Content Wrapper

[tnegiet]

Ok,

It's been almost a week since I first noticed the wet headliner. It happened a second time two days after the first incident. Something didn't make sense though, I mean I've had this rig for 3 months now and it certainly has seen plenty of rain, so why leak this past weekend. It lives in a garage so that would explain some of it, but then I thought about the two times independently. Both times occurred after the FJ had sat motionless (parked) in a downpour for at least 1-2 hours. All prior downpours have been while the FJ was drving, so obviuosly the wind of motion keeps the roof from leaking. But when it is parked the water settles and makes its way into the front of the interior starting near the top of the windshield or A posts. The headliner doesn't show the water very readily so it takes enough to saturate through in order to notice or feel it. The slope of the roof and location of the leak inside would leave you to believe the leak is either the top of the windshield or the front roof rack mounts.

So, I had checked the rack and it was tight...mouldings looked fine, nothing out of place. Gave the soapy water with the fan on high test and didn't discover anything.

So today I went looking for the problem. I took the rack off after driving to the store in the rain (no water inside).

The first thing I noticed was the bolts were tight enough and they had loctite on them. As I removed them one of the paper washers that is on the outside, was damaged. This was on the drivers side/middle rack mount. I was surprised the washer was not rubber.

I lifted the rack off and found the internal metal brace/support that guides the rack and bolt/nut setup. The internal washers are a puddy material. Some of the puddy remained some did not. That's not unusual given the substance, and the lifting off of the rack. I lifted the metal brace and noticed there was no puddy or rubber underneath it, it was simply placed on top of the roof metal...obviously a possible water route. The plastic insert/nuts are loose fitting and water could leak around it into the interior of the headliner. You can see the gap in one of the pictures.

I placed new plumbers putty around each plastic insert/nut both under and on top of the metal brace/support. I replaced the paper washers with rubber ones and retightened everything down, including new loctite on the bolts.

Now I know I'm special and unique (my mommy told me so) but I don't think my FJ is too unique, so given what I saw, and certainly if it solves my water problem, I would suggest everyone check the bolts on the roof rack and at least replace the paper washers with actual rubber ones...if you don't have a rack you could still have a problem depending on how waterproof the holes are under the cover.