Low temp sealant for leaking tail lights?

[RMcG]

Hi thanks for your replies Mindinnen and Signats,

I have been waiting to give an update on this thread. Since you guys have posted recently though, I will post an update.

My last post was in January. I waited for months until the weather got warmer and parked the car under a canopy roof so that water would not get in the car. Fortunately I had another (non-leaking older used) car to drive until the weather got warmer and I was able to work on the leaking car (Yaris) under more favorable conditions. I did indeed use Clear Silicone rubber (as I recall it was GE or 3M that was shrink and crack resistant) between the two tail light (old OEM) housing gaskets and the metal mounting surfaces.

I also put a note as described in my last post (written in magic marker on plastic cut from an old milk bottle) inside the tail light grill that is inside the car. The note says that the gasket is affixed to the mounting surface with silicone rubber, so the gasket has to be freed carefully to remove it. On the other hand, it is not necessary to remove the housing to replace the bulbs.

I also sealed up some other areas that could potentially be leaking with 3M Dynatron Seam Sealer. These other areas are described in one or more other threads that I or others started. See, e.g., this thread link , especially Zoidberg's posts and pictures and this thread, especially Yaris X's post & pictures.

I had previously cleaned the roof channels and black rubber strips that fit in those channels. And I re-attached the rubber strips into those channels with silicone rubber. After the leak developed, I cleaned the two little troughs on either side of the re-attached rubber strips. And I then ran a bead of silicone rubber in these troughs and smoothed out the beads with a gloved finger. See this forum post here. Attached is a picture that shows (pretty well) one of the black rubber strips with the silicone rubber holding it down and dried clear silicone in the two little troughs on either side of the re-attached rubber strip; not the prettiest, but it seems to be working.

In any case, after I did all this work, and the seam sealer and silicone rubber cured, I tried to test my work by dumping a lot of water on the car with buckets. (It was the dry season and there was no rain.) And then I checked to see if there was any leaking. There was no leaking. In addition, the rainy season has started here and so far no leaks. So I think I am ok.

When the rainy season really gets going, and I am increasingly certain there is no leak, I will try to post some more pictures and updates to the other posts I made about my water leak problem.

Thanks,

R.
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