Leaking Sunroof/Moonroof

Got to clean those drain holes. They get spiders/debris in them over time. It sucks super hard when it happens (happened in my forester years ago) It’s just the way it is.

 

I am sorry to hear that. I am definitely not ready for that to happen...I knew the first time I saw it that it was a terrible design. Essentially water is coming into your vehicle and going through drain rails. The only thing separating the drains rails from the interior of your vehicle is a headliner.

Like others have said, I am trying to stay up on cleaning those drains out. Still not an excuse for that design IMO.

 

I check my channels to make sure they’re clean. Haven’t had any water drip in the truck but I have noticed that they have been damp. If it rains really hard no leaks yet seems to be draining. I’m really glad I got my sunroof. I use it all the time. I also go through automatic car washes with no issues.

 

Where and which drains handle the sunroof water, so I can keeps tabs on them?

 

This may help...

https://youtu.be/MOQWehtoGyw?si=hhPMvaLH6NGYeVEu

 

My 02 Land Cruiser had the same issue. My understanding is that leaking is normal, it’s expected, hence why drain lines are installed with a sunroof or moonroof. When my sunroof motor crapped out, I fixed the leaking with some RTV gasket maker and sealed it up for good. Fast forward to my switch to my 23 Tacoma, no sunroof was actually a selling point for me for the Off-road vs the Pro, as I bought this truck wanting to keep it forever, and I can speak from experience when I know sun roofs are just constantly leaking. You can’t blame Toyota, it’s part of the design of any sunroof. A gigantic hole in your roof with a rubber seal around it to seal it will always allow some water in, the question is are your drains up to the required workload for that rain storm (or that car wash).

 

Mine is a 2016 and leaked for about a year and a half and I went on an all out mission to figure out what was going on, especially since it damaged the sunroof motor and would drip inside the cab on turns and hills, most of all I couldn't find the "closed" position on the sunroof any more which made it really leak.

TLDR: Replacing the rubber gasket that goes around the glass. About $75 and 90 minutes of work.

Long story:
Water started dripping on me from the roof console. The one-touch open/close on the sunroof stopped working, then it started making a whining sound as the sunroof opened and close. And eventually there was no more "closed" position. It would go straight from sliding close to popping into the vent position.

I got a USB endoscope camera and setup the garden hose to run a sheet of water over the sunroof. It leaked so much in the corners they weren't drops but a constant stream. The drains (never cleaned and I park under a tree) had no problems moving the water. They leaked particularly bad in the front corners. The sunroof track system has a design problem (I dropped the headliner to see at one point) where if water drips on the 2 piece cover that hides the toothed belt, it will get into the belt system and drain into the motor and that's what was happening to me. I initially siliconed all the seams around that part of the belt system but then the water ran across the top which seemed even worse to me. I 3d printed some caps and diverters that I glued to the tops of the belt covers. Those moved the water into the gutters and out the drains. That MOSTLY fixed the problem but not fully.

It wasn't until I replaced the gasket that I realized that although the original gasket was making contact with the sheetmetal, there wasn't enough force to make a firm seal. To gauge, with the original gasket I could easily slide a business card between the rubber and the metal, but with the new gasket I couldn't without enough force to bend the card. Now problem is solved. There's no water leaking even with a direct stream of water from the garden hose at a single point on the seal.

 

Was yours a slight drip on the backside? And if so, what have you done or what has anyone else told you about it. Totally normal or abnormal. I got the same issue with my 23' tacoma and 50/50 are saying its normal and abnormal

 

A little late but im having similar issue with my 23 offroad, drips right above the catch tray. What have else have you noticed after noticing this issue, no seepage on headliner or anything?

 

I just rode it out and never had any issues. It was definitely a poor design, but thankfully it never leaked inside the cabin. I did get one of these cheap pipe cleaners and cleaned it out a couple of times...There are videos on Youtube how to do it.

$7 ICEYLI 2 Pack 60" Long Flexible Tube Cleaning Brush, Stainless Steel and Nylon Bristles, Suitable for Home Kitchen, Fish Tank, Water Pump Accessories, and More

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MQCNTQY?ie=UTF8

I sold mine in December and my 24' Pro was loaded on the ship on August 18th. I am hoping to have it soon.

Good luck!

