Water leak in Hatch

[ilikerice]

During long rain storms I have been collecting water in my trunk area where the spare tire is. It really turns into a swimming pool in there sometimes if its a down pour. I have been keeping my drain plug off because of this. Been going on for about a year now. Keep forgetting to ask if their is anyone else having this issue.

I have tried the hose technique by leaving the hose on top of the car pouring water around the hatch door. I can not seem to duplicate the issue. My hatch seal looks mint. No build up of any kind.

CRX's have this issue but its a pinch weld near the hatch lift that need to be resealed with some weather sealer.. does the Yaris have this issue also that anyone knows of?

[dj92]

A lot of water came down here in the last days, but mine stayed dry inside...
Maybe it comes in near the lamps?

[bronsin]

Pressurize the inside of the car with a shop vac set on blow.

Go around the hatch area with a cigarette and watch for the smoke to blow.
(you should hear how I retrieved the dip stick for my in ground oil tank with a carrot and a piece of 1 and a half inch pvc pipe!

[CTScott]

Pressurize the inside of the car with a shop vac set on blow.

Go around the hatch area with a cigarette and watch for the smoke to blow.
(you should hear how I retrieved the dip stick for my in ground oil tank with a carrot and a piece of 1 and a half inch pvc pipe!

To do that you would have to plug the two vents that are hidden under the bumper, just below the taillights. The vents allow air to escape when you close the doors, so they have a pretty significant vent capability that would prevent a small leak from being visible during pressurization.

If the hatch seal shows no sign of moisture after doing a spray down, I would pull the tails and check their gaskets. The two places to check if it is not the tails is the antenna gasket and the body seam seal under the black rubber roof strips. (But, my bet is on one of the tail gaskets being the culprit)

[ilikerice]

Ahhh.. I do believe it could be the tails. Didn't think of that.. I know they don't have any type of gasket foam so I'll makeshift one this weekend if I got time.

The carrot and PVC pipe thing.... curious if there is a rabbit involved. Prob not. But would be cool to have a trained rabbit to get that. Lol

Thanks for the input guys

[bronsin]

I put the pcv pipe over the stick down in the 550 gallon tank. It was still upright.

Then I dropped a carrot down the pipe that I knew was a close fit in the pipe. I pushed the carrot down the pipe so it wedged the stick against the pipe.

Then I pulled up the pipe.

QED

[ilikerice]

HAHA.. clever

[mattymo]

I'm chasing hella leaks. Fixed tail gaskets. But now water is comin in from the 2 layers of sheet metal forming the lip that tge trunk weatherstrip goes over. They're not fully welded together. I also have mystery leaks coming down the rear strut towers. I think it may be the hatch lid wire grommett, and/or the antenna. Leaky bitch. Frustrating. Weird smell...not the typical wet dog mildew smell i would expect....more like old hotdog water????

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[El Kapitan]

Ahhh.. I do believe it could be the tails. Didn't think of that.. I know they don't have any type of gasket foam so I'll makeshift one this weekend if I got time.

The carrot and PVC pipe thing.... curious if there is a rabbit involved. Prob not. But would be cool to have a trained rabbit to get that. Lol

Thanks for the input guys

did your leak stop when you tried this solution? i also have water build-up in my spare tire area.

[CoryM]

My 09 hatch has just suddenly developed a leak in the hatch. Hatch rubber is fine, so will have to tear it apart. I'll post results when I find them.

Cheers.

[El Kapitan]

lol, we're both in the same area. it sure has been wet around here recently! let us know if it turns out to be your tail lights. i'll do the same. btw, just to save some time and let you know: no local parts stores sell replacement gaskets. you'll either have to do a dealer search or try the DIY approach that most others here have used with various types of sealant. (btw, one of the guys at a parts store where i went is also having the same problem. crazy!)

[Kar98]

Just to pile on, we had one of these events were water is falling from the sky for several days for reasons unbeknownst to me here in Texas, and once it stopped and the ground wasn't wet anymore, I could see some fluid dripping from the area where many cars used to have the gas tank.

