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97 Legacy water in the truck spare tire compartment


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This usually is from a bad weatherstrip on the trunk to deck seal, or a leaking rear window seal. It's also possibly something weird like a taillight seal, a hole in the metal bodywork from rust or collision damage or some penetration at the fuel door area. If you have a fold down rear seat, put it down and look into the trunk while someone wets the back of the car with a garden hose. If the seat doesn't fold down you will have to get in the trunk with a flashlight.

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Hatchbacks can develop hidden leaks that are severe where the entire well almost fills up and begins to rust.

 

I had it happen once where the water was migrating through the vertical sections of the weather stripping. It was almost like a hidden river.

 

I fixed it by removing the stripping, then filling the attachment gap at the bottom (the feature that fits over the sheetmetel lip) with RTV, then putting it back in place.

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Help, we have tried everything and cannot figure out how water is getting into the truck. It pools up in the spare tire compartment. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Do the rear seatbacks fold down to "extend" the truck area on your car? If so, let a garden hose run continuously over the trunk and tail lamps while using a flashlight to search for the source of the leak. Just move the front seats all the way forward to give yourself room to stand on the rear floor.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I never figured this out but, suspected a drain plug (hidden under the spare tire) in an 87 Camry was allowing water to accumulate in the tire well. Filled about half the space with rusty brown water (easily 2 gallons). Opened the plug, let the water out and then cleaned the plug and never had the problem again.

 

The actual trunk was dry and, this plug was the only opening into the well aside from the piece of masonite covering the spare which, did not have any water stains.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So we have decided it is the passenger side tail-light that is allowing the water to come in after doing the hose test. I have several questions now:

  1. Can you easily remove the trunk liner? It seems to have these plastic rivets which do not look easy to remove.
  2. Does anyone have instructions for how to reseal the tail-light? Do you have to remove it to reseal it?
  3. Will a service shop screw us if we want to have it done professionally? Wondering if our body shop who has fixed the bumper would be able to do this work?

Thanks everyone!

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