NBP04TL4ME

Toppatop

A fool? I think not. If you had as much issues with your RL as I did, you most certainly would look for a means to an end to the madness. I've seen many people experience different issues with their RL. Mine just seemed to encompass all of those defects.

dapqam

Toppatop, I am sorry you have had so many problems with your RL. Fortunately most of us on this forum have not had similar misfortunes. I think you have every right to make whatever purchases you wish. It is YOUR money. I'm afraid we will loose you to another forum but good luck with your Audi.

shahram72

Mine also did this once last year, but never again. It was after a hard rain while parked. My mechanic checked and all 4 drain lines were clear. HE concluded that if it's not leaking somewhere else, then maybe it was a temporary blockage. HE said all sunroofs leak a little, that's why there is a tray and 4 drain lines. But he still said that another leak point is possible and suggested a trip to a winshield shop or the dealer as he said leaks are not part of his experience. Told him I'll scrap the car before it goes to the dealer. Never leaked since. My leaks looked EXACTLY like in those pics.

oo7spy

I remember when you joined and the slew of issues that your RL has put you through. I would never argue against reality. It will always be the case that very reliable models have outliers, exceptions to the rule, etc. It is unfortunate that your car had as many issues as it did, and no one will call you a fool for giving up on it. However, the handful of cases of RLs with a leak in the A-pillar is a far cry from an unreliable expensive luxury car.

With that in mind, your comment about fixing your reliability issues by purchasing an Audi and only having to go to the dealer once a year for an oil change is laughable. I feel I was pretty supportive of your purchase in your thread about your Audi, but this simply cannot be ignored. You bought a car from a make that consistently scores awful in reliability ratings, have owned it for 2 months, and claim life is good. If life is good because you feel that you will experience less issues to have to fix, then the tale has yet to be told. However, if you feel that replacing the cost of repairs and maintenance on your troubled RL is going to be less than the cost of repairs and maintenance on your Audi, then your thinking is a bit foolish.

I hope your Audi treats you well and gives you much less issues than your RL did.

shahram72

Hey, I think any of these luxury brands new with a warranty intact will be reliable and have a happy owner. The real test is us guys who own them out of warranty and try to keep them as economical as the average car. When it comes to swapping out driveshafts and other expensive items, it get's comical to me, way too much to spend. Let's take Mercedes, a wonderful car within warranty. My parents have owned several. Once the warranty is up, they start breaking and will cost you more than a new one. The Mercedes mechanics have a saying, if you can't afford a new Mercedes, you can't afford a used one. I deliver at a shop that works on luxury brands and asked them about my dream car, and Audi A8L like the one the one from the transporter movie. They said it's a fine car, but when they get out of warranty this and that will break and the repairs will cost thousands, and I should stay away. There's a lot of different people on this board. Acura is an expensive car. Those who are talking about their new RLX are not in the same boat as people like me. If I could afford a new RLX than a few thousand in repairs on my RL would be no big deal, but it is, and when it get's too much, I'm out. I'm willing to spend what my payment currently is (that will end in January) which is $300 a month. so $3600 a year. Actually it should be more reasonable than that when payments end to really see any value, but it does not take much to get to that number. So if I'm spending that, I can get a new car, not an RL, but I am growing weary of worrying about my car. Maybe this is just not the right car for me. I know this rambling is not pertinent to the topic, but it kinda is. We are all here trying to drive luxury for less. If it's not less, then why do we bother, we could just drive a new one!

oo7spy

This is very true for any car. The price of new parts and labor for a $50k car will always be the same, even when the car is only worth $10k.

Try some . Then, try not worrying. The chances of your car not having issues everyday is much more than the opposite. If you go looking for things that COULD be fixed, you will never find an end.

shahram72

Yeah, you're right. I really don't worry about it, but I'm sure I will when it doesn't start. I always consider the total cost which so far has been very little, those of you who remember me from when I got the car remember my disappointment when I found the rust and some other things, and it soured my ownership experience of the car as a whole. But I figured I might as well drive it and at least get use of the car for my payment duration. Hopefully it will last a few beyond that. I know it will, but hope to keep the repairs to $2000 a year. The big problem I have now is I can't bring myself to do the timing belt service on a car which has rust and as such is worthless in value. Cars with rust in the south are uncommon (it was an Ohio car) and are worth what salvage cars are. The good thing is I have a good Honda mechanic whom I trust.

oo7spy

IIRC, you and Toppatop bought your RLs around the same time, and the amount of issues you each had likely didn't help each other gain much faith in your purchase.

About the rust, who cares what someone else thinks your car is worth? Why would that deter you from doing the timing belt? If the car is in otherwise good condition, then maintain it and keep it.

