Leaking Safari Roof and Door Seals Flooding The Car And other Leaks and Problems

[nodric]

I wanted to share my latest experience as an owner with safari roof windows. I have had the car 6 weeks and it has 700 miles on the clock.

Drooping Seals and Water Inside the Car

I have the drooping and failing adhesive door seal issue on the front doors. I also had the issue where after heavy rain I would get a deluge of water when I opened the door. Some people have attributed this to the following "As the rain runs down the B pillar it leaks through the outer seal into the space between the inner and outer seal at about door handle level. It then runs down and is trapped where the bottom seal mates nicely at the bottom of the door". The dealer has said this is not correct. I do have gaps in the outer door seal at handle level however, as well as the coming away and drooping along the bottom.

Note: Some cars are being fixed with adhesive along the bottom if they catch it early. I do not like this as other gaps will not be caught and fixed.

My dealer stated today that it is in fact the safari roof seals that cause water to leak under the headlining which then that runs down the A pillar internally and pools under the floor coverings and spills into the sill and collects in the door area and when you open the door it gushes out. I had the kick panels off and they were bone dry which means if what they tell me is true, then there must be welded channels that the water is running in that are not exposed to the trims.

I stripped mine down this weekend after a heavy rain and found the front floor area on both sides a good 15mm deep in water. It is now with the dealer. I asked about the headlining being compromised, and he "assured" me that is was coated and would not be affected. They will strip and dry everything, and replace the roof seals. They will replace the front outer door seals.

WARNING - If you have the full length rack fitted.

If Ineos is reading this you are not Toyota or Customer 1st! I have the full length roof rack fitted, as configure when I ordered the car, and the dealer said it did give a warning about the safari windows not opening with it, and that they recommend the shorter rack, which was not available at the time of purchase (coming soon). I spec'd the rack despite this as I wanted the extra light and the option one day to remove the rack. The configurator offers this but unbeknown to me at the time or ordering, the rack is a dealer installed accessory and not factory fitted. When I went to sign for my new car it was fitted and non one told me the dealer had installed it.

Apparently, and listen to this Ineos, they will NOT cover the costs of removal of the rack to access the safari windows to replace the seals due to their manufacturing defect! I have to pay the labor costs for that work. I am assured the dealer "will work with me" on the final bill!! You built a car badly and now I have to pay to fix it even though it is supplied with factory fitted parts spec'd in the order, and I paid for.

• In addition I have dripping A/C pipes into the footwell which the dealer is aware of being an issue, probably due to poor lagging causing condensation. I live in Texas. It gets hot here! We survive on A/C!
• I also noticed the raised air intake (snorkel) is loose where it mates to the fender/wing. Another in the lot had the same issue. The loaner does not.
• The rear door seal (boot/trunk) also has goo where the larger door sticker meets the upper opening. The loaner has this too. It seems to be the coating on the seal peeling away and become tacky and gooey. He is raising that with Ineos.
• My steering wheel is off center when running true. No, the car does not pull and tracks correctly. The loaner has it even worse. Seems they are not alleging the steering wheels when fitting them.

The car is awesome, but I am having Land Rover Defender flashbacks! Great engineering on big parts, but lousy engineering on small parts. Quality of assembly is poor.

I have contacted Ineos and they did reply saying they had escalate my issue. Since then... crickets...

And the speed warning issue in America is not an issue in the UK as it is not required there, so no one thought to test the cars in the US market before that was defaulted to always reset to on when turning the car off. No software update fixes this yet.

Some drivers are having an engine check light issue in the US. I luckily have not had that yet. I have had the display go black and had to restart the car to bring it back. Others have had the same. A restart has fixed it. All this from my dealer today.

 

[Cheshire cat]

Sorry to read how you have been treated NODRIC. If the roof rack was an aftermarket product I could understand to some extent but when ordered from new, why should you be accountable?

 

[bbq4133]

The dealer's response re: roof rack and the seals is baffling to me and unacceptable. I hope they see the light.

