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Just updating here for completeness, this was fixed in the end:

Well after nearly two months I finally got the car back today. They fixed several leaks all around the back of the car and got it to the point where there were no leaks at all, but then they realised the car has a panoramic roof and tested that just to be thorough and found that was also leaking in more than one place. When they realised this the owner called me and mentioned that if they'd realised at the start that it had a panoramic roof they might not have taken the job at all. Long story short they ended up taking the entire roof assembly out of the car and sealing the cartridge up completely against the roof panels, so the roof will still operate normally and open but the roof assembly will never come out of the car again without breaking lots of things. Perfectly acceptable for a car this old. It now stays completely bone dry under extreme test conditions (way more than normal UK weather) which is a fantastic result. They did mention that they can't guarantee it won't leak again simply because of the age which is fair enough. They sent me the photos in the afternoon before I went to collect the car and it's really clear they've spent an inordinate amount of time on it, so given the unanticipated issue with the panoramic roof I was expecting a much heftier bill than initially quoted. The total was £1968.72, and that included an MOT and oil service. I was stunned. Best money I ever spent. I cannot recommend Russell Birch and Toyotec enough, the time, effort and attention to detail that went into this repair is phenomenal. Mark IMG_2254.mov

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Also really don't care about resale value, the car isn't worth much to anyone else. Just wanted to know if it's viable as a permanent fix. Specifically with a panoramic roof it forms part of the structure of the car, this is why you can't have roof rails with one. I think it's designed to flex a bit, so my concern with sealing the edges of it rigidly is that over time the glass could crack if it can't flex.

Apparently only regular sunroofs have drain tubes, the panoramic roofs don't have them.

Hello After more than a month at the garage (mostly waiting for parts to arrive from Japan) the leaks at the back of my car are apparently fixed but they've detected a leak at the front now leaking into an A-pillar and they have a horrible feeling it could be the panoramic roof. Obviously not good news, hoping it's not that, or if it is that the seal is available (and in the uk!) and easily obtained. Worst case scenario I asked if they could just seal the roof up completely and disconnect the switch and they said yes but it would be a one-hit wonder, it would either work or not and if it didn't work that sealant wouldn't come out again without breaking the glass. So would basically write the car off if it didn't work. Has anyone ever attempted this or know of anyone who has? This is obviously a last resort and I'm really hoping it's leaking from somewhere else like a panel join or a corner of the windscreen but was just curious if anyone's come up against this at some point in the past. I don't care if the roof can't open. Never again will I buy a car with a sunroof! Mark

Insurance these days seems very much like legalised theft. You pay for insurance, have an accident that wasn't even your fault, and then somehow paying for the repairs yourself seems like a better deal than claiming. How the hell have they managed to get away with creating a situation where this is the case. I think we've all become slowly aclimatised to this so it seems normal but this area of the economy feels like it's run by a mafia.

I think it's generally agreed among tyre manufacturers that 6 years is the approximate safe lifetime of a tyre, so at 5 years I don't think you did too badly. I recently changed the fronts on my wife's car because they were about 5 years old. Not worth the risk to push it too far in my opinion.

If that doesn't work I would definitely talk to a gearbox specialist. Under normal circumstances I would never recommend anything that contains the word "flush", however a friend of mine did once have a gearbox issue that was resolved with a flush and if your symptoms are being caused by sludge stuck in the system then it's not inconceivable that that could possibly help. However I would hasten to mention: 1. Many manufacturers explicitly state "do not flush our transmissions/engines", flushing can damage transmissions 2. Places that flush gearboxes are often running a numbers racket, flushing the units with the same generic fluid and making a lot of money in the process 3. If I were ever contemplating this I'd be very very careful who I let carry it out and I'd want to make sure they were using the correct fluid for the unit and I'd want a detailed explanation of how it could feasibly rectify the issue More info on transmission flushes here: https://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/238

Changing it again isn't going to hurt anything and it's certainly true that draining it never gets all the fluid out so if it was sludged up there may well be sludge left inside it. Whether that will fix the problem or not isn't certain however I like your odds because you had symptoms before the first change which resolved for 5 days, suggesting that it may have been ok until the sludge got back around to where it was causing a problem. If it were mine I'd try another change and then stop driving it at the first sign of trouble if the problem persisted.

