Roof leak covered under 3/36 warranty?

[PoMansRam]

I know there's tons of threads on the 3rd brake light leak, the satellite antenna, rear window, rain gutters, etc, but I'm really beating my head against the wall with my 2017 Ram 1500 express QC 4x4.

I've had the rear glass checked and re-sealed by a glass shop I trust, I've put a bead of RTV around the satellite antenna, I've addressed the 3rd brake light with a quality auto/marine weather stripping. It was RTV'd in place before I bought the truck and was a royal PITA to remove and clean up. I also even checked and RTV'd the rubber stripping in the rain gutters. It looked intact underneath the stripping there.

I still have water leaking at the rear cab corners, towards which ever corner is lowest. The water works it's way down the rear pillars and sometimes onto the rear seats, toward the outer edges.

I just hesitantly made an appointment with my local Ram dealer. Of course the appt lady knows nothing about warranty coverage. Would this be covered under the 3yr/36K miles bumper to bumper warranty?

I'm at 22100mi. Bought the truck used this April with 12K miles on it.

 

[Mickey Russell]

Could it be a seam in where the body panels come together? Had that happen in my wife’s car, but that car was almost 10 years old when that occurred. Took them a while to find it. They had the headliner out and had to run the hose for 30min or more before it really started coming in. They sealed it up and the problem went away. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chrisbh17]

My 17 leaked within a month of purchase. Made appointment at dealer, they fixed the leak, retested and cleaned the headliner no questions asked.

So, AFAIK it's covered under the bumper to bumper warranty.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[PoMansRam]

That's what I'm hoping. When I bought the truck in April/May this year with 12K miles on it, there were signs that water had leaked in the rear corners, but the summer was SO dry here, I didn't find wetness until September! The reason I didn't try the dealer right away was the rear window was replaced in this truck by the previous owner at some point. I figured the dealer would balk at that right away.

The headliner is getting ruined because of this now.

The 3rd brake light had some type of white sealant applied to the factory gasket on the light. This made it impossible to pull off without tearing the heck out of the factory gasket. I do believe the dealer fix for 3rd brake light leaks is to apply black RTV just like this. Lord help ya when you need to change bulb after that. You have re-do both seals then. The rubber one, then more RTV, plus all the elbow grease involved with cleaning up the sealing surfaces.

 

[MADDOG]

Yes, a leak like that should be covered under warranty plus any collateral damage to other areas, such as the headliner, seats, carpet, wiring, etc....

 

[Firebird]

Yes, it is covered

 

[indept]

Yes the solution is to glue 30yr shingles on your truck...

 

[tincup]

Do you have a sunroof? I had a leak as well and the drains coming from my sunroof were clogged. Easy fix once they got in there.

 

[tincup]

Sorry just saw yours is the rear pillars. Mine was front. Sorry!

 

[PoMansRam]

Yes the solution is to glue 30yr shingles on your truck...

I was thinking more that 89 octane would help it..

 

[Jimmy07]

I know there's tons of threads on the 3rd brake light leak, the satellite antenna, rear window, rain gutters, etc, but I'm really beating my head against the wall with my 2017 Ram 1500 express QC 4x4.

I've had the rear glass checked and re-sealed by a glass shop I trust, I've put a bead of RTV around the satellite antenna, I've addressed the 3rd brake light with a quality auto/marine weather stripping. It was RTV'd in place before I bought the truck and was a royal PITA to remove and clean up. I also even checked and RTV'd the rubber stripping in the rain gutters. It looked intact underneath the stripping there.

I still have water leaking at the rear cab corners, towards which ever corner is lowest. The water works it's way down the rear pillars and sometimes onto the rear seats, toward the outer edges.

I just hesitantly made an appointment with my local Ram dealer. Of course the appt lady knows nothing about warranty coverage. Would this be covered under the 3yr/36K miles bumper to bumper warranty?

I'm at 22100mi. Bought the truck used this April with 12K miles on it.

It would have been covered...before you tore into it and put RTV all over everything. Wouldn’t be surprised if they blame it on you, now. Hopefully they will cover it.

 

[PoMansRam]

Sorry just saw yours is the rear pillars. Mine was front. Sorry!

Thanks tincup.

No sunroof. It does seem to still be the 3rd brake light because when I had the rear glass leak, water would dribble down the inside of the glass when I tested it. This doesn't happen now. Now water works it's way to either the left or right rear corner of the headliner and down the pillars. I'd love to be able to get the headliner down in the back so I could see the inside of the roof, but I don't want to tamper with it more before my dealer visit.