 

[nodric]

I also just noticed on the loaner Grenadier they gave me the horn beeps when I lock the car, a common thing in the USA, but my car is silent locking. I wonder if they somehow wired the "toot" horn to the central locking? Not sure how that would be achieved? Maybe it's a programming option I or the dealer overlooked on my car?

Any other US owners have a toot when you press the lock on the remote? For non US folks we have this as our parking lots are the size of small European towns, and we need to locate where we parked, at least before AirTags

 

[anand]

I also just noticed on the loaner Grenadier they gave me the horn beeps when I lock the car, a common thing in the USA, but my car is silent locking. I wonder if they somehow wired the "toot" horn to the central locking? Not sure how that would be achieved? Maybe it's a programming option I or the dealer overlooked on my car?

Any other US owners have a toot when you press the lock on the remote? For non US folks we have this as our parking lots are the size of small European towns, and we need to locate where we parked, at least before AirTags

Audible locking is a setting in the options menu

 

[nodric]

Audible locking is a setting in the options menu

Well bugger me. Nice of the dealer to tell me Maybe I should have read the manual

 

[Chadd7]

I wanted to share my latest experience as an owner with safari roof windows. I have had the car 6 weeks and it has 700 miles on the clock.

Drooping Seals and Water Inside the Car

I have the drooping and failing adhesive door seal issue on the front doors. I also had the issue where after heavy rain I would get a deluge of water when I opened the door. Some people have attributed this to the following "As the rain runs down the B pillar it leaks through the outer seal into the space between the inner and outer seal at about door handle level. It then runs down and is trapped where the bottom seal mates nicely at the bottom of the door". The dealer has said this is not correct. I do have gaps in the outer door seal at handle level however, as well as the coming away and drooping along the bottom.

Note: Some cars are being fixed with adhesive along the bottom if they catch it early. I do not like this as other gaps will not be caught and fixed.

My dealer stated today that it is in fact the safari roof seals that cause water to leak under the headlining which then that runs down the A pillar internally and pools under the floor coverings and spills into the sill and collects in the door area and when you open the door it gushes out. I had the kick panels off and they were bone dry which means if what they tell me is true, then there must be welded channels that the water is running in that are not exposed to the trims.

I stripped mine down this weekend after a heavy rain and found the front floor area on both sides a good 15mm deep in water. It is now with the dealer. I asked about the headlining being compromised, and he "assured" me that is was coated and would not be affected. They will strip and dry everything, and replace the roof seals. They will replace the front outer door seals.

WARNING - If you have the full length rack fitted.

If Ineos is reading this you are not Toyota or Customer 1st! I have the full length roof rack fitted, as configure when I ordered the car, and the dealer said it did give a warning about the safari windows not opening with it, and that they recommend the shorter rack, which was not available at the time of purchase (coming soon). I spec'd the rack despite this as I wanted the extra light and the option one day to remove the rack. The configurator offers this but unbeknown to me at the time or ordering, the rack is a dealer installed accessory and not factory fitted. When I went to sign for my new car it was fitted and non one told me the dealer had installed it.

Apparently, and listen to this Ineos, they will NOT cover the costs of removal of the rack to access the safari windows to replace the seals due to their manufacturing defect! I have to pay the labor costs for that work. I am assured the dealer "will work with me" on the final bill!! You built a car badly and now I have to pay to fix it even though it is supplied with factory fitted parts spec'd in the order, and I paid for.

• In addition I have dripping A/C pipes into the footwell which the dealer is aware of being an issue, probably due to poor lagging causing condensation. I live in Texas. It gets hot here! We survive on A/C!
• I also noticed the raised air intake (snorkel) is loose where it mates to the fender/wing. Another in the lot had the same issue. The loaner does not.
• The rear door seal (boot/trunk) also has goo where the larger door sticker meets the upper opening. The loaner has this too. It seems to be the coating on the seal peeling away and become tacky and gooey. He is raising that with Ineos.
• My steering wheel is off center when running true. No, the car does not pull and tracks correctly. The loaner has it even worse. Seems they are not alleging the steering wheels when fitting them.

