Joined
·
1,420 Posts
-There are several other solutions that I have found be searching- random holes in the body etc. But this was my situation, and it seemed it could be a common problem with higher mileage tegs.
-Please excuse the cell phone pictures...was all I had.
So over the past 3 weeks or so, northern Florida got pummled with ~25 inches of rain. Let me tell you how sick of rain I am right now...Anyway, I think I had always had a little bit of water show up in the trunk area, but nothing that really caused too much concern.
Then 3 weeks ago happened. Let me put it this way. It rained soo much and filled up the trunk soo much that some of it spilled forward into cabin (keep in mind that I didn't realize that was what happened...which made things harder to find the source of the water)...this led to soaking wet carpet...everywhere. I don't think I have ever used as many expletives in one sentance when refering to how mad at the rain I was.
Anyway, after multiple "towel and hair dryer dry-outs" of the whole car (and more cursing) I was fed up and thought it was time to search. I found the Sunroof Drain Tube Article and proceeded to check them. Well they were still installed where they were supposed to be...so that wasn't the issue. I then proceeded to take a hose to the roof and let water drain down the car. When all the water went down the sides of the hatch and into the taillights, I found the problem.
![]()
Even with that little blue cable tie plugging that hole, water would still drain out.
![]()
You can see here where all the water ends up...between the gasket and these nice "pockets" inside the tail lights. It then fills up so high that it just pours out of that hole. Keep in mind that if you plug that hole, then well it would just pour out of somewhere else in the gasket.
So I did some more searching, and found that the gasket on the back of taillights was to blame. So I removed them and applied a nice new seal of gasket maker.
**NOTE: I have seen pictures where people have made a seal between the body of the car and the top plastic piece of the taillights- thus not allowing water to run down behind the lights. While this is probably a good fix in some cases, I chose not to (and it would not have fixed the problem either) because I figured I could find the real problem. If this is how Honda wanted water to flow, then so be it. I personally think IT'S A STUPID IDEA!! But that's just me.
So feeling confident that I had fixed the issue, I dried everything out again, and removed all the towels from the trunk............too bad that didn't work.
So last week after being fed up of draining the trunk constantly, I decided I would break down and buy some brand new OEM taillight gaskets. I had also contemplated drilling a hole in the body to drain, but I refused...that's against my "religion".
Last Friday, I installed the new gaskets, and did a quick "dump of water down the hatch drain" test. It looked all good. Too bad that didn't work...either.
Insert your favorite colorful expletive here when I popped the trunk the next night and saw some more water. Keep in mind it wasn't as much, but then again, it didn't rain as much. But it was water none the less. So I went back to square one and poured more water down the hatch drain and over the taillights. As I was watching this, I noticed the outside gasket was looking pretty crappy- so much so that the ouside lens part was pulling away from the plastic housing.
![]()
You can kind of see it in the above picture. I took the taillight completely out, and gently poured water over that plastic piece and then down the lens. VOILA! Water was getting into the inside of the taillight through the outside gasket, and it was then coming into the area that was filling up via all of these little "plugs":
![]()
I then proceeded to completely dry out the taillights, remove what I could of the old gasket, and apply some nice gasket maker in the place of the old gasket. I then put some weight on the lens as it was drying to keep it as close as possible to the housing.
I was also thinking for just in case to drill 2 small holes in the plastic housing to allow any builtup water to drain out of the housing- instead of into the trunk. I think that the lens is sealed enough from this are to prevent frost from forming, but we'll see- and the holes are small enough that I can plug them back should I need to.
![]()
Here you can see the 2 holes and the nice new outside gasket. It doesn't look too bad from the outside- I did use black gasket maker, but it ended up drying more grey than I liked. I'll probably go back later and remove any that sticks out.
-Please excuse the cell phone pictures...was all I had.
So over the past 3 weeks or so, northern Florida got pummled with ~25 inches of rain. Let me tell you how sick of rain I am right now...Anyway, I think I had always had a little bit of water show up in the trunk area, but nothing that really caused too much concern.
Then 3 weeks ago happened. Let me put it this way. It rained soo much and filled up the trunk soo much that some of it spilled forward into cabin (keep in mind that I didn't realize that was what happened...which made things harder to find the source of the water)...this led to soaking wet carpet...everywhere. I don't think I have ever used as many expletives in one sentance when refering to how mad at the rain I was.
Anyway, after multiple "towel and hair dryer dry-outs" of the whole car (and more cursing) I was fed up and thought it was time to search. I found the Sunroof Drain Tube Article and proceeded to check them. Well they were still installed where they were supposed to be...so that wasn't the issue. I then proceeded to take a hose to the roof and let water drain down the car. When all the water went down the sides of the hatch and into the taillights, I found the problem.
Even with that little blue cable tie plugging that hole, water would still drain out.
You can see here where all the water ends up...between the gasket and these nice "pockets" inside the tail lights. It then fills up so high that it just pours out of that hole. Keep in mind that if you plug that hole, then well it would just pour out of somewhere else in the gasket.
So I did some more searching, and found that the gasket on the back of taillights was to blame. So I removed them and applied a nice new seal of gasket maker.
**NOTE: I have seen pictures where people have made a seal between the body of the car and the top plastic piece of the taillights- thus not allowing water to run down behind the lights. While this is probably a good fix in some cases, I chose not to (and it would not have fixed the problem either) because I figured I could find the real problem. If this is how Honda wanted water to flow, then so be it. I personally think IT'S A STUPID IDEA!! But that's just me.
So feeling confident that I had fixed the issue, I dried everything out again, and removed all the towels from the trunk............too bad that didn't work.
So last week after being fed up of draining the trunk constantly, I decided I would break down and buy some brand new OEM taillight gaskets. I had also contemplated drilling a hole in the body to drain, but I refused...that's against my "religion".
Last Friday, I installed the new gaskets, and did a quick "dump of water down the hatch drain" test. It looked all good. Too bad that didn't work...either.
Insert your favorite colorful expletive here when I popped the trunk the next night and saw some more water. Keep in mind it wasn't as much, but then again, it didn't rain as much. But it was water none the less. So I went back to square one and poured more water down the hatch drain and over the taillights. As I was watching this, I noticed the outside gasket was looking pretty crappy- so much so that the ouside lens part was pulling away from the plastic housing.
You can kind of see it in the above picture. I took the taillight completely out, and gently poured water over that plastic piece and then down the lens. VOILA! Water was getting into the inside of the taillight through the outside gasket, and it was then coming into the area that was filling up via all of these little "plugs":
I then proceeded to completely dry out the taillights, remove what I could of the old gasket, and apply some nice gasket maker in the place of the old gasket. I then put some weight on the lens as it was drying to keep it as close as possible to the housing.
I was also thinking for just in case to drill 2 small holes in the plastic housing to allow any builtup water to drain out of the housing- instead of into the trunk. I think that the lens is sealed enough from this are to prevent frost from forming, but we'll see- and the holes are small enough that I can plug them back should I need to.
Here you can see the 2 holes and the nice new outside gasket. It doesn't look too bad from the outside- I did use black gasket maker, but it ended up drying more grey than I liked. I'll probably go back later and remove any that sticks out.
