I wanted to do this writeup because I could not find much on the internet.
I have a 2015 Ram eco diesel outdoorsman 64,000 miles. I recently moved from sunny southern California to rainy Virginia. I am the first owner of the truck and never had a problem with the sunroof until now. We got hit with a strong rain storm and the next morning I had a good amount of water in the rear drivers side passenger seat. Luckily my child’s car seat caught the majority of it and left the truck seat just damp and not soaking. My roof was completely saturated. But it was contained to the back corner. I jumped on Google university and tried to find everything that I could about leaking sunroofs.
First step was to check the drains. Take off the headliner. Watch some videos first and don’t do what I did. The rear interior dome light is a 2 step process. The clear part pops off, then the frame. Five minutes into my exploration I already racked up a $45 bill…
I did find that my rear drains had some debris, but not to the point of being clogged. I pulled off the rubber hose from the frame and gingerly sprayed water from a hose through it. It worked, but you might want to start with air first if it’s a complete clog.
So from this point I left the headliner down and sprayed the sunroof with a garden hose. There was no leak. Then I moved onto a bucket. I tried to mimic heavy rain and the rear corner started to leak again.
I put the headliner back on and went to the dealership. I already had a appt for the EGR recall the next day. (Which robbed some engine power. I pull a 7500lbs travel trailer and I noticed a difference instantly. But it’s another story)
Dealer charged me $140 to look at it and came back saying the frame needs to be replaced. Quoted $2800. Took me a second to wrap my head around that number before I declined the service. I talked to the mechanic directly and asked if this is normal. He told me that he has only seen 2 Rams with this issue, but more than a dozen on the Chrysler 300’s.
Doing more googling I found out that the frame is $1000. About $600 then $350 for shipping. That wasn’t going to happen until I explore the problem more.
So once again took it all apart, and took the frame off. Pretty straight forward. Take your time and when you are ready to drop the frame you are going to need a second set of hands.
In my case there is no structural damage. All the plastic pieces are in good shape and I couldn’t find any issue. What I did find was a flaw in the design of the frame. The rear drains are mass produced plastic molds. My rear drivers side was much smaller than the rear passenger side. So much so that a 5/16 drill bit wouldn’t fit and on the other side a 3/8 bit easily goes through.
I ever so gently used a 5/16 drill bit attached to a bit screwdriver to clear out the drain, then bumped up to 3/8.
Now when I pour water on the window it drains equally. BUT both will still overflow when too much water is poured. This is just the design and there is no fixing it. The front drains are much better. It has a deep channel that will hold the water and the drains can keep up much better.
Long story short. If your truck has a leak in the rear this might be your issue. I guess you could widen the drains without taking the frame off, but you would have plastic shavings and it would be hard to see how much material you are taking off from that angle. It would be better to take the frame out of the truck. If you are in a pinch angle the truck downhill so the water runs through the front drains.
Hope this helps someone out there
Never again will I buy a vehicle with a sunroof.
I have a 2015 Ram eco diesel outdoorsman 64,000 miles. I recently moved from sunny southern California to rainy Virginia. I am the first owner of the truck and never had a problem with the sunroof until now. We got hit with a strong rain storm and the next morning I had a good amount of water in the rear drivers side passenger seat. Luckily my child’s car seat caught the majority of it and left the truck seat just damp and not soaking. My roof was completely saturated. But it was contained to the back corner. I jumped on Google university and tried to find everything that I could about leaking sunroofs.
First step was to check the drains. Take off the headliner. Watch some videos first and don’t do what I did. The rear interior dome light is a 2 step process. The clear part pops off, then the frame. Five minutes into my exploration I already racked up a $45 bill…
I did find that my rear drains had some debris, but not to the point of being clogged. I pulled off the rubber hose from the frame and gingerly sprayed water from a hose through it. It worked, but you might want to start with air first if it’s a complete clog.
So from this point I left the headliner down and sprayed the sunroof with a garden hose. There was no leak. Then I moved onto a bucket. I tried to mimic heavy rain and the rear corner started to leak again.
I put the headliner back on and went to the dealership. I already had a appt for the EGR recall the next day. (Which robbed some engine power. I pull a 7500lbs travel trailer and I noticed a difference instantly. But it’s another story)
Dealer charged me $140 to look at it and came back saying the frame needs to be replaced. Quoted $2800. Took me a second to wrap my head around that number before I declined the service. I talked to the mechanic directly and asked if this is normal. He told me that he has only seen 2 Rams with this issue, but more than a dozen on the Chrysler 300’s.
Doing more googling I found out that the frame is $1000. About $600 then $350 for shipping. That wasn’t going to happen until I explore the problem more.
So once again took it all apart, and took the frame off. Pretty straight forward. Take your time and when you are ready to drop the frame you are going to need a second set of hands.
In my case there is no structural damage. All the plastic pieces are in good shape and I couldn’t find any issue. What I did find was a flaw in the design of the frame. The rear drains are mass produced plastic molds. My rear drivers side was much smaller than the rear passenger side. So much so that a 5/16 drill bit wouldn’t fit and on the other side a 3/8 bit easily goes through.
I ever so gently used a 5/16 drill bit attached to a bit screwdriver to clear out the drain, then bumped up to 3/8.
Now when I pour water on the window it drains equally. BUT both will still overflow when too much water is poured. This is just the design and there is no fixing it. The front drains are much better. It has a deep channel that will hold the water and the drains can keep up much better.
Long story short. If your truck has a leak in the rear this might be your issue. I guess you could widen the drains without taking the frame off, but you would have plastic shavings and it would be hard to see how much material you are taking off from that angle. It would be better to take the frame out of the truck. If you are in a pinch angle the truck downhill so the water runs through the front drains.
Hope this helps someone out there
Never again will I buy a vehicle with a sunroof.
