Water Leak In Trunk ???

[OldManGoingThruPuberty]

:?: Anyone have a problem with water leaking into their trunk? Isolated it to around the tail light, but the garden hose could not bring forth the leak.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Also had son climb into trunk w/ flashlight - shined light from inside for source.

Had him stay in trunk while I shined flashlight from out side. No light showing either way.

 

Thanx - Dave

[Joe T. Squirrel]

Hey OldManGoingThruPuberty,

 

Any suggestions?

 

Also had son climb into trunk w/ flashlight - shined light from inside for source.

Had him stay in trunk while I shined flashlight from out side.

 

You tried one way, then you tried another - now combine the two.

 

While your son is in the trunk with the flashlight, run a garden hose around the perimeter of the trunk lid (or tail light area as the case may be). If there is a leak, he'll find it soon enough.

 

You can check for dry or damaged weatherstripping or a plugged drain hole. Since you believe it involves the tail lights, have you changed a bulb recently and parhaps left something loose? Finally, how much water are we talking about - swimming pool type depth or simple condensation from temperature changes and humidity? A little water may not be a leak at all.

 

Good luck,

 

JTS

[gimp19]

My sisters Prix has a trunk leak, the spare tire cover is covered with mold and puddles of water collect under the spare.

[Baddflash]

Sounds like water might be getting under the weather stripping I think it would be difficult for water to get in around the taillights.

[cutlassdude96]

check it the weather stripping has been pulled away from the trunk ledge

[OldManGoingThruPuberty]

Already had the boy in the trunk, with a flashlight, and the hose running.

 

I'm baffled. Could not find anywhere it was coming in...but there is water pooled on the inside ridges of the tail light assembly.

 

No bulbs were replaced recently.

 

All bulbs were pulled out, and were dry inside.

 

The carpet is wet enough for it to start smelling bad in the hot Iowa weather.

 

Not a major issue here...but baffeling.

 

Thanx for your replies - Dave

[Brian P]

tighten all of the taillight bolts, I think theyre 11mm

[god910]

Are you sure the smell isn't the fact that you forgot to take your son out of the trunk? Welcome aboard.

[GnatGoSplat]

I would pull the taillights. Get some black RTV for oil pan gaskets (don't get the adhesive silicone - someday you may want to be able to get your taillights off). Then run a bead of RTV silicone on the surface of the foam rubber that seals the lights. Then install the taillight, and before putting on the nuts, put some RTV around the taillight studs to seal them up. Then install the nuts just tight enough that you see a little RTV starting to squish out. Lastly, let it cure. After the RTV has cured, tighten the taillights.

[OldManGoingThruPuberty]

Left my son in the trunk - you wa so so silly!

 

I'll pry do the pull out / re-seal / remount process...no...

...it is my son's car.

 

He will do the pull out / re-seal / remount process.

 

 

Thanx for the input guys

 

 

Dave

 

Left my son in the trunk ha ha haha

[MommyTaz022200]

My trunk leaks too, and pretty badly. I'm not sure where, but I think it may be from my antenna. The jack and tire iron are so rusted they are unusable, and the floor under the spare is rusted as well. The rust has not gone thru the floor, and I hope to find my leak before any more damage can be done. I bought some plastic undercoat, and will sand the rust off then spray the trunk with the plastic when I find the leak and fix it. The plastic don't look really nice, but it's under the carpet anyway. Besides I'd rather have it look ugly under my carpet then to have rust problems.

[DaveJ]

My 97 Cutlass SL had, what sounds like, the same problem. I found that water wasn't coming in through/around the taillights, it was the coming through the body seam next to the taillights. It took 2 tries to get it fixed, and it hasn't leaked since. I will take some pictures and try to post them tonight. This was a very irritating problem, spent a lot of time cleaning and removing the smell.

[shipman]

OldMan -- I had this same problem!! I, too, thought it was from the tail lights and the body seem next to them, so I sealed every seam I could find. Most of the water, I later discovered, was getting into the trunk from an unknown location and getting whicked along all the body seams and finally dripping out of the fold in the seam on the trunk sides (about halfway back on the top inside, there is a fold where the two halves of sheet metal come together). It got so bad that my spare well filled with water. I finally had a Eureka moment when I discovered that the water was entering through the rear windshield weatherstripping, and then getting into the trunk from there. I used a bead of silicon sealant around the windshield and that seems to have solved the problem. Not completely, but almost! What a *%#$ to troubleshoot! Take a look at your rear windshield and see if there are any gaps in the seal. Doesn't seem obvious that this would be a route to the trunk but this seems to have helped in my case!

 

Good luck.

[jesse]

Borrow an ultra-sonic detector from a shop that does glass, they may check it for you on the chance it could be the rear window, and try to sell you some glass.

If you cannot find one of those, then try looking for light from the other direction. That is, shine a bright (like 1 million candle power or more) from the inside of the trunk while the car is parked in a DARK garage.

Get your kid inside and have him/her point the light at the trunk real and follow it all around, and then to the lights from different direction. Be sure to tale everything out of the trunk including the carpet, sides and all.

I have had water in the trunk on many cars and found the vent hole under the spare to be the culprit, condensation?

[88monte]

the trunk leaks in my monte too, its comming from my spoiler, i replaced the weather stripping and the leak went away