The car is awesome, but I am having Land Rover Defender flashbacks! Great engineering on big parts, but lousy engineering on small parts. Quality of assembly is poor.

I have contacted Ineos and they did reply saying they had escalate my issue. Since then... crickets...

And the speed warning issue in America is not an issue in the UK as it is not required there, so no one thought to test the cars in the US market before that was defaulted to always reset to on when turning the car off. No software update fixes this yet.

Some drivers are having an engine check light issue in the US. I luckily have not had that yet. I have had the display go black and had to restart the car to bring it back. Others have had the same. A restart has fixed it. All this from my dealer today.

This would drive me mad. Sorry to hear about all the issues. I have safari windows and have not had leaks. I also noticed that my lower door seals have holes punched in them to avoid water collection perhaps during the dealer prep process?

 

[LWA55DAL]

I am guessing you are dealing with the INEOS dealer in Plano - Sewell. I purchased mine from Sewell as well and was rather disappointed with the entire experience. The sales guy was great, but the management team and service knowledge was a bit pathetic. From what I have heard - Mossy in Houston is awesome and I think they are monitoring this Forum so maybe they can help - recognizing they are note close. The idea that they would charge you for a factory OR dealer installed option removal to perform a warranty repair is insane, but that’s the way dealerships work in the US. INOES mandated that all of the US dealers sell at MSRP with no markup so now they are extracting every penny out of the consumer out of sheer greed - no other reason. Good luck with your issues and hope they get resolved!

PS - if INEOS did what they said they would do - we would all have the factory service manuals and they would send the parts to the owners for repair if needed under warranty. How is the guy is the middle of Australia supposed to drive he Grenadier to the dealership 500km away and wait for some clown at the stealership to put in a new seal for 4 days? I get the this is a 1st generation vehicle and there will be problems, but if the same thing happened to me in San Antonio - I would need to fix it on my own and I would - if they would just give me the parts to do so.

 

[nodric]

This would drive me mad. Sorry to hear about all the issues. I have safari windows and have not had leaks. I also noticed that my lower door seals have holes punched in them to avoid water collection perhaps during the dealer prep process?

Pull up the trims along the sills. They just pop off. Shine a torch into the channels and see if there is any water, especially after decent rainfall. If you see water you have an issue. You can also lift the floor coverings. The plastic floor padding. If you see water under there you have the issue. Fingers crossed you have the later seals and do not develop this problem.

 

[RYAustralia]

I am guessing you are dealing with the INEOS dealer in Plano - Sewell. I purchased mine from Sewell as well and was rather disappointed with the entire experience. The sales guy was great, but the management team and service knowledge was a bit pathetic. From what I have heard - Mossy in Houston is awesome and I think they are monitoring this Forum so maybe they can help - recognizing they are note close. The idea that they would charge you for a factory OR dealer installed option removal to perform a warranty repair is insane, but that’s the way dealerships work in the US. INOES mandated that all of the US dealers sell at MSRP with no markup so now they are extracting every penny out of the consumer out of sheer greed - no other reason. Good luck with your issues and hope they get resolved!

PS - if INEOS did what they said they would do - we would all have the factory service manuals and they would send the parts to the owners for repair if needed under warranty. How is the guy is the middle of Australia supposed to drive he Grenadier to the dealership 500km away and wait for some clown at the stealership to put in a new seal for 4 days? I get the this is a 1st generation vehicle and there will be problems, but if the same thing happened to me in San Antonio - I would need to fix it on my own and I would - if they would just give me the parts to do so.

Ps Grenadier owner in Mount Isa - his nearest dealer agent is in Townsville which is 930km away - about 9.5 hours drive each way.

