Leaking trunk, wet carpet, it's a mystery..
 

During the last few rain falls I noticed that the floor of my trunk was getting slightly damp. I thought it was leaking windshield washer fluid and dismissed it. But last night I opened the trunk to put in some groceries and it was flooded! The plastic box that holds the jack and tow hooks was full of water!

By inspecting the car (pulled out the carpeting) I can see that it looks like the water is entering some place around the left side of the trunk (passenger side) but I can't see where and even though I tried the hose I couldn't find a leak.

I have an appointment to have my tail lights replaced due to standing water.... Do you think there is something related? This was a lot of water and I'm rather spooked that I couldn't diagnose the problem last night.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hey,

Do you have a spoiler on? If so, pull the plastic piece under the trunk lid and see if it is leaking in around the bolts that hold the spoiler on. Worth a try.

Later
Corvus13

416to212:

I'm having that EXACT problem. Can't seem to replicate it with the hose. I swear I've checked everything - I even took the entire lining out of my trunk to see if could find any culprit rust spots.

Please update me if you discover the problem.


As for the taillight being the problem I'd say no. My trunk was damp when my taillight flooded. They fixed it.... trunk still gets damp. There *might* be a correlation in your 8, but at least for mine that wasn't the case.



EDIT:
Oh yeah, mine has a spoiler, so SP might be onto something

Hey again guys,

The reason I suggested the spoiler is from previous experience on a Mazda Protege. I kept seeing water (about and inch or so) building up in the trunk, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Being a submariner, I was going to be damned if I couldn't find the leak, so I checked all possible entries into the trunk and viola, the factory spoiler was lacking the seals that went around the bolts penetrations going into the trunk. The thing that makes this tricky to find is that water tends to follow strange paths when cornering (ie flowing through the trunk lid reinforcements to be deposited at a location feet away from the original leak site) Hope this helps (by the way I fixed it with a little bit of rubber gasket material and a healthy dab of silicone in the trunk.)

Latr
Corvus13

Check out this service bulletin. It may be related to your leak problem.

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...8-04-1248a.pdf

I'll check out my spoiler tonight...

Now that I'm waiting on rain - it's sunshiny.... go figure...

I'll also be looking for points mentioned on the service bulletin.

1/2mv - I'll keep you up to date with my findings...

I think someone else here had the same problem but the leak was in either a door seal or a rear-window seal leaking and running back to the trunk.

Looked at the spoiler bolts but ruled it not at fault. The bolt heads are places outside of the trunk seal.

Devil thanks for the tip off - I'll check it out...

I peed in your trunk.

I'll be in Dallas this week - you're dead...

Dallas, huh?... just 635 miles away. :wiggle:

Had that exact problem with my other car... water was getting in thru the (faulty) tailight seals. I couldn't believe THAT much water could get thru such a tiny opening but... fixing the seals fixed the "water in the trunk" problem.

my 2 cents

was the truck closed when it was raining?

my rear windshield had a bad seal and was leaking into my left rear bottom seat cushion. replaced the windshield bye bye strange leak. could be same thing here.

Don't overlook your sunroof drains. If the bottom of the hose plugs up, the water backs up, and runs down the outside of the drain hose- right into the trunk. This is a common problem with Miatas.

wow

Thanks

oh damn... That might be the case for me, then - my sunroof hasn't been closing all the way since I bought the damn thing...

Shoot...

I'll look into this further.
Really quick, though - is the top of the RX8 frame really that... erm... sealed? Is it really possible for water to trickle all the way down the the back of the frame & into the trunk without ever leaking out and staining your ceiling apholstery?

Water does funny things. Think of pouring coffee out of a cup. Sometimes the coffee just runs down the face of the cup instead of pouring out the top. Surface tension is a bitch sometimes.

I think it's one of two things of a combination of both in my case.

I think the taillight seal is leaking water into the trunk. It's a LOT of water just as Mendossa said.

I also think that the ventilation flaps are letting water in when the car is splashing through puddles. These flaps are located on each side of the trunk.

Mendossa - when you had water leaking into your trunk - did it seem like the water was being sprayed? The leak that I have ends up being a tidy pool of water when the car is parked but when after a drive it seems like the water was sprayed into the trunk. The entire rear right quarter is wet as if someone used a misting hose (Keep in mind all my carpeting has been removed to try to isolate the problem).

I'm gonna do one thing at a time to isolate the problem. First replace the tail lamps....

PROBLEM SOLVED

It was the faulty tail lamp seal. Once I had my tail lights replaced the leak vanished. Hope this info helps people in the future. BTW there is now a TSB on tail lights for leaking water and condensation.