 

Congratz in the new Taco! In the time of your ownership it has always dripped like that in the back seals? Str8 to the catch tray id assume

 

Im crossing my fingers i dont come across it leaking into the cabin. Its more so small drips going into that tray but it was not pouring rain like crazy. Had I not inspected it though i would not have seen it. In my 8 months of ownership i just realized it now, so all the other times it rained it probably did the exact same. Im going to have to check the surrounding headliner areas if its moist and also check the drains on it.

 

I caught mine the first day I purchased it because it was raining. It stayed at the dealership for an extra week and no one could figure it out. What they finally came back with is, "it is designed this way."

I never had any issues with it coming in the cabin, but I have read that people who parked on large inclines during heavy storms did get water inside. You just have to make sure those drain tubes are cleaned and clear. You get leaves and everything else that builds up in those tubes and then the water can't empty from the bottom. There are several videos on Youtube that show exactly how far down those drain tubes go.

 

Will check it first thing tomorrow. I have contacted the dealer service manager and Im anticipating for him to also claim that it is designed that way but I will wait for his response

 

I dealt with a leaking sunroof for about a year that eventually burned out the sunroof motor. I bought a usb camera on the end of a semi flexible cable I can connect to my phone so I could find it.
My truck is parked outside 100% of the time under a tree. I live in the PNW so it rains a ton. This is what I can say.
1. If you put the end of your garden hose (without a nozzle) on your roof and turn in on fully so that most of the water is running over your sunroof, you should have ZERO leakage.
2. The sunroof is not watertight but it's also not designed to leak meaningful amounts of water. It should be more or less waterproof in heavy rain.
3. The way that the sunroof is designed, if you have leakage in the front corners of the windshield, it is highly likely to drain directly into the channels that carry the belt that opens and closes the sunroof. Those channels drain directly into your sunroof motor.

After many attempts including completely removing the headliner, turns out that replacing the rubber gasket around the sunroof glass fixed it more me. My rubber gasket was in good shape and making good contact with the metal. I slid a piece of heavy paper between the roof and the rubber seal and slid it around and found the front corners, while making 100% contact, was just a bit looser than everywhere else. I bought a new one <$100 online and was easy to do. The circuit board on my motor was toast. A Tacoma specific sunroof motor is almost $500. But all the Toyota motors are very interchangeable between any recent Toyota. I'm sporting a Rav4 motor from eBay for $50 and it works just fine.

 

We also have a 2024 Highlander XLE with the smaller sunroof. It leaks in the car wash worse than any GM, Ford or Chrysler I had growing up. Needless to say my Subarus and Hondas never had this problem.

sounds like replacing the gasket myself might help. After that I might pull the fuse and kill the sunroof. Then vinyl wrap the roof and hope that this brand new Toyota leaks less water than Toyota corporate itself, which appears to be a sinking ship.

 

Sorry for a very late reply. It's a slight drip on the backside, but I haven't done anything about it as I only saw it with a lot of water and every sunroof I've ever had leaked a little. The panoramic sunroof in my 2017 F-150 I traded for the Tacoma leaked an alarming amount of water on both sides at the midway point, but it was all caught by the drainage tray and never wet the headliner.

 

Just got a brand new Gen 4 2025 Tacoma TRD sport Premium. a few days after (430Km)I picked the truck at the Dealer there was some rain and my Head liner was soaked. Took the truck back to the dealer and they could not find where water was coming from. After another 5 days it rained again and I kept myself busy reseaarching on the web possibilities for the problem and found a few videos on clogged Moonroof drains.

Tried to clean with some weed waker line but it only was able to push in the hole about 4 inches. Took it back to the dealer and explained what was happening and even got videos of the water pooling on the driver side and not moving down the hole, instead was driving inside the cab.

The dealer opened the column liner and the head liner and found that when the truck was build (in Mexico) the plastic hose got pinched and created a kink so water was not passing. They tried to fix the kink with no success and it is still not giving water passage.

They ordered a new hose and it will be all covered by warranty, but looks like it might take between two weeks and two months to get that replaced and fixed, meanwhile I will be driving a submarine during spring break(rain season)

Very frustrating considering I have been driving different Toyota models with moonroofs for the last 20 years and never had any issues with that. And the worst part is that I contacted Toyota Canada costumer service and they told me on the Phone that the dealer is the one that needs to take care of it, and they can do nothing.

 

You've revived a very old thread on the 3rd gen forum
you say you have a 4th gen

 

Yes, my is a 2025 (4th Gen) TRD Tacoma Sport Premium.