“It was brand new when I got it.”
The sunroof was closed; that much was certain. But in a recent video filmed inside a premium trim Mercedes-Benz, the sunroof was taking in water like a submarine with a leak.
The clip from New Jersey creator Helen Santana (@helensantanahomes) catches her nearly at a loss for words. Water cascades from her sunroof, pooling at her feet as rain falls.
“It’s literally raining in my car,” she said in the clip that’s been viewed more than 1.4 million times. “The sunroof is closed and there’s that much water and it’s coming in. And from the bottom too.”
Viewers of the clip chimed in with remarkable consistency, diagnosing a problem with the sunroof drainage system rather than the mechanism itself.
“Simple fix, the sunroof drainage is blocked,” one commenter wrote. Others suggested a drain hose could have become disconnected or that a seal around the panoramic roof might have failed.
That prompted a fairly reasonable question from Santana.
“How do all of y’all know about the sunroof drain?” she wrote. “What even is that?”
The reality is that there’s a lot more equipment at play to keep water out than might be assumed. Water that flows around the opening is typically collected in channels and directed through drain tubes that carry it down and out of the vehicle.
If debris plugs one of those passages or a hose becomes disconnected, the water can leak through the headliner and into the cabin.
Mercedes-Benz itself points out that blocked drainage channels can cause leaks, as can damaged or improperly seated seals. That makes the commenters’ theory plausible, although there’s no way to diagnose Santana’s car from the video alone.
A loud group of commenters also speculated that Santana must have bought an aging used luxury car and inherited somebody else’s deferred maintenance.
She quickly knocked that one down.
“My car was not used,” she wrote. “It was brand new when I got it.”
Santana also said she stays current with maintenance, which shifted the discussion toward resolving the dilemma of who’s most responsible for the presumably clogged drains. There’s a reasonable argument that service staff should check the drain during routine maintenance.
“I definitely keep up with my maintenance schedule,” Santana wrote. “I never knew about the sunroof drains. I guess when I take it for maintenance, they never clean them out.”
Several commenters confidently claimed that cleaning panoramic roof drains is part of Mercedes-Benz Service B. However, Mercedes-Benz USA’s current public description of Service B doesn’t list sunroof drain cleaning among its standard items.
The company lists an oil and filter change, fluid and tire-pressure checks, cabin-filter replacement, brake inspection, brake-fluid exchange and resetting the maintenance counter.
Mercedes also cautions owners that maintenance requirements can vary by specific vehicle, model year and configuration, and there isn’t enough identifying information in Santana’s clip to determine exactly what roof-related maintenance should have been performed on her car.
Whatever the cause, there’s no downplaying the seriousness of the problem Santana was dealing with.
The clip shows water running from the roof area and collecting lower in the cabin, where moisture can become a much bigger problem if it reaches electrical components or remains trapped beneath carpeting and trim.
Santana’s caption appears to have already reached a verdict on the broader Mercedes-versus-BMW question. But even that got complicated in the comments.
One viewer said the same thing happened to her mother’s BMW and that she now periodically has her own drains cleared to avoid a repeat. Another said heavy rain had caused water intrusion in a previous BMW even though its drains were kept clear.
The problem isn’t unique to Mercedes, as pumps and drains of any kind can become clogged with debris. BMW has issued service guidance identifying clogged, kinked, or improperly installed panoramic roof drains as possible causes of cabin leaks, and warning that the drainage system can be overwhelmed if too much water gets past the glass or seal.
Santana told Motor1 that the Mercedes is a 2020 GLE 350, and said the problem appears to have been exactly what commenters suspected. After reading the responses to her video, she had the sunroof drains cleaned and said the leaking has not returned.
“I’ve gotten my car serviced at Mercedes many times, and they’ve never told me that. So I didn’t even know that was a thing.” After having the drains cleared, she said, “I haven’t had the issue since. So I guess that was it.”
The cleanup was unpleasant, but apparently stopped short of major interior damage. Santana said the car developed a musty smell, forcing her to clean it and leave the windows open for several days while the cabin dried out. A month later, she had to replace the battery for about $800, though she said the Mercedes dealership told her there was no water damage and that the battery had simply reached the end of its life.
Despite the ordeal and the BMW jab in her original post, Santana said she plans to keep the GLE. She estimates she has spent about $7,000 on maintenance over the past two years, but said that still beats replacing it with another vehicle that could cost around $80,000.
“Cars are expensive,” she said. “It still beats a new car payment.”
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