My trunk was full of water the day after it was repaired from a rear-end collision. The first shop blamed it on one of the tail-lights and replaced it. However, it still leaked a week later. I brought it to another place I trust, and they basically took apart everything from the rear seats back and found water collecting in all sorts of places (check your rear seat cushion foam, for instance, it should be bone dry). There are a lot of gaps and potential openings to leak from in the unibody construction around the trunk, so they basically went all out and put extra sealing and 'caulking' on every possible panel and spray tested. Finally they got rid of the leak.

My point is it wasn't an easy fix, I hope yours is.

I have this problem,

can anyone tell me how to remove the carpet and plastic around the tool area of the trunk?

Remove the 4 plastic pop clips...grab the plastic molding and pull up sharply....then it will come off

need to remove the lower jack plastic as well..then the carpet will peel up

How do i check the hose plugs please?

How do i check the hose pipes pleaee???:fingersx:

If wing on trunk lid check for rust on holes.

Cheers for all ideas here. My trunk has loads os water to. The wheel kit has an inch in the plastic part.
Before i pay Mazda for new seals, thats about $90 in the UK where im from id like to check the sunroof drains but i have know idea where they are.

Please advise. Happy New Year!:bowdown:

I checked the sunroof drains by pouring water into the channels on the sides of the sunroof (with the sunroof open) and seeing the water come out just behind the front wheel wells.

i have a weird water problem as well. had one tail light building up condensation..then fixed it...now having the left one start, and now all of a sudden i see my carpet on my trunk steaming cause of that water.....gaaay

ill give it a look tomorrow

noticed carpet was wet the other day opened up the jack kit portion and found about 1-2 inches of water in there i will try the sunroof method to see if that's the cause. how would i go about checking my tail light seals??

Water in the trunk is caused by the taillight gaskets.

This should fix it.
Tail Light Gasket Repair Kit

This is a customer's car that got dropped off to me on a semi truck a couple weeks ago. One of his taillights is literally half full of water, so I guess it's from that.

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/bu...u/DSCF9243.JPG

Leak in trunk
 

I just had my RX8 rebuilt after it was hit on the right rear panel. I had a swimming pool in the trunk after a rain storm.
Take the plastic parts out, peel back the liner and see if there are any holes that don't match the hole coverings on one side. Cover holes with electrical tap or find rubber discs at a hardware store that fill the holes. To ensure water proofing use a clear silicone caulk around the rubber discs before inserting them into the holes. Allow to dry and replace all interior parts.

Also, look at interior of wheel wells and see if there are any missing screws. Call dealership and email them a picture of the car parts that are missing screws. They may have it or not. If not remove the complimentary screw from the opposite side and take it to a hardware store (Home Depot or Lowes are good) and ask someone to help you pick out the right size screws. Use Loctite to secure screws into holes.

The rubber seal on your trunk can also leak. The replacement is around $80-$90. Remove old one and put new one with the join seam at the top of the trunk and push into place. It's that simple. Don't have to pay to fix it.

If it's your window seal, take it to a car window replacement store and have them do it. You don't want to damage your fog or antennae wires.

Some times the tail light well where the trunk hindges are gets clogged uo and leaks into the trunk area because if it gets clogged it hold a pool of water that spills into the trunk area. It happened to me.

Hi Guys,
So recently i discovered water leaking into my trunk. i removed all clothing fron the trunk to locate the leaking source. The rearlight seals are new and no water or Condesation in or around the lights. I have put some dry papers all around the trunk including the trunk lid (i dont have a spoiler installed and the trunk seal is good). The source of water is from the left side of the trunk just bellow the fuel filler lid/cap. Any body had this problem before? or does anybody know how water is gettinig in there?

Thank you.


UPDATE:

After Testing the possibilities of where the water is comming in, i was able to find out that the water was comming in through the sealing material of the rear windshield. Exactly where the roof rail touches the seal (Drivers side). The seal has been degrading over time. The water was going in and making its way to the trunk and the back seat where i found the serivice hole cover of the fuel tank also rusting. The rear windshield was removed at a Auto-Glass shop, the old seal was complete removed and the area was cleaned before installing the windshield again with new sealing/gluing material. The water stopped leaking eversince. :)
Note: the windshield can break while removing, it must be taken out by professionals while being VERY cautious.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...50fd075b98.jpgLeft side of the Trunk
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0e626540fe.jpgInnerview of the Rearwindshield sea directly below the roof rail

Had an issue with the plastic pieces beneath the trunk lid as well, hopefully its an easy fix