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Water in trunk

Yes, either your seal are not there (they are foam doughnuts), damaged or dry-rotted. If you dont have any you will have to locate some. If there damaged or dried up you can use Black RTV around the holes in the body to seal it up.

If you can get the seals off the light, RTV between the light and the seal, then the seal to the body.

Hope it helps,

TourEnvy
 
is the seal on the top of the reflector panel still in place? Mine's half tore off & dry rotted & I believe that's where my water problem is.
 
Mine were in perfectly good shape when I pulled them out, but I filled it with RTV, and now it leaks worse. :blackeye:
 
FYI, the gaskets are discontinued from Ford and there aren't any available anywhere . Bill Jenkins was not able to track any down for me. I tried many used gaskets in perfect shape, but nothing would seal tight enough. They become crushed over time and become to thin.

I ended up buying some 1 1/4" wide, 7/16" thick, 10' long roll (long enough to do 2-3 Contiques) of rubber foam weatherseal from Home Depot. I unrolled it around the back of the taillight, cut to the correct length and stuck it down. Line it up on the car, push hard against the tail and tighten it down. They have not let 1 drop of water in the car since.
 
I had a water in the trunk problem as well. Unlike other posts above, it turned out that the rear window gasket had come loose on one side. A new bead of RTV under the gasket sealed it back up and stopped the leaks!
 
CSVT1214 said:
FYI, the gaskets are discontinued from Ford and there aren't any available anywhere . Bill Jenkins was not able to track any down for me. I tried many used gaskets in perfect shape, but nothing would seal tight enough. They become crushed over time and become to thin.

I ended up buying some 1 1/4" wide, 7/16" thick, 10' long roll (long enough to do 2-3 Contiques) of rubber foam weatherseal from Home Depot. I unrolled it around the back of the taillight, cut to the correct length and stuck it down. Line it up on the car, push hard against the tail and tighten it down. They have not let 1 drop of water in the car since.
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I know this is an old post, but I wanted to know if your fix ever failed on you since you did it. I'm dealing with this problem right now, and am reluctant to basically glue my tail light to the body with silicone. I'm assuming you put the weather stripping on as one piece. Did you simply match it to where the original one was?
 
May not be the problem, but after the body shop fixed my car where it was hit in the back, mine started leaking. After some frustration, I discovered that the plastic trunk vents behind each rear wheel well had been installed upside down. Loosened the bumper cover, flipped them around (tweaked the tabs to make sure the fit tight) and trunk is now dry as a bone.


Brian
 
I had a brake light go out on me, and it was drizzling at the time. When I went to change it, I had noticed the trunk was wet. I visually confirmed water getting in my left tail light. After reading here, I had checked the trunk vents, and they seemed alright, although it was hard to tell, since the trunk was pretty wet at the time. I'm fairly sure they are in correctly, they sorta form a cup inside the trunk, if I remember correctly. I know for sure the one light is leaking, so I figured I'd fix them first, then see if it dries out. If it's still wet, then I'll move to the next of several reasons the trunk leaks lol. I don't really use it much, but I'd like to have a dry trunk when I need it.

So glad I came across this site. Some patient searching has helped me with several things so far. From stupid problems(dome light always on cause dimmer switch all the way up, duh) to frustrating ones(seriously checked my tail light 3x for a crack to explain the water), it seems like whatever i'm puzzling over, someone here has dealt with already. It seems like every time I come here, ready to post about an issue, I search a bit and find the answer I need.
 
When I got my 2000 in November, I found I had two water leaks into the trunk.

The first was the center mounting bolt for the spoiler. I got that fixed by making a new gasket our of two layers of inner tube. Then found I had no left brake or tail light plus water on the driver's side of trunk. Seems the lamp housing was half full of water and the bulb had popped. Messed with the gasket and finally just siliconed the sucker to seal it up.
 
NCSUmoomba said:
May not be the problem, but after the body shop fixed my car where it was hit in the back, mine started leaking. After some frustration, I discovered that the plastic trunk vents behind each rear wheel well had been installed upside down. Loosened the bumper cover, flipped them around (tweaked the tabs to make sure the fit tight) and trunk is now dry as a bone.


Brian
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Mine leaked here as well but I just ended up sealing them up. I didn't notice any difference afterward other then no more water in the truck.
 
I have experienced BOTH leaks as a result of the tail lights themselves (water inside light housing) and the body seams in the areas of the tail light housing.
 
I am having the same issue now! I need to get some RTV ASAP and get this resolved! The last thing I want is water in my trunk which in turn makes my car smell odd... Looks like I will be tackling that tonight!
 
Jbalch said:
I am having the same issue now! I need to get some RTV ASAP and get this resolved! The last thing I want is water in my trunk which in turn makes my car smell odd... Looks like I will be tackling that tonight!
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Well, since she didn't leak on me, it MUST be that ultra-agressive driving style of yours which results in all sorts of chassis flex...and then the seams open up ;-) Yea, right, uh? NOT!!! Most likely the rear tails are leaking around the seals - is there any water in the lense itself? Visual check as well as remove bulb and look for presence of H2O.

You can always drop the rear seats, access the trunk cavity armed with a flashlight and as the wife applies the garden hose to the rear of the vehicle, look for leaks.
 
If anyone finds it's the tail light gaskets that are leaking, please see my above post from 2008. My trunk has stayed 100% dry since I replaced the tail light gaskets with the foam weatherseal.

You don't need to make a mess with RTV sealant. The foam strip is nearly identical material to the factory gaskets.
 
I recommend CSVT1214's weatherstripping fix. My lights were leaking bad (at it's worst my spare tire was sitting in a small puddle.) Followed his advice and bought some weatherstrip from Home Depot, and my trunk has been water free since, and there's been plenty of rain and snow since to test the new seals out. IMO opinion it's the best method, just in case something happens and your tail lights get busted, you don't have to worry about prying your lights from the body, or scraping clean the RTV. Thanks again for the advice.
 
contour_r_us said:
Well, since she didn't leak on me, it MUST be that ultra-agressive driving style of yours which results in all sorts of chassis flex...and then the seams open up ;-) Yea, right, uh? NOT!!!
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HAHAHA!!! Well... I don't drive like a 60 year old man... It could have a little to do with it LOL!! It just started a week or so ago. I will get some weather stripping and take care of it tonight before the rain comes back! It is definitely coming in from the passenger tail light for me.
 
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