Carina Leak In Roof. Help!

January 21, 2004

Hello,

I have a 1988 toyota Carina II (hatchback) with a leak in the roof that is driving me nuts.

Water had been filling the right rear pocket in the trunk, and after taking half the car apart, I found that the water was coming in from the roof (soaked the roof liner above the right rear headrest. This made me think it was a gasket around the hatchback. No luck.).

Anyway, I tried a bit of silicone along the molding on the roof (don't know what else to call those two grooves in the roof), and this seemed to fix the leak for a while, but now it is back.

I'm thinking of just buying a huge tube of silicone and completely filling the groove on the right side.

Any suggestions or reccomendations? Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Please respond to my email chrisdezorzi@hotmail.com.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

January 22, 2004

The groove you filled might have been a drain hole for the water. Does the groove go into somesort of channel somewhere that might be blocked - if there is a blockage then the water will find it's way in somewhere else.

January 22, 2004

The groove I filled in is....well, for lack of a better term, one of the two grooves on every roof of every car... When you look at the top of the roof, there are ususally two strips of moulding on the roof that are about 5 cm from the edge of the roof on the left and right.

The water was definitely coming in from the right one before (looks like the seal under the moulding was leaky), but I managed to seal it...but now it leaks again...

The moulding is on the outside of the car, not inside of it.

Anyways, I plugged the whole channel (Maybe there to keep rain from cascading down to the doors?) with silicone, and it is supposed to rain the next few days, so here goes nothing.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Thanks.

Chris

January 30, 2004

Yep I had exactly the same thing with mine. The source of the leak is actually the cable entry points from the tailgate. The plastic had weakened over time & they'd both popped out on mine. All you need do is get some industral silicone & seal them in. Oh & if you find the black border of the offside rear 1/4 window has come away in patches I'd leave it alone, it won't cause a prob & is an absolute nightmare to remove & then reseal.