jonathanca14

Thanks Barry, That's an interesting possibility, I've never had anything on the roof, but I'm not the first owner. I think the damage was probably there when I bought the car, but somehow it took me two years to notice!! I guess I'm quite lucky it didn't do more damage while leaking! I think your explanation is the only one that makes sense so I'll run with it 🙂

Not sure if this will be of interest, but sunroof now replaced - wasn’t to bad to do, but the old frame was in a bad way! You can see the white roofing tape was my temporary repair but little did I know the whole underneath was cracked also! Still no idea what the cause of this was, but added for post completion in case anyone else ever gets something similar...

Cheers for all the replies - I think my main concern here really is how such a large piece of the structure has gone missing without me noticing! its a sizable hole that's appeared and somewhere that is never touched and can't be got at by stones etc... that's what confuses me with this all! I've ordered a salvage replacement so hopefully that will do the trick. Has anyone removed a Headliner or sunroof on this car before? are there any tips you could pass on? 🙂

Its the big hole above the drain pipe, photo one is from outside looking in, photo 2 is inside head lining looking toward sunroof. I dont use it much, but like things to work so I guess I'm stuck with replacement...

Hi All, Was driving in the rain yesterday when I noticed a fair amount of water coming down the Nearside front pillar and thought oh well, sunroof drains must be blocked again, had a look today and found this! I cant understand how its become damaged, and there is no trace of the missing plastic in the head liner! am I right in assuming I need a whole new sunroof frame? 😞 if so what's the job like to do?

Thanks Edward, I did have a leak through the seal of the rear vent which I hopefully resolved when the bumper was off, I actually found it was quite loose, in comparison to the blank on the other side which is snugly fitted. The vent was almost loose! Well worth a check for anyone experiencing issues, sadly this was just one of many on my RX! It hasn't rained for a few days so im waiting for the next down poor to find out if its really fixed!

I suppose its good to have it confirmed that there factory seam sealing product was rubbish! There are no oaks on the back end now for me, I replaced my gas struts last month and when I did that I used sealant underneath along with thread lock / seal on the bolts to make sure! I'm happy that no water is getting in anywhere from roof rail or side channels or bumper area now and is all completely dry. I did however find a bit of a strange one, on a water test today I found a new very tiny leak but this hopefully was from an obvious source. the small plastic trim around the rear quarter window was coming away from the body, I carefully removed and found there are 4 plastic clips which hold it to the body and then lots of double sided tape. The tape had failed and water was getting in here. I cleaned the panel up and used some good tape to hold back on and put a little sealant in the holes as well to try and close any potential future issues even if the tape fails again! So far I have... - Sealed the roof bar foot (and used locktite to seal the bolt threads) - Sealed the top welded seam in line with the roof bar - Sealed the seam just above the foot of the gas strut - Sealed the gas strut foot and used locktite to seal the bolt thread - had bumper and rear lights out and re sealed all seams. the plastic cover between light and boot edge is not held on by the light only, i have removed all its trim clips and screws and sealed the holes up. - Sealed the lights -Replaced rear boot rubber -Re secured and sealed rear quarter light trim My only area for concern now could be the fuel filler cap rivets. I don't think there an issue as I spent a long time water testing them today, But... The photo I posted a few days where I asked what the weird mettle ball looking things are I think come from the back of the rivets that hold the fuel filler cap on. I'm not sure if water getting in here would find its way into the boot or just leave straight out the bottom of the car, but Ill give it another extensive test tomorrow when my window sealant has dried.

OK Folks, I think its fixed! So sealing the smaller of the bumper brackets did nothing (Well it might have done something but there was still a leak!) With the bumper off, lights out and trims removed I tested areas independently and what I hope is my final leak was the only seam I hadn't sealed. Please see the photo below for where it was, When I looked at it, it was obvious the black paint was cracked on the seam and there were lots of tiny pin holes. there was also a little bit of metal at the bottom sticking out just right to catch water and allow it to pass if not sealed, it was only like this on one side as well which explains why I only had the water on one side. (I've sealed the other side as a precaution just in case!) I've done extensive water testing today with it still stripped and all OK, but I will put it back together later and continue testing to make sure.

Thanks Rich, Yes I did reseal the feet following reading your post a few weeks back - This solved the upper leak which was appearing near the boot lift motor but not the rear boot compartment leak 🙂 Thank you for your post though as your post was certainly part of the solution!

Random question - found these whilst hunting, on the left hand side, anyone know where they may be from? Wondered if it was a clue toward another potential leak!! Also made sure my sunroof drains were clear yesterday front and back which they were, however in testing I was a little over exited with the watering can and ended up getting the sun roof under tray quite damp 🙄 luckily we had a warm sunny day today and its now fully dried out! This lexus leaks enough on its own without me helping it

Small Update, fed up the bumper came off again today and I traced the leak I was looking for to the small bumper bracket below the light, I'm not sure if I've fixed it as in removing it the left hand retaining clip snapped. Even wit it off I've no idea how you'd remove it without damaging the clip.What I would say though is upon removing, there is a small gasket on the 10mm bold between the bracket and the body, this was soaked and when you squeezed it water was bubbling out. I've sealed it all up and left the bumper off so Ill check it again tomorrow afternoon to see how I get on... (Excuse the rough sealant, I pumped plenty in to try and eliminate a future leak!) I also sealed what was left of the retraining clip and the 10mm bolt. When I felt the bracket before trying to remove it felt a little loose whereas the other side was solid, so I haven't removed the other sides bracket (and I had no leak there) but just sealed around the top again in an attempt to prevent a future leak.

I've also ordered a new boot seal from Lexus as mine looks a little compressed and doesn't quite seal correctly allowing water to get past it with heavy water flow.

Hi Leiv, I dont use Facebook I'm afraid. I purchased a cheap inspection camera on Amazon and had a look up the pillar above the light and noticed that there was rust around the top screw in the plastic trim, and I could see drips passing through on the right hand side. So I have removed these and sealed the hole, but I also noticed on the camera that there was a little water coming from higher up, this can only be from the seams tat are well documented by the gas struts. and just above, although I thought I had sealed these I dont think I used a good sealer so have cleaned it off and redone. Ill give it 24hours and wait to see if that fixes it!

A Fellow 2006 RX400H owner with water problems!! Have you checked if the boot floor is wet (under the plastic storage compartments)? From what I understand the source of a lot of wet carpet problems seems to be the boot , it leaks in through all sorts of places (rear lights, bumper brackets ect) trickles in, becomes a puddle and then eventually roles down into the HV battery area and on to the floor wells. Plenty of posts on here with advice on where to start hunting for the leaks, I've followed a few my self! Let us know where yours ends up being 🙂

The hole you see near the bottom has a standard which trim clip in it with a wafer thin gasket on it. It was leaking 'properly' and my initial attempt to just seal it didn't work so I have now removed it completely and sealed the hole with a rubber bung borrowed from the boot floor (With a small amount of sealant for good measure of course!) The clip wasnt realy required as the trim is screwed on at the top and held in place by the light, so I wont miss it! The white plastic rectangular clip above has been retained but again had a wafer thin gasket which has been replaced with a thin bead of sealant. I wish I had realised this yesterday! But anyway another 24 hour wait to find out where my next leak comes in from!!