2011 Prius Sunroof Deflector Seal Deterioration?

Maybe pull out the bad rubber and fill it with silicone???
Just make sure it's clean and dry first.

 

IMO...even if you want to define that as a totally cosmetic issue, it looks bad enough to decrease the value of the vehicle. That IMO makes it a very tangible issue. Who say's cosmetic can't be as important as a functional issue? It's clearly not how the vehicle came, and it's clearly not how the vehicle should be. I'd want it fixed.

This long running "Lazarus" thread is interesting. Maybe the most shocking thing to me is the supposed overall cost of repair.
My god! It's only weather stripping, you'd think it would be a whole lot cheaper to replace. I don't see how with parts and labor, that should be over a $200 repair...at most.

 

Durability and reasonable repair cost should be one of the cornerstones of the engineering, sadly fallen by the wayside.

Fourth gen Prime's hard-plastic front facade is good example of form before function.

Yeah that's the sand-pounder: over $2K to repair, and no guarantees?

 

Certainly it should be FIXED correctly, but if twice they have "fixed" it, and it's still not fixed,
maybe you should seek out someone to actually fix it.

 

Since my dealer already has replaced both sunroof glasses twice during warranty (I believe the last replacement was more goodwill) the OEM seals/weatherstrip are not good enough. I wish Toyota or someone clever person could find out how to use a more suiteable material for the seals/weatherstrip. It's no use to get new super expensive OEM sunroof glasses with seals since they detoriate too after a few years.

 

Sue Toyota?

 

Try an aftermarket seal. Maybe they upgraded to a better silicone.
If not, maybe put a layer of silicone on it after it's replaced for an extra barrier.

 

I'd assume most of the effected vehicles were parking outside? Still, should not be happening.

 

Add Portland, Oregon to the list of deteriorating sunroof gaskets. Bought our 2013 Prius 3 this past November(2018) and the sunroof has looked fine until today. We had our first "snowstorm" this week and i left the car sitting with snow on it for a couple days unaware of the inferior rubber gasket. Once the snow melted i noticed the gasket is shrinking and deteriorating quickly. This is a manufacturer defect and i will not be buying another Toyota with a sunroof again unless i research which ones don't fall apart. What if this happened to their Lexus model? A hex on them! Not sure what is the solution but I'll be damned if i pay 1500$ to fix this temporarily until it deteriorates again next year. If it leaks i may silicon the whole thing but first I'll be writing to Toyota and checking the internet hopefully for a class action lawsuit.

 

Hello, I live in Bend, OR and the seal on my 2014 sunroof is peeling off. The dealer said the cost is $1,500 to replace the entire glass/seal and my 100,000 mile warranty doesn’t cover seals. This is obviously a design flaw. Does anyone have any advice on how to get Toyota to fix this for free or cheap?

Thank you!

 

Same problem for me in Bend, OR. Please let me know what you find out. Thank you,

 

Interesting to see the trend with this happening in in very cold areas of the country. The rubber must shrink and expand causing this issue.

 

I have a 2015 Prius with solar panel and moon roof. I live in Seattle area, so the climate is mild and minimal road salt. We had quite a bit of snow this year, which is rare for here. Generally I park the Prius when it snows anyway, as I have a Jeep for that weather. Before the snow, I noted the corner of the moon roof rubber started to protrude, like the rubber was swelling and it buckled. After the snow, this is how it looks. I went online to see if others had this problem and found this chat. From reading this list, this is a common problem, due to defective materials, rather surprising for Toyota, as it is a good product generally. I am amazed at the engineering which went into this car. Everything is well thought out, except for this. Mine is the newest car in this post, so Toyota knew of this defect well before my car was made.

 

That's just coming apart!

 

How often do you wash your car? Do you use any rubber products on it? Do you use glass cleaner on the solar panels?

 

More specifically, I think it's the freeze-thaw-refreeze cycles when there is snow or possibly a lot of water left on the car. My Prius was originally a California car, and it was completely fine exposed to the cold in Alaska too, but I kept it garaged. In my last months with the car, I parked it outside in the New Hampshire winter, and the first hint of the seal coming loose happened after a snow/thaw/refreeze. Meltwater gets in between the glass and rubber at the seam (on the moonroof portion my car's case) or into microcracks in the rubber and expands upon refreezing, causing the damage. In my car's case, the rubber was still fully intact, so I was planning to fix it with contact cement, but the car was totaled before I got a chance to do that.

 

That rubber is looking like crumbly cheese though, no excuse for that, especially in a 2015. One of Toyota's suppliers has dropped the ball.

 

It sucks, but it could be a lot of factors. Cold weather seems to be the root cause. But chemicals used to clean the car, lack of cleaning, all could have effects on the rubber.

 

I see that the rubber deteriorating issue is still ongoing and even more recent cars now find their rubbers worn. I reported this issue in Jan 2017 when this topic started and I am surprised that nobody (especially from the states) sued Toyota yet. Meanwhile my update: I gut away the parts which came off and barely opened the roof and if opened I put back loose ends so it won’t flutter on the roof. Probably I will take off all rubber at the end (as originally suggested by my Toyota dealer). It seems no problem for leakage.

 

I had a similar issue with my 2014 prius with the sunroof package. It just showed up after the beginning of cold weather--first rain, changing to snow then changing to below freezing temperatures. I am grateful for all the posts on this thread as they gave me some helpful directions to try. The service manager at my local Toyota dealership was sympathetic but informed me (like many on this thread) that Toyota would not be willing to help since weather seals are not covered under my extended warranty.

I went to a small local windshield installation shop who was willing to try to help me out. He was able to remove the seal, cut out a section where it had stretched and then re-glue the seal to the glass. My big mistake when I first noticed the problem, was to open the sunroof and try to push down the corners which had started to swell and rise up. That resulted in the frozen weatherstrip pulling away worse from other sections of the glass and making it impossible to close properly. His recommendations: 1. if you see any issues, don't open the sunroof, but go straight to a glass guy who is willing to try to repair it. It needs to be warm and dry or further damage will result. 2. Minimize opening the sun roof panel or don't use it at all (especially not in winter!). I put tape over the switch and plan not to use it any more. 3. Regularly apply a rubber treatment compound to the surface of the seals around the glass panels to keep them soft and pliable. Ideally a UV resistant treatment compound is best. 4. Lastly, if you buy another car, don't get one with a sunroof as you will inevitably have trouble with it!

So this is what I have done for now, as our budget wasn't quite ready for a $1500 hit! If you decide to replace the glass with a new unit, I found a Canadian website called Toyotapartsdirect.ca which advertises the panel for quite a bit less than the $1300+ that the dealer quoted me.

On inspecting the seal, there is a definite gap around the edges of the seal, so water can still get under the seal, even in a brand new sunroof. This means it is "cosmetic" in that sense; and there are drain holes underneath that will take away any moisture that gets past the upper seal. The only problem would be if the drain holes or tubes were ever to plug up. There is a lower seal below the glass panel that actually seals the sunroof from allowing moisture into the interior of the car. The glass installer mentioned that he had used the rubber treatment on that seal as well. Just make sure you do it when the weather is warm or the car is in a heated garage!