Toyota RAV4 sunroof repair!

[Rannsachair]

Friends of mine run a top spec 2017 Rav4 Excel Hybrid that they bought at 3 years old from the nearest Toyota dealer, its been serviced by them every year and just hit 46k miles. A month or so ago they told me they were getting some water in behind the headlining and it was dripping on them and they asked the garage to look at it with their service - they said they cleared the drains at no cost.

Just after getting it back the first heavy rain and they were getting soaked worse than prior to the service and they could not open the sunroof anymore to check anything. I had a quick look and confirmed no fuses had blown though there was plenty water in the overhead switch panel for the sunroof so I advised taking it back to the Toyota garage.

The garage say the sunroof motor has failed and are quoting a repair cost of £1500 including £1000 for a sunroof motor! A quick google confirms that is in the ballpark of price for a new genuine Toyota motor!

They are in their mid 70's and are scunnered saying they will just trade it in rather than pay for the repair! to save hassle!

I am shocked at the cost of a sunroof repair and suspect the garage has put an airline on the sunroof drains and blown at least one of them off at the sunroof hence exacerbating the problem leading to the motor failure- though they have no proof.

I always try to avoid cars with sunroofs and am not offering to do the work as I have no workspace undercover. Pretty disappointing from a Toyota main dealer never mind how do Toyota justify £1000 for a sunroof motor!

 

[dobbslc]

Not what you'd want or expect from a top manufacturer
If you can't help to physically fix it maybe see if you can help with an offer of sending a few well placed emails to Toyota UK starting with the dealer in question explaining what you have here about it now being considerably worse AFTER they looked at it and then escalate it up the chain.

 

[addjunkie]

Friends of mine run a top spec 2017 Rav4 Excel Hybrid that they bought at 3 years old from the nearest Toyota dealer, its been serviced by them every year and just hit 46k miles. A month or so ago they told me they were getting some water in behind the headlining and it was dripping on them and they asked the garage to look at it with their service - they said they cleared the drains at no cost.

Just after getting it back the first heavy rain and they were getting soaked worse than prior to the service and they could not open the sunroof anymore to check anything. I had a quick look and confirmed no fuses had blown though there was plenty water in the overhead switch panel for the sunroof so I advised taking it back to the Toyota garage.

The garage say the sunroof motor has failed and are quoting a repair cost of £1500 including £1000 for a sunroof motor! A quick google confirms that is in the ballpark of price for a new genuine Toyota motor!

They are in their mid 70's and are scunnered saying they will just trade it in rather than pay for the repair! to save hassle!

I am shocked at the cost of a sunroof repair and suspect the garage has put an airline on the sunroof drains and blown at least one of them off at the sunroof hence exacerbating the problem leading to the motor failure- though they have no proof.

I always try to avoid cars with sunroofs and am not offering to do the work as I have no workspace undercover. Pretty disappointing from a Toyota main dealer never mind how do Toyota justify £1000 for a sunroof motor!

Should that not be covered on the 10 year warranty if its been dealer serviced!

 

[arther dailey]

brothers 01 rav 4 suffers same problem, water ingress, found out at front each corner has drains that run down through a pilllar , judisious wriggling with thin semi stiff wire cleared , its a job each spring now and no problem since.

 

[Rannsachair]

Should that not be covered on the 10 year warranty if its been dealer serviced!

Good point, just reading up on it.

 

[Rannsachair]

Should that not be covered on the 10 year warranty if its been dealer serviced!

Dealer saying damage from water ingress not covered!

 

[carbonarc]

Might be worth a look?

 

[addjunkie]

Dealer saying damage from water ingress not covered!

But if drains are blocking should that not be part of the service. Its only rain, not like its a subaqua rav 4. Also if water can get in seals have failed.

Option 2 take to Toyota dealer and trade it in, they probably wont check, then it will be their problem!

 

[Rannsachair]

Thanks for the advice guys, they just traded against an 8 month old Yaris Cross.

 

[Seadog]

Why did they go for another Toyota?

 

[RichardM]

'Cos it hasn't got a sunroof?

 

[arther dailey]

I taped over my brothers sunroof with gaffa/carpet tape through the winter untill I cleared the drains....

 

[Rannsachair]

Why did they go for another Toyota?

The garage offered them quite a good price in part exchange unrepaired and as @RichardM guessed, it has no sunroof.

 

[jo1010]

It's the usual main stealer carry on.....I'd be stripping the seals out and using windscreen bond to seal it forever....but I can quite understand people's reluctance to do that on a recent vehicle.....(Had a classic range rover here with similar problem...life is too short to mess searching for obscure parts IMO )

 

[Rannsachair]

It's the usual main stealer carry on.....I'd be stripping the seals out and using windscreen bond to seal it forever....but I can quite understand people's reluctance to do that on a recent vehicle.....(Had a classic range rover here with similar problem...life is too short to mess searching for obscure parts IMO )

I had a Defender with a sunroof, so I replaced the roof and headlining with a non sunroof version as I was fed up getting rained on!

 

[Migmac]

My rav is the first vehicle owned with a sunroof. So far it’s dry, copious amounts of silicone will be applied if it ever leaks !

 

[addjunkie]

Thanks for the advice guys, they just traded against an 8 month old Yaris Cross.

We had a top spec one of those as a loan car, as little motors goI couldn't fault it!

 

[bricol]

Old speedo cables make a good sunroof drain unblocker - stiff, but flexible if you see what I mean.

But as per the original post, have to be careful not to push the drain tube off the connection spigot around the sunroof opening.

Lancia for some unknown reason terminated the rear drains in the boot, in the hope the water would then find its way out the drains in the flanged seam in the lower rear quarters. Problem was, the crap thrown up from the rear wheels silted those up . . . I extended mine through the drains.

 

[Robotstar5]

Back in the 80's there used to be quite a few companies fitting sunroofs as they didn't often come as standard, I had a Britax roof fitted to one of my cars.

 

[arther dailey]

My rav is the first vehicle owned with a sunroof. So far it’s dry, copious amounts of silicone will be applied if it ever leaks !

just run a wire down those drains and you will be ok. or tape over it each winter