 

[nodric]

I am guessing you are dealing with the INEOS dealer in Plano - Sewell. I purchased mine from Sewell as well and was rather disappointed with the entire experience. The sales guy was great, but the management team and service knowledge was a bit pathetic. From what I have heard - Mossy in Houston is awesome and I think they are monitoring this Forum so maybe they can help - recognizing they are note close. The idea that they would charge you for a factory OR dealer installed option removal to perform a warranty repair is insane, but that’s the way dealerships work in the US. INOES mandated that all of the US dealers sell at MSRP with no markup so now they are extracting every penny out of the consumer out of sheer greed - no other reason. Good luck with your issues and hope they get resolved!

PS - if INEOS did what they said they would do - we would all have the factory service manuals and they would send the parts to the owners for repair if needed under warranty. How is the guy is the middle of Australia supposed to drive he Grenadier to the dealership 500km away and wait for some clown at the stealership to put in a new seal for 4 days? I get the this is a 1st generation vehicle and there will be problems, but if the same thing happened to me in San Antonio - I would need to fix it on my own and I would - if they would just give me the parts to do so.

You guessed rightly. To their credit they are trying to be supportive. They say the usual dealer things "we can only do what Ineos directs us to do" etc. Amusingly the loaner has the same rear door seal issue and the steering is badly off center. I sent the service director photos. He was surprised and said I was the first to notice the rear door seal issue.

I've attached the photos I took the loaner. If you get black gunk on the door and the rear seal is tacky and looks like this photo you have the same issue.

I am saddened that following the Ineos story and what Sir Jim achieved we now find ourselves being treated like crap on 100 grand vehicles. Maybe I'll tag him in a tweet and see if he replies.

 

[Reducs]

@nodric Sorry about the problems. Sewell is my dealer (if the truck ever ships) and this sure doesn't sound very Sewell-like. Disappointing.

Keep us posted!

 

[nodric]

@nodric Sorry about the problems. Sewell is my dealer (if the truck ever ships) and this sure doesn't sound very Sewell-like. Disappointing.

Keep us posted!

Just tweeted Sir Jim and Ineos with a link to this forum post.

 

[DrahthHunter]

I wanted to share my latest experience as an owner with safari roof windows. I have had the car 6 weeks and it has 700 miles on the clock.

Drooping Seals and Water Inside the Car

I have the drooping and failing adhesive door seal issue on the front doors. I also had the issue where after heavy rain I would get a deluge of water when I opened the door. Some people have attributed this to the following "As the rain runs down the B pillar it leaks through the outer seal into the space between the inner and outer seal at about door handle level. It then runs down and is trapped where the bottom seal mates nicely at the bottom of the door". The dealer has said this is not correct. I do have gaps in the outer door seal at handle level however, as well as the coming away and drooping along the bottom.

Note: Some cars are being fixed with adhesive along the bottom if they catch it early. I do not like this as other gaps will not be caught and fixed.

My dealer stated today that it is in fact the safari roof seals that cause water to leak under the headlining which then that runs down the A pillar internally and pools under the floor coverings and spills into the sill and collects in the door area and when you open the door it gushes out. I had the kick panels off and they were bone dry which means if what they tell me is true, then there must be welded channels that the water is running in that are not exposed to the trims.

I stripped mine down this weekend after a heavy rain and found the front floor area on both sides a good 15mm deep in water. It is now with the dealer. I asked about the headlining being compromised, and he "assured" me that is was coated and would not be affected. They will strip and dry everything, and replace the roof seals. They will replace the front outer door seals.

WARNING - If you have the full length rack fitted.

If Ineos is reading this you are not Toyota or Customer 1st! I have the full length roof rack fitted, as configure when I ordered the car, and the dealer said it did give a warning about the safari windows not opening with it, and that they recommend the shorter rack, which was not available at the time of purchase (coming soon). I spec'd the rack despite this as I wanted the extra light and the option one day to remove the rack. The configurator offers this but unbeknown to me at the time or ordering, the rack is a dealer installed accessory and not factory fitted. When I went to sign for my new car it was fitted and non one told me the dealer had installed it.

Apparently, and listen to this Ineos, they will NOT cover the costs of removal of the rack to access the safari windows to replace the seals due to their manufacturing defect! I have to pay the labor costs for that work. I am assured the dealer "will work with me" on the final bill!! You built a car badly and now I have to pay to fix it even though it is supplied with factory fitted parts spec'd in the order, and I paid for.

