Water in tail light lens assembly & rear fender well
Hello, and help! My '91 Legend Coupe (80K original) has water in driver tail
lens assembly, and in the rear driver fender well beneath the power antennae. I am 2nd owner (purchased 1993 at 12K), and no work has ever done in this area, except new power antennaa shaft (not motor) years ago. I removed the lens assembly and I don't see a gasket between the lens assembly and metal...but am thinking there should be one. There never has been. The passenger side is dry (it has a gasket).
If anyone could help me with following, I would appreciate it!
1. Should I indeed have a gasket that fits inbetween the lens assembly and the metal? Is this the likely source of the water in the lens assembly?
2. For the water in the fender well...is the power antennae change-out a likely source for water in the fender well?
3. What is best way to determine where/how water is getting in?
4. Where/how is the water supposed to drain from the fender well, beneath the antennae? When I reach down, I find a hole under water that I can stick the tip of my finger into...but nothing drains, and it doesn't *seem* plugged.
Thanks much, I appreciate all the help this forum is so great to give!
Car 1: 1991 Legend
Car 2: 1998 Civic EX
Car 3: 95 ZX-7
iTrader Score: 63 reviews
Most likely the sunroof drain tube is blocked and that is causing the water to flow into the area. If you follow the tube down it goes into a fitting that you need to clean out, often you can just squeeze it to get the dirt to fall out.
When I had that issue the gasket that sits behind the tail light had deteriorated. I used 3m sealant used for head light and tail lights to resolve the leak.
Thank you both for your replies! I have done a little more research and effort. The sunroof drain was fine, I did check. The tail light gasket...well there was no gasket on the driver side...the side with the water. There is a gasket on the passenger side. Never any work done in this area in life of car, so where did it go? I checked price, $32. Went to Michaels Hobby store and bought "craft foam". I'm going to make my own gasket for .89 cents based on another member's suggestion, thank you. I think it will work great. I am going to seal it a bit more with some silicone sealant. I did wash out the lens assembly to remove all the considerable debris (leaves, broken bulb, reflective particles). I removed the bulbs/wiring harness, filled the lens assembly with warm water, and did the "ants-in-the-pants-dance" vigorously until all the guck loosened and washed out. I didn't try to separate the lens assembly itself to clean becuase it's 22 year old plstic and I didn't want to violate the prime directive, "don't break more than you fix". Also, I did find the drain plug beneath the power antennae assembly, unplugged it, and the rear driver fender well is draining fine now. Thanks to responders to this post and previous posts...I hope I am in good shape on this issue, on to the next projects: VSS, O2 sensors, fuel filter, cabin filter. Legends rule!
I completed my "home-made" tail light gasket project, and wanted to give an extra thanks to s4gunn for this ingenious idea. I also thought I would detail how I accomplished it in case it helps anyone else who needs a tail light gasket and would rather spend about $1 isntead of $32. This was even easier than I thought.
1. Go to a hobby shop (I went to Michaels), Walmart, etc. and buy a couple of sheets of craft foam. Mine just said "Foam sheet", and is 12"x18". It is about 1/8" thick. They were .89/each, and I bought 4...but I only needed one because I was able to cut it correctly on the first try.
2. take 2 regular pieces of printer paper (8.5"x11") and tape them together so that the one pice is the width of the foam (18").
3. with your tail light assembly removed, hold the piece of paper up to the hole where your lens assembly goes. Center it over the hole.
4. Punch through the paper where the screw holes are. I used 2 bic pens to slide through the holes on the top to keep the paper in place.
5. With a magic marker, tracke the outline of the outside of where the tail light will sit.
6. Leaving the paper in place, lean into the trunk so that you can see the paper from the back side. Trace the inner outline of the hole with the marker.
7. Place the foam sheet onto a cutting board or other surface that won't be harmed by cutting.
8. Tape the paper onto the foam.
9. With an X-Acto knife, cut the foam accoding the outlines you drew on the paper.
10. Make small holes into the foam where the screw holes are.
11. Place the newly made gasket onto the tail light assembly screws.
12. Use some automotive rope caulking (that black sticky stuff that comes in strips) to form a seal where gasket meets the lens assembly all around the outside ($1).
13. Re-install lens assembly.
This really only took me about 30 minutes. I am pretty confident it will work every bit as well as the $32 gasket from the dealer and cost me less than $2.
Well, I'm not quite out of the woods yet. Still getting quite a bit of fog-up condensation on wet days, mainly on the rear glass. No water around the tail light lens assembly or antennae, all dry there. However there is some water underneath the silly-spare tire. Not sure if it is new or if I missed it from beore. So...I dried it with a towel. But...are there drains underneath the spare tire? I see 3 circular things in the trunk bottom metal that look like they could be drain plugs. The circles have circles within the circle, with a cross so the inner circle is quarted. There is dirt/crud in there, I am trying to get it out with a toothbrush. Are these removable, should I remove the entire "plug" and clean it? Also, there is a small pea-sized hole in the 5 o'clock position...is this a drain of some sort? Thanks again! Gotta love Oregon and leaking cars.
Thanks bigboy...trunk seal is good. do you know what the round plug-like looking things in the metal underneath the spare tire are? Are they removable? Do I need to clean out the dirt gunk in order for them to drain the water beneath the spare? thanks again
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