP. The sunroof seals on any car are not going to be 100% effective in stopping all water from getting by them, but the "gutter" around the perimeter of the sunroof should, under normal circumstances, collect any water that gets by the seals, and that water should drain through the tubes that run through the A pillars and let the water out under the car. So, it could be the case that, with an ultra high pressure car wash and with water being sprayed at various angles, the volume of water getting by the seals is too large for the system to drain that water fast enough, and that is when the water is entering the cabin.

Thus, Lexus seems to be saying that the drainage system is considered to be failing and it is a problem only if the leaking into the cabin occurs when it is raining and not with the unnatural situation of a high pressure car wash.

Also, I'm assuming that the Lexus dealer did check to make sure that the drainage lines are not clogged. That would be the first thing that I checked, and I would do that before trying to make any adjustments/changes to the seals.

 

It's just not logical - nearly every car manufactured these days has a sunroof so if car washes caused leakage like this, seems to me there would be widespread issues with all manufacturers.

 

I've never taken my pano roofed 6th gen ES through a high pressure car wash. My prior cars that had the same issue as the OP were of the standard variety.

 

It's not a high pressure wash in my case And this cars gone through it literally hundreds of times in the last two years without a leak until now. And it's worse since the dealer adjusted it the first time.

 

I would be concerned that it got worse after they looked at it. Do you notice it as it's happening? Like during the wash, or dry cycle.

I assume the weather in OH, currently, is not conducive to spraying a hose at various points on the roof to try and isolate the location of the leak. A hose is not considered high pressure, so if it were to leak then, you would have a case. Is your dealer close to you? Since you don't seem concerned with auto washes, I would use the dealers free wash service until you have more time to diagnose, since your dealer isn't motivated at this point.

Good luck!

 

Has the dealer’s cash wash caused leakage? Maybe if it has, they dried it up so as not to cover it. I would hate to learn that was the case.

 

You just need to keep complaining until something gets done. Either corporate, dealer manager, Google reviews, Youtube video.. There's plenty of ways these days for them to assist you IF being reasonable does not work.

 

I've never taken a Lexus in for warranty services when they didn't tell me it was working as designed, or they can't duplicate the issue. Every time, at least twice. On one of my cars, it took 4 trips before they discovered the cause. It turned out that my car was lowered (by Lexus, with Lexus parts when I bought it new), and the was a KNOWN issue with the shock tower.

Contact Lexus directly, and tell them they need to reconsider. I can't believe a leaking car that is still under warranty is acceptable to them. The idea that Lexus can't fix it makes no sense to me! They might not want to fix it, but they can. And they should.

In the meantime, take it back in and tell them it's far worse than it was before they "fixed" it. They clearly broke it, and they should fix it. Talk to the service manager, and next time use a different service writer.