Long time lurker first time poster. I’ve seen a lot of posts regarding pooling water in the footwells and water stains in the headliners related to the front sunroof drains clogging, but I’m trying to find out if there are drains in the rear of the sunroof. Went out to my 2018 XC90 after a…
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Over small bumps on the road, my car developed a rattle that I thought was coming from the tailgate. I eliminated the idea of the rattle coming from the trunk area by completely emptying it out. I.e. – removed spare wheel, tools, etc and even paneling that could have contributed to the rattling. I had my young kids sit in their respective seats and drove around small bumps that I knew would demonstrate the rattle. I had them listen intently as to where it was coming from. After consensus, the three of them said it wasn’t from the tailgate. It was from the roof! So I then had them put a gentle, but firm upward pressure on the glass roof while we went over the same bumps… Voila! No more rattle!
So the rear glass removal was MUCH easier than I thought even from the description in the above thread.
Simplistically:
1) Open the sunroof slightly so that the rear glass can slide under it when you remove it.
2) Pull back the left and right rubber seal which starts from under the rear glass. You don’t have to remove this completely – only enough to expose the 6 T25 bolts. This rubber seal re-installs very easily.
3) Using a T25 torx bit, unscrew 6 bolts to removed the rear glass.
4) Slide the rear glass towards the front of the car and under the open sunroof to enable removal.
Once you do that, you can inspect your drain holes. Although I found a lot of small leaves and twigs in the channel due to the rubber seal gap, they did not cover my drain holes. Why? Because I likely didn’t have to park on an incline such that they would have slid into the drain holes to clog them up. I’m confident that if I parked on an incline, those leaves and small twigs would have slid down and blocked the drain holes.
As per the Technical Journal TJ 35503.3.0, they replace this rubber seal (presumably with a longer one “Sealing strip PN: 31484660”) and glue it in place. I wasn’t planning to fiddle with this gap. But since I was there and I already removed the rear glass, I cleaned the rubber seal contact points to eliminate the pollen buildup with a toothbrush and alcohol. The alcohol is to promote glue contact. So I crazy glued the end points as per the Tech Journal.
The rattle could have been caused by 2 things. 1) the T25 bolts loosened and/or 2) the rubber seals were so dirty that they made the rattling/squeaking noise that was annoying me. I thoroughly cleaned all the rubber seal contact points on the rear glass, the sunroof glass and the rubber on the roof. I even put rubber conditioner on them.
Pics of the Tech Journal instructions, the drain holes with perspective, and rubber seal gaps are shown below. Hope it helps you!
