Roof leakage issue in multiple Ford Endeavours

Leaking roof has been reported by many Ford Endeavour owners.

BHPian parambyte recently shared this with enthusiasts.

My 2018 Ford Endeavour 3.2 Titanium suddenly started leaking water into the cabin. The water was almost pouring in from the handles on the A-Pillars as well as the overhead switch panel. This was during the Cyclone Tauktae and the consequent heavy rains a couple of days back.

The car has never given any other problems. No leaks ever. I got to know this because the building guard called to say my headlights were on. I wondered why? Looked at my car from my apartment and switched the doors on and off with the remote key, the headlights switched off. After some time, they came on again. Repeat.

I went downstairs to the parking lot to check. In the pouring rain and heavy winds, I opened the car door to find water seeping in, in what may almost be described as pouring. The water was NOT coming in from the sun roof. It was coming in from inside the handles on the A-Pillars (both sides) and the overhead switch panel.

Called Ford Authorised Service Center. They sent someone the next morning collect the car. I had to cover the car with my flimsy original Ford car cover and secure it with ropes due to the wind, only to have it blown away in 15 minutes. I repeated it 4 times, and then gave up. The car was fixed after 3 days at the service centre. The car has come back clean and dry. They said the headlights issue was because of water in the switch which they have fixed now, they claim. They said that the water poured in because some drain on the roof was clogged. That's strange. If a drain on the roof is clogged (which can happen because the roof is subject to huge amounts of dust and leaves and other things all the time), the design should be to over flow along the body, NOT INSIDE IT.

They didn't charge me a dime.

That left me a little curious. Is this a known problem? This is surely a design flaw. Anyone else face this? How do I prevent this in the future?

Here's what BHPian 330i had to say on the matter:

Similar thing happened to our 2016 Endeavour 3.2L last week. Droplets of water was leaking from the passenger side handle of the A-Pillar.

Here's what BHPian ruzbehxyz had to say on the matter:

Leaking roof has been reported by many Ford Endeavour owners. This happens when the roof drain is clogged with dirt or other debris. It is prudent to get the drain cleaned at every service if you are a frequent sunroof user.

Here's what BHPian cool_dube had to say on the matter:

Assuming that the sunroof drainage mechanism of the Explorer (shown in this video) is same as - or similar to - that of the Endeavour, here is what I could gather. Requesting experts to chime in.

• Sunroof rubber beadings are not 100% water proof and one can expect some water ingress during heavy rains
• Water that manages to seep through sunroof beadings is channeled to the drain hole/pipe via internal ducts on either side of the roof
• If the drain hole/pipe is clogged due to debris getting accumulated over a period of time, water accumulates in the channels and eventually makes it way out via A-pillars and/or roof beading, once it overflows
• Chances of the drainage system getting clogged are higher if sunroof is opened frequently, thereby exposing the mechanism to external dust/debris etc.

Another query I have is - do other cars with sunroof exhibit similar behavior or is this a design flaw with the Endeavour's sunroof setup?

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.