draco

I never put the bolts back in. I covered up some of the holes in the back but didn't do anything with the front. I fear it may be me that has royalie stuffed up big time.

CWizard

Any resolution on this? I have exactly the same symptoms in my 2004 RX330. Water from the driver's side front sunroof drain is exiting into the drivers footwell through the same hole shown in the photos above. Most interestingly, I have confirmed that the sunroof drain tube (a) is NOT blocked, and (b) empties into a cavity right in front of the hole where the water drains into the footwell. (Used a small cable and a borescope to investigate). This cavity is formed by the body frame work, and seems to have only one opening to drain out the bottom, which is a seam in the metalwork where two pieces join. And that is only a slow drip. So the sunroof tube drains into this cavity, which fills and overflows into the driver's foot well. I can find no other drain mechanism for this cavity except to remove a rubber plug.
At this point my most pressing questions are: Where is the DS front sunroof tube supposed to drain to? And if it's into an enclosed body/frame cavity (as mine is), how is that cavity supposed to drain?
Many thanks,
Jerry

MC5Wes

If you have water on your floorboards. You have one of four things.

1 Someone left the window open.
2 You took the roof racks off and didn't fill in or cover the mounting bolts holes.
3 The Sunroof drains are plugged.
4 The Sunroof drains tubing has become disconnected somewhere before the opening on the bottom of the car.

If you are pouring water into the sunroof drain holes. And water is getting to the floorboards. It looks like the plastic tubing from the roof to the bottom of the car has become disconnected. Or the drain on outside of the car. Is plugged and water is backing up.

The best thing to do is get a can of Compressed air. And shoot it in to the sunroof drains. This should help you find the leak.

The hose may have become disconnected in the overhead area.

Also if you can take some pictures of the work you do. And post them to this thread.

CWizard

Thanks for the timely comments MC5, and Merry Christmas! You said "Or the drain on outside of the car. Is plugged and water is backing up." I'm pretty sure this is the problem. I have put compressed air into the drain tube at the sun roof and also run a steel cable from the roof through the tube to its end. I verified visually, using a borescope inserted into the hole in the side of the footwell (the hole where the water comes out onto the carpet, as shown in dracos' photo, above), that the cable comes out the end of the tube. This also served to verify that the tube I'm seeing inside this frame/body cavity is in fact the sunroof drain. When I pour water into the drain at the sunroof, it fills the cavity and overflows out the hole onto the carpet (again, verified using a borescope). So, as I say, I'm pretty sure the drain on the outside of the car is plugged. Can you, or anyone, please offer some guidance on how this drain can be unplugged, or even where it's located? I've removed fender liners and trim panels and cannot find anything that looks remotely like a drain hole. And I'll be glad to post photos if that will help.
Thanks again.
Jerry

MC5Wes

I have never had this problem. But from what I have read. There are 4 small drain holes in the sunroof area.

You never hear of anyone have water damage to the rear seat or driver side floorboards. So my guess is there is that the 4 holes in the roof connect together. Then through one plastic hose the water goes down the passengers side A frame pillar. Then down through floor boards to the ground.

Here are some videos I found.

Hope they help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV50pxBzleU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CiqO...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG_pBZ58WWk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdlKbTXuG58

MC5Wes

Also a couple of pictures I found. Im not sure if they are all from a second generation RX. But it still gives you an idea what to look for.

CWizard

MC5,
Great info, thanks again. I finally gave up on rolling around on the cold pavement and took the car to the dealer. They found the rocker panel drains to be clogged, mostly with pine needles. All fixed now, I hope.

draco

Where are the rocker panel drains on the car?

Jersey2J

Here's what Lexus did today: remove A Pillers and check moon roof drains. Both sides are clear and flowing. Checked a/c drain hose. It is outside and not leaking in cab. Water test front windshield. Did not see any leaks under A Pillers. Trying to see under dash and pulling carpet and matting back to see if water is leaking in. The matting is too wet to tell. Rec remove carpet and matting to dry and re-water test to find leak.

Any other ideas? Thanks so much!

draco

I had this issue resolved for my car. It took it into Toyota to investigate and they were able to find that it was a drainage hole in my car that was backed up. Hence when the water flowed, it would eventually get to an overfill point and consequently empty out onto the carpet. They had checked the moon roof drains and cleared them out (but they were generally not that blocked). The Toyota tech explained to me that the moon roof pipes drain to a cavity where the water pools and drains out. The problem is that this cavity was blocked up and hence the cavity wouldn't empty and leak out. The Toyota tech actually extended the drainage tube (added another drainage tube onto the existing drainage tube) to go immediately out of the car instead of the original design of pooling into this cavity. Once they did this the problem was resolved. They too cleaned out the cavity as well.

Jersey2J

Thanks so much. I've printed both pages of this thread and am bringing them to my mechanic.

JC85

I have 96 es300 and I have a similar problem... I have water puddling on the front passenger floor and the rear passenger door... I have had the problem for a month.. finally signed up here and read this thread and now I can see the ceiling around the sunroof is soaked... I'm guessing the sunroof drain is blocked?

HokieCJ7

Where is the cavity located? I have a lot of water under my carpet. More on the drivers side, than the passengers side, with some water on the floor behind the front seats.

I have removed the carpet, and cleaned everything, and have also poured water into the sunroof drains and saw that it did drain out into all four corner wheel wells. I have not seen any water drain into the car while doing this though, so I am not sure if the sunroof is the culprit, or that the cavity is not full yet and overflowing into the interior of the car.

If someone could tell me where the cavity is located I may be able to tell if this is the issue.

Thanks!!!

draco

Unfortunately I'm not sure where that cavity is. I would recommend getting into to a shop, having them put it up on a lifter and then fixing it from there. I even went through the effort of removing the side rocker panel and still couldn't find the thing.

txt

If the sunroof drains are not clogged then you can check the AC evaporator drain hose.
Turn on the AC and if no water drips down then the hose is clogged.
Push a string trimmer line up the evap drain hose to clear the clog.