legacycentral bbs

I tracked my leak to the rear window / roof trim. My guess is the sealant had hardened and started cracking, allowing water through onto the rear seat.

So being the handy guy I am, I pulled most of the trim apart. I only pulled one side of the trim in question up, as it only leaks on the driver's side. I figured I'd squirt some silicon in between the roof and the window, stick the trim back in, and be done with it. Well I can't get the trim to stay. There's some white clips, which look like they should clip onto the glass, but they won't. I've tried everything short of standing on the trim piece itself in an attempt to get it to catch.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Am I going to have to pull the entire trim piece up, remove all that sealant, and reseal it? I really hope not. I can get pics of the area in question, but I'll have to upload them later. Please help!!!!

You may now crown me the bbs idiot....

I realized the only way I was going to get the trim to stay was to pull it all out and reseal the entire span. Well, that doesn't work unless you use new sealant. In the process of removing the old stuff, I noticed the glass pulling away from the sealant down the side. So I'm fairly sure I pooched this job big time. The auto parts stores were all closed, so I wasn't able to get windshield adhesive. That aside, there's no way I can reseal the sides, and most likely the bottom. I can't see the window not being bonded to the car, so I must have really screwed something up.

Come Monday I'm going to have to make some phone calls and see about getting the rear window properly resealed. Looks like I'm going to have to wait even longer to start driving it again.

Anyone in the Toronto area know a good place to get this job done? I really don't want to pay dealership labour rates.

I would just go to an A1 Auto Glass or something similar. I wouldn't pay a Subaru dealer to do it. A lot of times Auto glass repair companies will come to you to fix it too.

Yeah, I was thinking one of the autoglass places. I'm fairly sure the nearest one is closer than the dealership, so I'll be less worried about the glass heading off in another direction when I turn a corner or accelerate.

A glass company shouldn't be too bad as the cost of the glass is the main thing and you have that.

Steve

NO no no, you can do it yourself, its not too hard. When they built those cars they put those trims in immedietly after gluing the windows in. So those white clips sunk into the urethane glue and held the trims down. Go along with an exacto knife and wherever you see depressions in the glue from where the clips used to be, cut away a nice clean spot so the when you put the trim on the clips will not be forced against any old glue. Then pick up some black urethane glue from an auto store. When ready fill the areas where you cut away the old glue (and seal your window where ever its leaking as well). Then put the trim down in place nice n good, so that the clips are all immeresed into the fesh glue, then tape the trim down with masking tape for overnight so that it doesn't pop up when your not around and dry like that Thats how I got mine back in after I got the car painted.

Mark,

Hey Mark,

What about the sides of the glass? Is that supposed to be urethaned to the frame as well? That's the part I'm really concerned about right now, as it definitely lifts away from the sealant thats there already.

The whole rear glass along with the small rear quarter windows are glued to the chassis. If the sides lift up thats bad, but you can usually squeeze urethane into the gaps and glue down the window again.

Mark,

Yeah, the driver's side lifted. I couldn't get the passenger side trim off (it was urethaned down), but I imagine that side is loose too.

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the resealing, but I'm going to have to think long and hard about trying this again.

ok I think your talking about the black plastic trim peice that go around the rear quarter windows right?? Not the trim peice that goes along the top of the rear glass. If so let me know, cause I was describing how to glue in the top trim strip above the rear glass.

Mark,

Sorry Mark... I was originally talking about the trim along the top of the window, but while taking that off I tried to get the passenger rear quarter window trim off. That piece is urethaned to the body, and didn't want to come off. I got the top piece out, and that combined with the driver's side rear quarter window trim, allowed me to see that the glass was just "floating" (for lack of a better term) on top of the urethane that had been originally applied. I'm going to guess that if the part / most of the top and the driver's side isn't attached anymore, that the passenger side is messed up to.

I don't want to risk anything bad happening with the glass, so I think I'm going to get it professionally looked at. I'd much rather pay for an hour or 2 of work that includes a guaranteed seal than try to find a replacement window and pay to have it installed.

I don't know if I've included this yet, but

I think its a good idea to have a pro take a look at it. Glass is a structural element and if you install int incorrectly its possible that uneven stresses from he body while driving could result in cracking it also. You can watch him do it, too so at least you'll know how its done. I'll bet they have better seal than the typical auto parts place carries anyway.

Steve

The black trim is held in place with clips and one screw at the bottom, the top slides under the black metal trim above the door windows.

Mark,

LegacyT wrote:The black trim is held in place with clips and one screw at the bottom, the top slides under the black metal trim above the door windows.

Mark,

That's how the driver's side was. The passenger side tho, definitely had a bead of either silicone or urethane all the way around. I think the previous owner had the trim break on them, and someone decided the easiest way to fix it was to just glue all the pieces to the car.

Bloody used cars!!