• In addition I have dripping A/C pipes into the footwell which the dealer is aware of being an issue, probably due to poor lagging causing condensation. I live in Texas. It gets hot here! We survive on A/C!
• I also noticed the raised air intake (snorkel) is loose where it mates to the fender/wing. Another in the lot had the same issue. The loaner does not.
• The rear door seal (boot/trunk) also has goo where the larger door sticker meets the upper opening. The loaner has this too. It seems to be the coating on the seal peeling away and become tacky and gooey. He is raising that with Ineos.
• My steering wheel is off center when running true. No, the car does not pull and tracks correctly. The loaner has it even worse. Seems they are not alleging the steering wheels when fitting them.

The car is awesome, but I am having Land Rover Defender flashbacks! Great engineering on big parts, but lousy engineering on small parts. Quality of assembly is poor.

I have contacted Ineos and they did reply saying they had escalate my issue. Since then... crickets...

And the speed warning issue in America is not an issue in the UK as it is not required there, so no one thought to test the cars in the US market before that was defaulted to always reset to on when turning the car off. No software update fixes this yet.

Some drivers are having an engine check light issue in the US. I luckily have not had that yet. I have had the display go black and had to restart the car to bring it back. Others have had the same. A restart has fixed it. All this from my dealer today.

if you want the shorter roof rack I am not getting the safari windows just reordered hated the color I originally picked, I could spec a short rack and we or someone could swap with you its a damn roof rack I wouldn't care its not brand new. or maybe someone close to you will.

 

[nodric]

if you want the shorter roof rack I am not getting the safari windows just reordered hated the color I originally picked, I could spec a short rack and we or someone could swap with you its a damn roof rack I wouldn't care its not brand new. or maybe someone close to you will.

I got the longer one for the capacity, and of course as the shorter one was not available, and I assumed it was factory option so if I didn't get it now then adding later would be a PITA. If we'd known (maybe I missed it) that it was all going to be RhinoRack then we could have just left the whole rack off the order and gone aftermarket. The Jerry can holder isn't as good as some from other manufacturers for instance, and I am not sure if other non Rhino accessories will fit their channel system. It's a very substantial rack that apparently takes 4 people (so the dealer told me) to lift on and off. Maybe more to do with balance than weight.

FYI - The rack does mark easily as you walk over it and/or move things around and fit the clamps and various brackets. Not badly, but surface scratches appear quickly.

I only fitted the damned safari windows as fitting them later was not going to be an option, but I think we are all better off without them.

My advice to anyone that has them is to leave the car outside in heavy rain and then once stopped open the doors, check for gushing water, and lift the floor mats and remove the sill trim and check for water ingress. If you park in a garage you may not realize you have the issues until you're on a trip.

 

[ADVAW8S]

@DrahthHunter what color did you originally order and what color are you replacing it with.

 

[Frank]

I wanted to share my latest experience as an owner with safari roof windows. I have had the car 6 weeks and it has 700 miles on the clock.

Drooping Seals and Water Inside the Car

I have the drooping and failing adhesive door seal issue on the front doors. I also had the issue where after heavy rain I would get a deluge of water when I opened the door. Some people have attributed this to the following "As the rain runs down the B pillar it leaks through the outer seal into the space between the inner and outer seal at about door handle level. It then runs down and is trapped where the bottom seal mates nicely at the bottom of the door". The dealer has said this is not correct. I do have gaps in the outer door seal at handle level however, as well as the coming away and drooping along the bottom.

Note: Some cars are being fixed with adhesive along the bottom if they catch it early. I do not like this as other gaps will not be caught and fixed.

My dealer stated today that it is in fact the safari roof seals that cause water to leak under the headlining which then that runs down the A pillar internally and pools under the floor coverings and spills into the sill and collects in the door area and when you open the door it gushes out. I had the kick panels off and they were bone dry which means if what they tell me is true, then there must be welded channels that the water is running in that are not exposed to the trims.

