OK, I know it's been awhile, but I finally took the time to take care of this issue today. I was dreading the unknown, but rolled up my sleeves and went for it. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to remedy the problem. I took a few pics, although not as great as some others and will say what I did , step by step and kinda have a pic for each one.
1. I took off both of my sun visors by flipping up a little cover to access a single screw for each. Then on the part that the visor swings out from, I popped the cover off of carefully and removed two screws. That's 3 screws total, that was it!! It would be 6 screws total if I did the driver side and passenger, but only the driver side was leaking and that,s all I concentrated on.
Notice the stains from the leaking water!
pic 1 by
Roger Bedard, on Flickr
pic 2 by
Roger Bedard, on Flickr
pic 7 by
Roger Bedard, on Flickr
pic 3 by
Roger Bedard, on Flickr
2. I then took off the dome/map light/ sunroof switch console by just carefully prying it down with a flathead screwdriver. It's held in place by clips only, no screws. I then unplugged the two plugs and put the console off to the side safely.
pic 4 by
Roger Bedard, on Flickr
pic 5 by
Roger Bedard, on Flickr
3. I then took off the rubber trim on the interior around the sunroof (Sorry, forgot to take pic of that)
4. I pulled down the headliner about 12 inches (didn't even need to remove it from anything, except the plastic side pillars by the windshield. They popped right off and are held in place by clips only (again SCORE, no screws!) and viewed it first from the sunroof opening, seeing my problem right away!
pic 6 by
Roger Bedard, on Flickr
5. Then I looked at it from the drivers door side of the headliner and saw the problem from that view!
6. I pulled up on the rubber tube that goes down into the pillar just a little, so there was no tension on it pulling it back down. I then put some superglue on the drain plug that came from the sunroof and pushed the rubber tube back on to it firmly. The other side was still together and not a problem, nor were the rear drains, so I left them alone. If they pull away, it is easy enough to take back apart for the quick fix.
7. I replaced everything in reverse order and now I have to wait for it to rain and test (didn't feel like pouring gallons of water over the sunroof to test. Will wait for the rain, the stopping and taking off again for, a true test). I will update again after that happens.
Not knowing what exactly I was up against and looking for, it took me all of about 25-30 minutes from start to finish and I was also just looking around at other stuff while it was all opened up. Never know when or if ever it will have to be again, so it was good to have an idea of the inner workings up there. If there is a next time and now knowing what goes where, it should take 10-15 minutes tops. Keeping fingers crossed this did the job!
This was on my 2002 Ford Explorer XLT
**UPDATE** It worked fabulously, no more leaks!