Kneels down, look puzzled at the drips, jiggle that stop, dribble turns into a gush, now concerned I dip my fingers in and give it a lick... hmmm, neither gas nor brake fluid... Pull the stop and blah blah blah, sure enough, there was water accumulated in my spare wheel well too. And the spare is flat.

[ilikerice]

I changed out my Tail light gaskets and I still have leak inside my spare tire. I gave up. I just pulled the drain plug and leave it open. Water drains out from there now so i no longer worry about hitting the brakes too hard and water rushing to the front of the car.

My car is now in the garage, but I may tackle this mystery after I get it back on the road.

[thestranger]

Mine does the same thing. It accumulates in the right corner of the hatch, so it definitely looks like it's coming through the tail light. Smells up my car like mildew (Louisiana).

[mattymo]

Check tailight gaskets...i added foam/aluminum insulation to mine. Check sheetmetal seems at all edges, especially the ones the trunk gasket covers.....i quicksteeled these gaps....much improvement. I still have a leak from up high somewhere....roof or window sheetmetal gaps probably.

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[bkrownd]

My 2010 hatchback has leaked from around the driver side corner of the hatch/taillight since nearly the beginning. I figured it was "just me" since I live in the rainiest city in the country, but apparently others are enjoying the occasional dribble down the hatch floor as well.

[El Kapitan]

for me, it was indeed the rear tail lights leaking, as with so many other people. after removing, cleaning, and sealing, the problem has been resolved.

[CoryM]

Just an update on mine: Definitely the tailights, and definitely a poor design. The sealing surface is far too small, foam too thin, and needs two more nuts to ensure it's pulled in tight.

For those trying to find a water leak, talcum powder is a good way to figure it out. Brush it over the areas you are wondering about, spray car with a hose and look for water trails.

Cheers.

[El Kapitan]

I changed out my Tail light gaskets and I still have leak inside my spare tire. I gave up. I just pulled the drain plug and leave it open. Water drains out from there now so i no longer worry about hitting the brakes too hard and water rushing to the front of the car.

My car is now in the garage, but I may tackle this mystery after I get it back on the road.

my car leaks from somewhere up high. not the tail lights. i'm still trying to find it but the water stains behind the paneling start well above the tail lights. this could be the case with yours too. i sealed the weather stripping, the strut connections for the hatch, the wiring gromet rubber, the windshild fluid gromet. all that's left is the antenna and the area where the hinges of the hatch are connected to the top of the car. if sealing these last areas works, i'll post back.

[tforkner]

Well, I took out my tail light, and it looked like the foam gasket is not doing its job. I cleaned off the metal sealing surface of the car and coated it with a thin film of oil. I used blue RTV on both sides of the foam gasket and put the whole assembly back. Now to wait for rain to see if my labors are fruitful-

[CoryM]

So I found my, and probably other's, water leak.

The lip under the hatch-seal has a gap in it along it's length. So any water that gets under the hatch-seal will enter the gap, then come out just above the tail-lights and drip inside the car. There is a LOT of water that gets above the hatch as the entire roof drains into it. Also, the hatch-seal has shrunk and pulled away from the upper corners very slightly.

So the plan is to get new hatch-seal, then fill the gap, and apply sealer to the seam circled. Toyota puts a dum-dum sealer inside the OE seals (which sucks), so it's going to be a bit of a pain. The good news is it can be done w/o pulling any panels.

Cheers.

[JennyR.]

hey, i'm having the same problem with water leaking above the tail lights, i took out the tail lights, clean everything and seal it back, but i'm still getting water in. what you did here, did it work? And what did you use to seal everything?

-thanks

[CoryM]

hey, i'm having the same problem with water leaking above the tail lights, i took out the tail lights, clean everything and seal it back, but i'm still getting water in. what you did here, did it work? And what did you use to seal everything?

-thanks

I tried stuffing the seams, and inside the old weatherstrip, with dum-dum and had no improvement. I will be ordering a new hatch seal this week and will update when I have results. If that doesn't fix it, I will be removing all rear interior panels and spending some time diagnosing this leak. Water leaks suck.