I stripped mine down this weekend after a heavy rain and found the front floor area on both sides a good 15mm deep in water. It is now with the dealer. I asked about the headlining being compromised, and he "assured" me that is was coated and would not be affected. They will strip and dry everything, and replace the roof seals. They will replace the front outer door seals.

WARNING - If you have the full length rack fitted.

If Ineos is reading this you are not Toyota or Customer 1st! I have the full length roof rack fitted, as configure when I ordered the car, and the dealer said it did give a warning about the safari windows not opening with it, and that they recommend the shorter rack, which was not available at the time of purchase (coming soon). I spec'd the rack despite this as I wanted the extra light and the option one day to remove the rack. The configurator offers this but unbeknown to me at the time or ordering, the rack is a dealer installed accessory and not factory fitted. When I went to sign for my new car it was fitted and non one told me the dealer had installed it.

Apparently, and listen to this Ineos, they will NOT cover the costs of removal of the rack to access the safari windows to replace the seals due to their manufacturing defect! I have to pay the labor costs for that work. I am assured the dealer "will work with me" on the final bill!! You built a car badly and now I have to pay to fix it even though it is supplied with factory fitted parts spec'd in the order, and I paid for.

• In addition I have dripping A/C pipes into the footwell which the dealer is aware of being an issue, probably due to poor lagging causing condensation. I live in Texas. It gets hot here! We survive on A/C!
• I also noticed the raised air intake (snorkel) is loose where it mates to the fender/wing. Another in the lot had the same issue. The loaner does not.
• The rear door seal (boot/trunk) also has goo where the larger door sticker meets the upper opening. The loaner has this too. It seems to be the coating on the seal peeling away and become tacky and gooey. He is raising that with Ineos.
• My steering wheel is off center when running true. No, the car does not pull and tracks correctly. The loaner has it even worse. Seems they are not alleging the steering wheels when fitting them.

The car is awesome, but I am having Land Rover Defender flashbacks! Great engineering on big parts, but lousy engineering on small parts. Quality of assembly is poor.

I have contacted Ineos and they did reply saying they had escalate my issue. Since then... crickets...

And the speed warning issue in America is not an issue in the UK as it is not required there, so no one thought to test the cars in the US market before that was defaulted to always reset to on when turning the car off. No software update fixes this yet.

Some drivers are having an engine check light issue in the US. I luckily have not had that yet. I have had the display go black and had to restart the car to bring it back. Others have had the same. A restart has fixed it. All this from my dealer today.

Hi

Just tweeted Sir Jim and Ineos with a link to this forum post.

I have the same water getting trapped in the door causing a deluge when it is opened
unfortunately I do not have a safari sunroof!!
Frank

 

[Frank]

I am enjoying my Ineos, all the basics are very good, now nearly 10,000 km with plenty of off-roading

I do unfortunately find all the niggles somewhat tedious

Frank

 

[nodric]

Hi

I have the same water getting trapped in the door causing a deluge when it is opened
unfortunately I do not have a safari sunroof!!
Frank

That's interesting then. Maybe it is the gaps in the outer door seals. I found tracing my finger around the outer door seals (the ones stuck to the actual door) I found gaps in them where the adhesive had failed. Others say that water draining down the B pillar (normal) gets in between the seals and collects in the sills which then gushes out when you open the doors. As I wrote, the dealer claims this is the safari roofs but since you don't have them maybe there is truth in the other reported cause. Let us known what you find if you check them.

Once mine is back I intend to film the next time we have rain as I open the doors after the rain. Spring in Texas = lots of storms and heavy rain.

 

[nodric]

Out of interest I went and inspected the loaner I have. A Trailmaster with 600 miles on the clock. Here is what I found. Both front doors and both rear doors.

There simply is zero adhesive applied in the places that they are not fixed. They claimed it was not cleaning the doors that caused them to come away, but this is simply a lack of anything adhesive. There is no tack or residue.

Some of the thumbnails are not rendering as I post, but if you click them the full image is there.