[Botnik]

I was trying to be a good car owner and was pressure washing poop off the car and I guess the spray got too close to the sunroof gasket and tore the gasket. It surprised me so I went to poke it with my finger and was surprised to find that the gasket is made of foam. I went to my wife's car and poked the gasket on her Lexus and it was rubber, like you'd expect.

I called the local dealership and they have the weatherstripping part for $308.07 CAD. There's another assembly that includes the glass and it's $9xx CAD. The guy wasn't the normal parts guy because it's the weekend. I'm going to bring the car in on Monday and look at it with the parts guy. They will be able to get me the part overnight, and it won't cost more than having it shipped the more-leisurely rate.

From the inside, with the shade retracted but the sunroof closed, it looks like I can take out six screws and hopefully take the glass out with the bracket it is on, and replace the gasket and then put the glass back in, but I guess I will have to subscribe to the service manual for whatever the minimum is to make sure.

The dealership guy said that today's sunroofs let water in and the water drips into little gutters, and the water goes down the A pillars and then out through the fender or something.

So.... Keep the pressure washer away from this piece of foam, and be careful if you're doing something like cleaning snow off the top of the car.

Here's a picture of the torn part of the gasket.

UPDATE: I went to the dealership today. The $308 part is the frame that the glass sits in. The $9xx part is the frame plus the glass. If you buy the frame only, you will have to remove the glass from the existing frame to put it into the new frame. The glass is attached to the frame with adhesive and is a lot of trouble to remove. You could also end up scratching the glass when you are removing the adhesive.

If you just want to install and be done with it, you'll have to get the $9xx part. The parts guy looked up some wreckers who have the part I need (frame plus glass) in stock. He also printed out the relevant part of the service manual for me. It will be the six screws, plus some additional fidgety stuff for the flap at the front and the arms that move the flap up and down.

While I was at the dealership I bought an oil filter, crush washer, and ordered a plastic pop rivet because they didn't have any pop rivets in stock. Fram makes the Subaru filter, and the Subaru filter's bypass valve is set to a higher pressure than many aftermarket filters. The Subaru filter was about the same price as a retail Fram filter so it's not a big deal to just get the Subaru filter.

 

[8lackie]

I have a 2014 Forester XT Touring. The sunroof gasket has holes/tears in it (!!??) I bought it used from a Hyundai dealer. I'd think during their inspection they would have spotted this. I'm trying to figure out my best course of action for replacing it. Curious how the process went Botnik.

 

[Botnik]

I ended up getting an $8 tube of "weatherstripping adhesive" and making an ugly fix to my gasket. If I had done a good job I'd be happy with it, but the results of my efforts are disgusting. It's watertight now but I'm not going to rule out buying the $9xx part and swapping it in the future. That's a lot of money to fix something when we should be able to buy just the weatherstripping gasket for $10 or so. What's going to happen when we tear the weatherstripping on the edge of the door? Do we have to buy a new door? They should have made that sunroof gasket rubber, like a sane person would have.

The weatherstripping adhesive isn't like anything I had ever worked with before. It's kind of a thick, sticky, foam substance. It wasn't easy to form it into a shape.

Maybe the Hyundai dealer did spot the damage to your sunroof gasket, but because they would have had to buy the whole frame, or the whole frame plus glass, they didn't fix it.

 

[wbdubya]

Sorry about your misfortune. I use a small electric pressure washer (1600 psi, 1.2 gpm) to wash my car. I’ve never taken it through an auto wash and now I never will. PSI on those can be pretty high. What the hell was Subaru thinking using foam?????

 

[8lackie]

ARGG!!#$#@#@

So annoying! Poor design ticks me off. On that topic I discovered the cargo cover in the 2014 doesn't extend to the back of the seats....ok deep breath, then happy hour. Walk it off walk it off.

 

[Botnik]

I have a 2018 and the cargo cover has the main flap that goes towards the back of the car, and a smaller flap that goes towards the front of the car and that can get closer to the rear seatbacks. I think they have to put the main structure that has the spool in it further back from the rear seatbacks, because the rear seatbacks can recline now, so they have to move the main structure so it doesn't interfere with the rear seatbacks reclining. If the rear seatbacks recline onto the smaller flap, the flap will just get pushed out of the way because it is just held in place with friction and a spring.

The only times I've had a problem with people reclining the rear seatbacks onto the smaller flap were when the rear passengers said "hey what's this?" and pulled the release that allowed the rear seatbacks to recline. I don't know why the rear seatbacks would need to recline, but then I never sit back there.

 

[Scooby24]

This is something that could have likely been handled under insurance if you don't have a high deductible. This could be damage done by a rock or other flying debris which would be comprehensive.

 

[Botnik]

handled under insurance

I considered that but didn't want to surrender my car to a body shop.