Out of curiosity: how many people who are having leaks park with their car pointed uphill? Mine started to show leaks as soon as I started to park uphill instead of on flat ground.

Cheers.

[bgkz25]

I had that problem before I keep finding puddle of water inside the trunk flooring. I did water leak tests during hard rain around the weatherstrip area and noticed that it was leaking on the side area of the hatch.
I pulled the weatherstrip and press (press direction-red arrow in my attached illustration) the welt so that the inner rubber flange of the weatrherstrip will grip the body tightly.

56371

[invader166]

Could it not simply be a case of not closing the hatch properly? I know on my car, if I don't slam the hatch hard enough, it won't completely close, and you can still wiggle it out a bit. When it's closed properly, it's solid and doesn't move at all.

Just my thoughts on it.

[fiveagainstone]

Had the Toyota dealership try to find this leak...they failed.

I get water just above the left front pillar between the windshield and the driver's window from the felt part of the plastic molding...drips on my left leg after a heavy rain...in addition to the spare tire well and the rear passenger floor carpet. Smells super funky if i don't put it in the garage and dry it all out with towels. Looks like just replacing the rubber seals is not cutting it...

So if someone for sure finds it(a solid solution), or if crimping the metal under the hatch seal does the trick, PLEASE let us know what you did and if it finally took care of the leaks!:help:

[CoryM]

I replaced my hatch seal last night. The old seal if I held the hatch release button down, the weight of the hatch would pretty much close hatch. Now I have to slam it to get it to latch. I am cautiously optimistic that this will fix the leak. I will wait for a heavy rain or two (in this area, that's a week :rolleyes: ) and update then.

Cheers.

[bgkz25]

Hope it fix it. Don't wait for the rain though, just drive through a car wash ☺.

[CoryM]

So had a couple wet days and a decent rain-storm and....... still dry. I'll watch it for a bit longer before I say 100%, but it definitely fixed the main leak. If there is still a water-leak, it's probably a second one.

So for people starting out, I'd say step one is inspect your tail-lights carefully. Then check for water leaking under the hatch seal (between seal and body). If so, replace hatch weatherstrip. It's only about $100 and can be done in 15min at home.

Cheers.

[JennyR.]

I tried stuffing the seams, and inside the old weatherstrip, with dum-dum and had no improvement. I will be ordering a new hatch seal this week and will update when I have results. If that doesn't fix it, I will be removing all rear interior panels and spending some time diagnosing this leak. Water leaks suck.

Out of curiosity: how many people who are having leaks park with their car pointed uphill? Mine started to show leaks as soon as I started to park uphill instead of on flat ground.

Cheers.
Thanks for the pictures and info. It helped out a lot.

This is how my boyfriend got mine fixed :

So we found out I actually had two leaks. One coming from the tail lights and the other coming from the weather strip. To fix the one by the tail lights. He had to remove everything and clean it. After that, he Silicone the gasket on the tail lights side and on the gasket side. The other leak, he had to pull out the weather strip and clean off all the black stuff from inside and outside of it. He made sure the surface was nice and clean. He then put a bead of silicone around where the weather strip goes on. He then put back on the weather strip and Put 4 tapes where the leaks were to hold it tight in place until it drys. After it dried he remove the tapes and make sure it was alined properly with the hatch. We then test it out by using a hose and so far I've had no more water coming in.

[ilikerice]

This is awesome and great information. I will try to do this to mine.

I can never get it to leak in a car wash or just running water over the hatch area where water would run. It only happens when it rains.. Don't know why.

ANywho, thanks for this

[invader166]

...he Silicone the gasket on the tail lights side and on the gasket side...

Really not sure about this...:confused: What happens if you, for whatever reason, need to take out the tail-lights? Say, changing a burned out lightbulb...:iono:

When I changed out my original tail-light bulbs for LED lights, i found it very usefull to take the entire light out, giving me more working room, rather then fishing around in the hatch, pulling connectors out, but that's just me.

Woudn't it be just as effective to glue some weather tape around the sealing points of the tail-light gasket? :iono:

[nortonfb]

Silicon should just peel off. If it's stubborn, a little dental floss goes a long way.

