Advice about leak, water in spare tire well

[RMcG]

Originally Posted by zoidberg444

I had this exact problem in my car - it took 3 attempts to get it. It turned out to be cracks in the paint work and the sealer between the joints.

There were several areas like this - there was a sort of "hook" to hold the black weatherstripping up on the roof and there were several areas like this. I basically slathered everything in the polyurethane sealant that windscreens are bonded in with and it hasn't leaked since.

Basically the entire rear of my car - from the gulley the weather stripping sits in to these gaps between the panelling to the tailgate seal and some of the seams between the metal underneath the bumper have all been covered with sealant. I used so much of it I can't be 100% sure how many leaks there were - but I think the one in my photograph was the main leak.

Thanks for your reply Zoid. In fact I think I was reading some of your old posts on this and I seem to remember that you had gotten so frustrated at one point that you said, "I am of two minds, ready to take a sledge hammer to the car." Having spent some time (but nowhere near as much as you did) trying to figure out where the leak is I can see how a person could get to that point.

Interestingly, I was messing around with the black weather stripping a few months ago. I removed the weather stripping from the car, because it was dirty & coming off (I bought the car new about 12 years ago). (I think there were "hooks" like you are saying.) I cleaned the channel that the weather stripping is in and cleaned the weather stripping. Then I put a bead of clear silicone rubber cement in the channel and put the weather stripping back into the channel so that the weather stripping would be secured in the channel when the silicone rubber cement dried. It looks reasonable, but given what you said about cracks, I think it could be leaking in that area.

QUESTIONS: Was the carpet in front of your back seats getting wet?

Did you end up removing the back seat in order to get the interior of the car dry or to try to figure out where the leak was coming from?

Did you slather the polyurethane sealant on outer surfaces (painted surfaces) of the car? Or on inner surfaces? Or both outer and inner surfaces?

Just to double-check, the circled area in your picture is the left side of the car where the roof panel meets a left side panel just above the hatch window, correct?

Thanks,

R.