NBP04TL4ME

Agreed -

GASKICKER

Havent had much moisture this summer, today and yesterday however, it has been very wet. Today the car sat in the rain most of the day and it did leak.
I keep going back to when I poured a gallon of water in the sunroof pan, didnt see any water inside until the very end.
I blocked off the drain line on the drivers side 4 months ago, that didnt make any difference to the amount of water coming inside.
Any other ideas for me to try?

GASKICKER

I was reading on a MDX site where someone put foam piping inside the sunroof rubber seal to tighten it up a bit....anyone here tried that?

MrKev

A common problem with the rls is that under the top of the windshield on the driver side eventually rust forms even with the factory Acura windshield on which causes a leak around the a-pillar and on heavy rain will leak down to the DTC connector and your one turn start won't work. Took me a while to figure it cause I didn't think with a factory windshield that should happen. when the guy took the windshield off he showed me the rust, all they did was sand it spray some paint and put extra sealant around that area when putting the new windshield on. No leaks since

oo7spy

He's right. If it isn't your sunroof drain line, it's your windshield seal. You should be able to take off the trim around the windshield and add sealant. Look for rust as MrKev mentioned.

shahram72

That must be my problem then, occaisional leaks when sitting in the rain. Another reason for me to cut bait. I'm sure mine is rusted good. How does this affect the one turn start? I've had that problem a few times as well.

dapqam

I should report on what worked for me. I removed the Roof Molding on the driver side (see the Exterior Trim section in the Service Manual, which has been available on this forum in the past. I saw some rust on the seam where the body panels are joined. I used rust converter material and then touchup paint to cover the area. Then I replaced the roof molding and I have had no leaks since. That was my problem. It was not the windshield or the moon roof drains. My car is virtually rust free underneath but this area had rust. Strange. I checked the passenger side and it is without any rust. I think this defect was something that was there from the factory. Probably a small defect in the paint which rusted when salty water in the winter ran through that area. Water from the windshield is partly funneled through this area while driving in rain. So salty water could get in there in the winter and sit in there and rust things. Hope this helps someone. This reminds me of another precaution during the winter. Always use a strong stream of water to rinse around the trim pieces and door areas of the car. This will flush out any salt that has seeped into those areas.

08RLTech

08 RL, same problem. I read in one of the forums that said the welding used for A frame and Roof assemblies weren't great during these production years, causing leaking at top of joint on the inside of the car. Guy replacing my windshield (whole other set of issues) confirmed this. Repair includes removing interior trim, thus airbag, thus no thanks. I'll try to link the forum if I can find it.

ChocBoyWonder

iTrader: (1)

I'm having this issue on the passenger side. I have recently learned about drain lines but cannot find them to test with air or weed wacker line. Can someone help me fine where these drain lines are??

ChocBoyWonder

iTrader: (1)

Never mind. I see the hold on the passenger side and a small puddle of water near it. I hope this is my issue. I'll get some compressed air and have at it.

zee32tl55

Having same problem, blew air, and still gets wet. Windshield guy poured water in corner, never got wet. Did he pour in right spot?

ChocBoyWonder

iTrader: (1)

Mine was beyond air and actually still gets backed up from time to time. To clear it I bought a long weed wacker line and pushed it all the way in and blew compressed air. That cleared it. I think its something that may need to be done constantly depending where you live I guess. Mine cleared but has recently backed up again.

RL09

I've been having this problem since a year. it does seem like either the windshield seal or the sunroof.

Gonna take it in to the body man and have him do it. Don';t wanna risk breaking the seal. You can get your fingers under the one on the passenger side, but it doesn't come entirely off, it might be it surely. I don't know how to remove it.

But if anyone has a link on how to adjust and make the sunroof flush would be nice, coz i can't find that to troubleshoot it out.

ex_hacker202

Have a 2005 RL, and I've had leaks on driver's side upper A-pillar just as shown in photos posted by author of this thread, phishfood for over a year - but with a twist - only leaked when car was parked at my gym in the rain - parking lot is angled so that 90% of the time the car was parked with the driver's side lower than the passenger side, and once I got in and started driving it leaked in earnest for about a minute, sometimes dripping water. It never leaked while parked in my driveway or even in a downpour while driving - bizarre. I checked the two sunroof drain lines as suggested, no blockages (hook up a piece of tygon tubing to a squeeze bottle filled with water, put hose down the drains and squeeze water out of the bottle, watch for water coming out behind the front tires). I read the directions for how to remove the A-pillar trim from the inside, thinking the leak might be in the connector between the drain and the drain tube, prepared to remove the trim, bought this set of trim tools on Amazon for $11.50:


Some others have posted about rust around the top corner of the windshield, and that was a much simpler thing to check, so two days ago I popped off the roof trim using the red plastic trim removal tools from above (extremely easy to do, get the exterior trim section of the service manual, it's actually white rubber or very soft white plastic) and noticed what appeared to be a small hairline crack in the paint under the 13 yrs of dirt that collected in the trough for the trim - was a PITA to remove the dirt, used a combo of a small vac attachment, water, and small scrub brushes, confirmed that there was a crack in the paint. Then I popped off the first foot or so of the windshield trim (absolutely need the trim tools here, hard black plastic that will snap if overstressed), cleaned the dirt under that trim away , and saw the crack widened right where the roofline and outer A-pillar meets the upper left corner of the windshield. Pulled up the first inch of the rubber windshield gasket (be careful, it may rip from age) to see if the crack went under it, didn't, but there was a small gap between the windshield and the gasket. Cleaned everything with alcohol and Q-tips, then put down a thin layer of latex bathroom caulk on top of the crack, and injected some into the windshield gap just to be safe - had to tape the rubber windshield gasket down while the caulk dried because it wouldn't go back in place and stay without constant pressure. Then added a bit more caulk on top of the crack and reinstalled the roof trim, then reinstalled the black windshield trim while the caulk was still wet (have to do it in that order when reinstalling, windshield trim overlaps roof trim). Yesterday it was raining cats and dogs all day, went to the gym, and when I came out the A-pillar was bone dry - YAY! Leak is sealed!

I think what was going on is that the crack was small enough that when parked on a flat surface water didn't build up in the corner of the windshield, and the surface tension of the water was enough to prevent it from entering the crack, but when parked at a side angle water would build up, causing additional pressure that overcame the surface tension so water started entering the A-pillar - then driving at speed kept forcing rainwater into the crack - i.e. once the leak started, it wouldn't stop until I got home and parked in my flat driveway. The whole job took only 15-20 minutes, and most of that time was spent figuring out how to carefully pop off the trim without breaking anything, then cleaning the dirt out - actual repairs took about 1 minute each - putting down and spreading out the caulk with a thin metal epoxy mixing and application tool I have - you definitely will need something like that, don't want a thick layer of caulk in there - what you need is something like one of the small spade ends in this wax carving tool kit (useful for all sorts of jobs):

2006mdxleak

Driver piller leak after pouring water down driver side drain in sunroof, --see next photo

Seems all the water drained out i poured a litre in and watched it all come out fast, leak appeared in appolstry slowly 5 minutes later.

the only thing I could think is the hose itself on the sunroof drain is broken? Any thoughts, (I thought it was the moulding or windshield but that's not the case as I just poured water down just the driver side drain pipe in the sunroof)

RL09

It's not the sunroof. At least, not on mine.

Do this test:

There's two moldings that run down the roof from from to back. you can just peel them off. see if you got rust underneath. on the front tip of the molding there's a hole, and a metal head on the roof that holds the molding on.

So take it out, and pour water into that. it will go forward, and eventually drain thru a similar route like the sunroof drain.2 liters should do it. then check to see if you got water stains on the inside.

If you got no rust under that molding, i'm betting there's some manufacturer default where water leaks through an non-welded area between the roof's rail and the pillar.

If it is rusted, then it's the same manufacturer default many have where the sealant in there wasn't very good, so it rusts, and water leaks below the rust.

Please report back your findings. These are my latest findings, and i'm in the process of getting a sanding tool to clean the rust and reseal. But if you do not have rust, and still water comes in; at least we know it's not the rust.

Peatok

I'm curios if your leak repair has continued to hold up over time?

ex_hacker202

Nope - had to fix it again a couple months ago - bought a new windshield gasket just in case but didn't need it - the gasket is dry rotting (it's 17 yrs old now) - had to take everything apart again (no biggie), then I trimmed off the crumbling bits of the gasket and used silicone sealant instead of bathtub caulk this time - injected some of it under the lip of the gasket where it meets the windshield and roof too, about 3" in length. I can keep repairing it, but eventually that gasket is going to fall completely apart and I'll need a pro to pull the windshield and install the new gasket I have - no way am I trying to do that myself, everything on/under the cowl panel needs to come off too, including the wipers and windshield washer hoses.

08rlNJ

2008 RL with the same A pillar leak. Sunroof drain holes were clear so the next step was to peel off the roof trim and clean the rubber gasket on the trim and the drip rail to the windshield corner. I then applied Shin Etsu grease (Honda part number 08798-9013) to the rubber under the trim. I think Honda started using the grease on rubber seals for the NSX roof gaskets due to leaks. This stuff rejuvenates the rubber. So I applied it on the sunroof seal also. After 4 days of rain in NJ it’s been dry. A local windshield place was willing to do a leak test for $65. But for now I’ll hold off and see how long it takes to leak again.