[CoryM]

So I am still occasionally getting a single drop or two, which is much better than before, but still annoying. Only happens occasionally, even if it's been raining heavy it may show nothing. I'll update when I find this last little leak. I haven't sealed my tails, so hopefully that's all it is.

BTW, a neat thing you can do with silicone is use parchment paper or similar, run your bead, very lightly snug the taillight into place, wait to dry. Then remove the taillight, and the parchment paper will pull off. You now have a custom gasket.

If you don't use adhesive silicone, you should be able to pull the tails off anyhow. You can also use dum-dum.

Cheers.

[tforkner]

My previously mentioned tail light fix seems to have worked. At least for now-

[David C]

I too have a water leak in the rear of my 2007 HB, that I noticed after removing the rear bench seat. When I'm parked with the car pointing downhill (which happens often since my street is an significant incline, so is my yard and sidewalk entrance), water gets in from both sides down to the location of the rear seat bolts (which i also why they were rusted in there big time dammit). I didn't notice moisture or rust in the spare tire well at all, and like someone mentioned, it seems to be coming from the rear axle strut area. I was doing some mods in the rear of my car yesterday, parked in front of my yard with the front of the car pointing downhill, and water was coming in from both sides at the same rate. Today is sunny and dry, so I'll pull out the organizer bins in the spare tire area and see if I can trace the leak. It used to drain by the safety pin-hole of the rear seat, which is why it never became a more serious problem, but still that's bad for rust issues IMO.

[David C]

Update, I took my taillights off yesterday and it would appear that a small amount of water was making it's way in from the lower part of the gaskets (they could have made a labyrinth-seal style lips instead to redirect the dripping water away from the gasket in the first place), and they was some humidity and surface condensation on the inside of the sheet metal of the car around the axle strut area, when running my hand in there, I could feel some wet surface higher than the taillight. Considering the flow of water coming in that I saw happening, it was more than just a condensation issue, so perhaps the little love to the gaskets will be good enough to fix whatever leak the taillight had. Lift support struts bases where pristine, so that leaves the weatherstrip and other grommets on top of the hatch to be inspected. I'm amazed at how many holes are left unused and not plugged or taped in the rear body (I also took off the rear bumper to do some repairs), and that theres several grommets untouched for running wires to the exterior of the car (one by the lower catch pin of the taillight, one a few inch below it, one down by the bumper, etc).

Yet I haven't experienced the main issue reported here, i.e. water in the spare tire well. There is heavy caulking strips running along the outline of the organizer bins, which may be why the water was redirected toward the front of the car instead of right in the well.

How much a new weatherstrip for the hatch cost ?

[dogsridewith]

What are the intended cabin air exit location(s) on an 07 Yaris 2-door hatchback? (These are sometimes the source of leaks.)

[David C]

What are the intended cabin air exit location(s) on an 07 Yaris 2-door hatchback? (These are sometimes the source of leaks.)

The ones I saw yesterday on mine (same car as yours) where by the lower corner of the rear body, hidden behind the bumper. The way there's made (I inspected their design for flaws) would require your car to be tilted forward almost vertical for water to come in, or to have them exposed (rear bumper removed) and blasting heavy windy rain at them. They have a rather good rubber seal around them too. If you take off your taillight, and stick your hand all the way down there from the outside of the car, you can feel them. Its a standing rectangle (about 6"x3") with 2 columns and 3 rows, making a total of 6 flaps. Mine were just dusty, not wet.

There may be more vents tho.

[dogsridewith]

Thanks! (Explains why I couldn't find them just looking around...my circa 1990 Toyotas had vents at the back of the rear window trim, several other sources of water leaks, and laughable scuppers.)

[jra]

My 15 hatch hasn't leaked yet, knock on wood. But my 03 Echo sedan always leaked around the tail lights. I put new weatherstrip on them, then tried thicker weatherstrip, then caulked around the weatherstrip and put a bead on top where tail light makes contact, almost stopped, but it still leaked a little. Bad design, you would think as many years as Toyota has built Echos and now Yaris, they would have come up with something that didn't leak.