I drilled the tiny hole because I got mad and didn't want to deal with gaskets or the dealer or anything anymore....

So far its worked great!

You should've just bought new gaskets from a dealership, instead of damaging your taillights by drilling a hole in it..

easier to change the gaskets then to drill a hole in the taillights. By drilling a hole is just masking the real problem bad seal form the gaskets.

Am in the middle of the DIY for removing taillight and drying it out. The attached picture shows an opening with a yellow scrubby-like material filling the hole. See photo. Is this a possible infiltration point ? Is there anyone who has replace that material with something else to ensure no leak from that opening ?

Reviving a dead topic....

Anyway, how much do these gaskets cost? I just called Weisleder in brick and they said the gasket isn't the main problem....? everything i read though says the gasket is the issue not the light itself. I have a fog thicker than the Smog over beijing. I'm just going to buy the gaskets from them regardless what they say, the gasket for the tail light that leaks is torn, how that happened I have no clue. So how much do they cost? and the dealership wants $260 for the tail light...

dont have to get new gaskets--just use a instant gasket materal from advane auto
olddragger

+1 :bigok:

I must be really special cause my 04 passenger side tail light has condensation.
The dealer says $260 to replace.
I'm gonna keep looking

you can do it yourself for about 30 bucks a side

The seal between the light and the car is leaking. Take the light off, dump it out, stuff a paper towel into the light hole to get any remaining water out. You will probably see where the seal was leaking (dirt, stain, etc.). Clean this part well with soap and hot water and reinstall. I did mine about 2 months ago and we have had some trential rains and it is still dry. It takes about 10 minutes to do.

I just had to take a vacuum cleaner to mine...

you should get the new gaskets. the old ones will just leak again.

Water
 

Same problem with mine. I filled the lights (sans bulbs) with water and sloshed it around to clean out any junk, dumped as much as I could out, then put the lights on a couple of floor heat vents in my house for a couple of days. Look nice now.

The local stealership milked me $45 EACH for the stupid gaskets...should have checked finishline first ($30 each?).

You and me both. I have an 04 as well.

Just wanted to add that my driver side taillight had some mysterious cotton stuff in it as well as a small dead moth. I brought it in to the dealer and they refused to replace it until I said that water would get in it when I washed the car. The fact is, their taillight seals suck. This is on an 06 GT.

both done under warranty
 

I have an 05' GT, both tailights have been replaced with no cost to me.
All done under warranty, about 72K kilometres on it.

bumpety bump!!!

Mazda has updated the TSB on this. http://www.finishlineperformance.com...05-09-2055.pdf

Thanks for posting that!

Will mazda cover this even if we don't have bumper to bumper? If not then how do I fix it. Mine is horrible. Looks all white and watery all the time. Doesn't go away anymore.

Had condensation in my passenger-side tail light when I bought the vehicle a couple months ago. 1/4 standing water at one point (no spider). Uncle suggested drilling small hole to allow water to escape, but I'm guessing that would also allow dirt in. Never got that far, cause apparently a magic genie came and took all the condensation out nearly a month ago and has been fine since. Driver side tail light has a little dirt in it. No condensation.

rx8 taillights = Failure...

Same here, couple years ago on my '04...

My '05 RX-8 had about an inch of water in the driver side tail light. A local dealer quoted $120 for parts and labor to fix but I was very happy to read everyone's advice here and did the following.

• Ordered a replacement gasket (2 pieces) from Finish Line
• Removed the trunk end trim.
• Removed the trunk side trim.
• Removed the rear combo light according Mazda's bulletin.

She is drying out now but I foresee no issues putting it all back together again tomorrow.

Saved a bit of money and boosted my confidence in the process.

Thanks everyone!

Well done. You'll note the redesigned gaskets are thicker and of better quality material. I've not had a condensation problem since they were installed.

Ok Im looking for the guy who used the sealing tape from home depot I tried a couple ways with it but im not getting anywhere need help on where to seal

jeez you just got the car..... and you got a ticket hit a pot hole and have water in your tails.... dammm

Um ya Ive also put about 3k in miles on it too so shit happens so happens karma isn't liking me so lately. Also good to know I have followers lol

are the tail lighst still under a warrenty if your car has surpassed its milage and year warrenty that came with it ???

I had problem with one side under warranty and they replaced.
Now I have the same problem with the other side outside of warranty and they will not cover.
Quote of about $200 to repair.

I have the problem as well, i had a friend that drilled a hole in the bottom of his light cover so it would empty but would rather fix the issue at the source. How difficult is it to replace the tail light cover gasket?

it's easy, take the trunk carpeting off covering the tail light, remove the bulbs and a couple of nuts and the headlight with slide out. then apply gasket or silicone and reinsert and kablammo no more water

lol that falls right into my area of technical expertise!

Okay - Water in tail light is nothing new to me. Had my Rx8 since new 2004 - replaced one under warrantee - then of course the second one started out of warrantee.

Took out and drained water the the three goldfish out of it - the internal waterstains are driving me crazy.

Has anyone figured out a way to separate the taillight - heating, cutting, etc. in order to clean the inside out completely. After that Im sure resealing with silicone would not be a big deal...

Heard of people putting them in the oven for a bit to heat up the seals and make them flexible!! Any thoughts?

Water in tail light!
 

My Mazda RX8 was recalled for the possible gas tank fire. They removed my tail light on the drivers side and packed wrapping around the gas tank. Since then it has been getting water in the drivers side back tail light. The dealer will not take any responsibility and want to charge me, $450. To Replace it. Today I see two inches of water in it! I am really annoyed!

remove tailight first. I drilled a tiny 5/64th hole in the bottom L corner of my R rear tailight and drained all the liquid I could. Then I carefully removed the bulbs and air dried the light with a fan on low setting for over a week. Then I followed the reinstallation instructions on this site - using a copious amount of special silcone. No leaks since. This site ROCKS.

Did you talk to the manager of the dealership, or just the service manager?
If you get no satisfaction, try MNAO.

Rx8
 

Not sure who I talked to. I told them about it a month ago when I brought my car in for the seatbelt recall, they said it will be $450. So I said it should be free, so forget it. Now it has two inches of water in the tail light and no one wants to know anything and they are not responding to my calls. But thanks for the info!

That's so sad.
Mazda shops (especially east US) have some serious problems with accountability.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7ae729e63b.png