Update - my car is still at the garage, coming up to 4 weeks now. Not their fault, the main delay was waiting for a new boot seal to arrive from Japan, still lots of supply chain issues. Hoping to get some good news next week, fingers crossed!

My local garage undersealed mine a few years ago, I think they charged me about £150 and this included fixing some patches of surface rust. Will probably ask them to re-apply it soon.

"Try it and see" is indeed a path to expense! Find a technician who'll diagnose it rather than guessing. Probably not more than an hour's labour to diagnose and then you'll know where you stand.

Is there any data on the number of successful thefts of cars with the system? I'd want to know that stat before handing over my money

Good luck! I wasn't brave enough to try that stuff without really knowing what I was doing haha

Are you sure it's the boot seal that's leaking? I had a similar problem on my RX a couple of years ago, I solved it at the time by putting a bit of silicone under the boot seal and it seemed to resolve it but the problem recently came back with a vengeance. I was convinced it was leaking through the seal but according to my trusted specialist the leaks actually occur through the bodywork where the metal has been joined and sealed when it was built, over time the sealant breaks down and lets water in. It can look like it's leaking through the seal but is actually leaking through cracks or tiny holes in the body somewhere. I dropped the car off with the specialist this morning, the repair process is quite labour intensive as they need to strip all the interior out, but the boot seal isn't a major concern - I think he'll replace it at the end just for good measure but from what I've heard the boot seal doesn't tend to leak it's mostly just to reduce noise (at least on an RX).

i understand your sentiment but it didn’t make financial sense to me to throw it away. i’m looking at ballpark £2k to fix the water ingress, no way i can buy anything reasonable for that kind of money and the rest of the car is in good condition and has been serviced very well, brakes are all good, tyres are basically new, alternator was replaced last year. i had the underside sealed a couple of years ago, will probably redo that this year. these cars are generally very reliable and known to reach very high mileages.

They’re going to strip out all the interior and then put it under a water-spraying test rig to find the leaks. Then fix the leaks they find and repeat the test over and over until they’ve got them all. I understand it’s a very tedious and labour-intensive process and to be honest I’m grateful they’re willing to do it at all as it sounds like a nightmare job.

Pretty sure the inserts don’t come off easily on mine, probably bolted on from underneath. Anyway, dropped it off with Toyotec this morning so should hopefully be sorted out in a couple of weeks or so. Could possibly have found someone to bodge it for cheap but in the long run it probably makes sense to just sort it out properly and not have to worry about water ingress ever again.

Hmm I don't think they come out like that on mine, mine are a solid piece all the way along.

Someone at work reckons the inserts are bolted in from underneath the headlining so can’t really deal with that myself. Im somewhat in two minds, either take it to a known good trusted specialist who I know will be able to sort it out but quite reasonably wants fair compensation for his time, or gamble on taking it to the main dealer and hope they do me a favour and fix it without huge labour costs. It looks very likely that it’s leaking where the roof welds are, maybe the specialist would agree to just fix that initially and see how it goes without taking the nuclear approach.

Cross-posting from my water ingress thread because I reckon someone must know this - I have the panoramic roof and the inserts where the roof bars would go. Anyone know how to remove them? I suspect this is where the water is leaking in and want to try sealing it up

I bet this is where it's leaking, see from 3m 20s: Makes perfect sense given where the water is dripping down. I don't have roof bars, anyone know how the pieces of trim that sit where the roof bars go come out? I tried tugging one earlier but it didn't seem to want to move. If i can get those out I can try putting some sealant in and see if that fixes it, can't hurt to try

I think that's what they'll do yeah. What would stop the Captain Trolley stuff from sealing up a drain hole?

Called my favourite Lexus specialist, the only way they'll touch it is if they can sort it properly which means stripping all the trim out, putting it under a test rig and repeatedly testing until they've found and fixed all the leaks. Ballpark £1500 in labour. He reckons there are probably 10+ separate leaks which collectively add up to water ingress and if they try to find and fix just the one that's leaking the most right now I'll be back soon with the same problem. So I guess I'll bite the bullet and sort it properly. It sucks but not much else I can buy for 2 grand.