The pocket in the roof for the 3rd brake light really is a horrible design on these trucks. If any water makes it past the light, the only place for it to go is into a channel at the rear of the metal roof structure (inside the truck) and run wherever it wants.. Inside the truck.

Because of this design, it's about impossible for any Ram to not develop a leak here at some point in it's life left in factory form.

 

[PoMansRam]

It would have been covered...before you tore into it and put RTV all over everything. Wouldn’t be surprised if they blame it on you, now. Hopefully they will cover it.

I actually removed more RTV that was put on by someone else than I applied.. but thanks for your support.

 

[chrisbh17]

Right before bringing mine to the dealer I pulled my third brake light to see if I could figure out what was going on. In my case, it looked like the drivers side of the brake light wasn't as tight to the cab as the passenger's side. Im sure its because of the metal it screws onto being a bit off, but looking closer I noticed the screw on the drivers side of the light would bottom out before tightening completely. I left it at that, but might be something to take a look at....possibly shortening the screw (Dremel FTW) to make sure it can get tight without bottoming out on the metal inside the roof.

I wonder if anyone has tried to add plates on the inside surround of the brake light, to try and keep any water in that area instead of getting into the channels and then the headliner.

Easiest option might be to park uphill

 

[PoMansRam]

Just an update on this.

I had my dealer appointment yesterday after a 3 week wait. Had an 0820 appointment and they called saying it was all done by 1130. Supposedly they fixed the water leak. The service adviser said they "replaced the 3rd brake light gasket with an updated thicker gasket". The bill says something to the effect they installed a whole new updated light. They claim they leak checked it afterwards and all was well. They also cleaned most of the water staining off my headliner. They didn't mention anything about the obvious previous attempts at fixing the 3rd light leak, the aftermarket rear glass, etc.

They also did the auto park recall, but couldn't do the tailgate lock recall. They claim the parts currently available are all allocated for those currently waiting, so I have to reschedule in the future for that.

I also explained the issue you see commonly reported with my ~32gal fuel tank going "empty" at ~25gal. There was absolutely nothing on my bill to indicate they did anything about that. There were like 7 line items on my bill. One being for the light, 6 being for the stupid auto part recall?

 

[PoMansRam]

... and it's still leaking.

Rained like a **** last night and I still have water beading down the rear pillars.

 

[chrisbh17]

Other common reasons for the leak:

shark fin antenna (although I havent heard anyone complain about that on here)

the black weatherstrip that goes from front to back of roof inboard of the door frames....the channel it
covers could have a bad and/or broken weld, or where the weatherstrip comes vertical above the rear window, there could be a small opening in the adhesive around the rear window

if you want to narrow it down the best bet is to try and cover the area of the third brake light to see if the water intrusion slows or stops.

 

[chrisbh17]

BTW I wonder if anyone could come up with some sort of template for a "plate" that can sit inside that little cubby hole where the brake light mounts to. Caulk the plate inside that cubby on each end, so that any water that gets by the third brake light will stay in the cubby instead of getting to the inside of the truck. Then create a small relief cut or notch in the bottom of the brake light gasket so any trapped water will drain out.

 

[PoMansRam]

Thanks. Like I said earlier in this thread, I did put a bead of RTV around the antenna bump and I checked/sealed the black trim that runs down both sides of the roof. I'll put painters tape around the light to see if that's still the culprit.

Called the dealership, my SA is off today. The one they patched me through to suggested I try him tomorrow to see if they could squeeze me in somehow. The earliest they could get me back in per their service scheduler is 11/15.

 

[chrisbh17]

Yeah its crazy how they are so busy that they have a 2 week wait. Or are they? I dont think Ive ever met any real business that is booked solid for 2 weeks, especially one that has more than 1 employee.

Anyway, in the meantime I would try to tape around the outside of the 3rd brake light and see if that holds off the moisture.

I still maintain one of the issues, at least on my truck, is that one of the screws on the brake light is bottoming out on the back wall of that "cubby". When I removed it myself and reinstalled it, it sure felt like the left screw didnt tighten up as much as it did just stop going in anymore. Right side worked normally, and if you look closely you can see the left side of the light sticks out just a bit further than the right. The gasket is compressed on both sides, but the right side looks more compressed than the left.