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.
