Hello,

another problem which is gettings worse as the rainy season in northern germany is gettings stronger:

The headlining (re-clothed by be about 1 year ago) is wet at the front left (driver) corner, from door side of A-pillat upte the middle where the lamp is. So the whole strip behind the sunvisor. Sometimes dry (when weather good) sometimes damp, or when really raining, soaking wet with occasional drips.

I checked the sunroof drain, it are free of debris, transport water and is tightly attached. All tested.
I lifted up the cover of the foor rack attachment points, all good there.
I stuck the rubber door seal (in the corner between A-Pillar and roof) which one sees when door open back onto the metal body.

Couls it be a bead sealing of the windscreen ? I have no other idea.

Here some photos I just made looseing the headliner in that corner:

greetings, Max.

I had the same problem some years ago and it turned out to be the windscreen seal - I also checked the roof rail gutters and sunroof drain tubes before ‘biting the bullet’ and getting the windscreen replaced. No trouble since.

Is there a way to remove the top windscreen and A-pillar trim without breaking it to maybe reseal that area ?

Top windscreen trim is easy to remove if it was installed properly in the first place. RAVE gives the procedure. Slide a thin piece of plastic (eg credit card) at each attach point and move it (from memory) right to left to disengage it. If it was siliconed in you may destroy it.

that looks more like condensation more than a leak , i would wipe it up dry and leave it in the weather to see where the moisture is coming from before you do anything destructive.

Totally agree. If it was a leak it would be drips at one place rather than damp everywhere. Not saying you don't have a leak, as the moisture has to get it somewhere, but it is then condensing on the cold metal in that area. No different to when a car is left parked up in cold weather, especially if it is parked in sunlight so the moisture in the car becomes vapour to condense on somewhere cold, when there will be drips forming on the underside of the sunroof itself as it condenses on there.

Yes, I agree in that it looks like water condensing on the cold roof metal.
But the "wetness" of that area is so dynamic in that it will be totally dry when there has been no rain for a while and then soaking wet immediately after strong rain. And the more it rains the further the wetness creeps towards the middle of the roof, strting from the corner. And why would it only condense only in that small area and nowhere else ?
I have now removed the A-pillar trim and the windscreen top finisher (which would impossible to figure out how, if one didn´t know the trick) and have put a bead of silicone (ran out of caravan sealant) around the corner of the windscreen.
Let´s see if that changes anything, lots of rain forecast for the next days....

Another possible cause is the foam water shedder/seal around the sun roof, this was the leak on mine. Because the headliner shell is fibreglass the water can run almost anywhere before you see the drips. If you search my posts you should find my repair of that foam seal, unfortunately, repair involves removing the headliner and sunroof cassette, fortunately, it's cheap to fix.

Investigation with a watering can or hosepipe and someone sat inside the car might locate any leak. I had similar on the Disco and found there was a small hole on the metal on the drivers side of the windscreen (looked like it had rusted through from a previous poorly replaced windscreen having damaged the paint).

It really wants the windscreen out to repair it properly, but its been filled with silicone for now which stopped the soaking wet carpet.

Yours looks much higher up, but I was running with no roof lining in mine for a couple of years trying to track down the source of the leak and did end up with a lot of condensation on the roof when it was cold, to the point that it would drip out near the mirror when driving which threw us off the actual source. Having the liner out almost certainly made the problem worse (its back in now having been recovered which was part of the reason it was removed in the first place, the other part being due to the damp problem it was getting mouldy in places as well)

another thing to check if you haven't already looked is the strip on the roof , just lift it up and look for a hole or missing mastic on the seal under it .

I get get condensation in mine from time to time. Made worse by the fact that my aircon has not worked for serveral years (new years resolution).
I have a cheap mains dehumidifier and I leave it running in the car 24/7 for a week at a time. It shifts a shed load of water.

Mine is consistently damp in the boot carpet. No pools of water form underneath but it's getting quite fragrant!

Sealing the top of the Windscreen didn´t seem to help...:-(

Might have to really check with a water hose...something I can do with help from the kids :-)

I lifted up the strip on the roof and it looked OK underneath...

Is there any difference between when the car is parked and it rains, and when its driven and raining? Not sure if the p38 suffers in the same was as the Disco, but we found mine was also leaking through a few holes in the floor in both front footwells - though these may have been caused by the leaking through the side of the windscreen as the carpet was soaking wet when investigated, not noticable until you squeeze it as the water was running down the side of the car behind the plastic trim. Once we investigated further they were found to be very crispy and in quite a poor state.

If you remove some of the trim, the source may become more obvious by more signs of water ingress, either it being wet or rusty marks could give you more clues to work with.

It's probably getting under roof strips and running down inside A pullers ----- quite common on P38

When you checked under the top strip, did you check end of roof rails, there’s a bit of sealant that goes hard over the years, if it’s hard there could be a gap behind you can’t see

Mirafiori-Max wrote:

Yes, I agree in that it looks like water condensing on the cold roof metal.
But the "wetness" of that area is so dynamic in that it will be totally dry when there has been no rain for a while and then soaking wet immediately after strong rain. And the more it rains the further the wetness creeps towards the middle of the roof, strting from the corner. And why would it only condense only in that small area and nowhere else ?
I have now removed the A-pillar trim and the windscreen top finisher (which would impossible to figure out how, if one didn´t know the trick) and have put a bead of silicone (ran out of caravan sealant) around the corner of the windscreen.
Let´s see if that changes anything, lots of rain forecast for the next days....

Had the same issue on my P38 (solved). IF drain hoses and sunroof seal are doing their work you should check other two things:
1) remove the sunroof glass (very easy, 4 torx screws as per Rave), remove the seal around it and carefully check corrosion on the metal frame. If rust has gone under the glass (where it is glued to metal frame) you will have water leaks for sure. The reason is that rust separates the sealant from the frame leaving a way for water ingress. This water is not collected by rails and drain hoses but goes over the headliner and then comes down from pillars.
2) check the seal between the sunroof cassette and the car roof. There must be a neoprene seal (approx 3cm tall) glued to the cassette all around. It should be in place and in perfect conditions. To check this seal carefully, headliner must be taken out.