floor leak STILL NEED HELP 3/19/08

onewickedkid05 · Post by **onewickedkid05** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:18 pm

Ok We had heavy rain in pa for 2 days straight now i was out driving around cause i had a few places to go. I touched my passenger side rear carpet and its soaking wet the front carpets are fine and the driver side rear is fine just the passenger side is SOAKED. A few months ago i noticed both rear carpets were soaked. Can anyone explain to me where the hell the water is coming in from..its wet basically in that little rectangle about the size of the floor mat in the back?

im starting to get mad

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:53 pm

check the seals on the tail lights. They go bad sometimes.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:00 pm

Yeah I second that. Also try and bail it out before it freezes. I've been dealing with ice back there all winter. Doesn't help that when it start to melt it fogs/freezes the windows.

-Devil- · Post by **-Devil-** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:14 pm

take it to a car wash and use their vac to get as much out as possible ...

and then get a tube of silicon ... and pull the rear taillights out ... put a bead on the gasket where it comes in contact with the body ... then put taillights back in ...

it is 99% chance it is the tail lights .. other leak spots in the rear are a lot more rare ...

onewickedkid05 · Post by **onewickedkid05** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:19 pm

how could water from my taillights make my floors in my backseat wet without my trunk being wet or anything??? dont yell at me i just dont understand that lol

-Devil- · Post by **-Devil-** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:26 pm

it gathers in the spare tire well .. till you hit the brakes then it sloshes forward under the bottom of the back seat .. into the rear floorboard ...

the rest of the trunk will be dry as a bone .. but i bet there is some evidence in the spare tire well .. and under the bottom of the back seat.

Post by **occasional demons** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:28 pm

It runs along the sides of the trunk area to the rear floor pan. some how it avoids filling the rear seat pan. (my experience) Prolly about 50 - 70% of us have had this problem. Trust us on this. If you want to see for yourself, have someone run water down the backglass and crawl into the trunk though the rear seat openig with a flashlight and check the tail lights. That's how I found mine. The water was literally pouring in. If you don't want to silicone the gaskets, new ones are fairly cheap from the Dealer.

onewickedkid05 · Post by **onewickedkid05** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:38 pm

i trust ya....how hard is it to pull lights off once i put gasket sealer on...i do plan on tinting them after may (inspection time)

Post by **occasional demons** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:54 pm

Pulling them off again may requre some effort. If you reuse the gaskets they will pull apart and you will have to scrape the silicone off either way. If you plan to remove the tails I would recommend buying the gaskets. There is prolly a posting in the PN# requests. I know somewhere on here is the PN and price. Both should be less than $25 ish
Edit:
Part Number: 5303476AB List Price $6.85 Core Price $0.00 Your Price $4.72
GASKET TAIL LAMP

Part number 5303440AA was superceded by part number 5303476AB.
OEMdodgeparts.com

Panhead · Post by **Panhead** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:30 pm

i used gasket sealer and it helped alot on my tail light seals. i was driving in the heavy rains yesterday and my trunk wasnt wet.

onewickedkid05 · Post by **onewickedkid05** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:30 pm

5303476AB<---that for a specific side or for both???

I guess ill be visiting my dodge dealership tomorrow

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:37 pm

you should verify its the taillights first. Maybe one of your friends just peed inside the car?

onewickedkid05 · Post by **onewickedkid05** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:40 pm

nope noone peed how am i going to check if its the taillights spray them with water ??? in all honesty i dont remember if i put gaskets on them when i installed them

-Devil- · Post by **-Devil-** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:49 pm

spraying with water does no good to tell if it is the tail lights ...

the leak is caused by water being pushed up against the gasket as it is draining around the trunk lid at 50+ mph speeds ... hard to find a water hose that will replicate that (less you are a firefighter) ...

onewickedkid05 · Post by **onewickedkid05** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:53 pm

lol so wat do i do

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:51 am

I agree with the tail lamp suggestion. I re-tightened/realigned mine and it helped, but I still get water on the floor from time to time when it rains heavy.

You can use a hose to check the gasket. First, pull up the trunk mat (or remove it completely) and make sure the trunk is dry. Spray water in a medium wide pattern at the car in a slight angle. The idea is to simulate rain coming down with a decent wind. Hold that for a couple minutes and then check your trunk to see if you have any moisture in there. If you didn't install the tail lamps with a gasket, chances are very good that is where your leak is, since it can leak there even with the gaskets in place.

-Devil- · Post by **-Devil-** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:46 am

or just go ahead and replace the gaskets ... if they have been on for more then 4 years it is time to anyways ...

heh they really should have been added to the regular maint cycle ... for replacement .. as they have been leaking since 95

Post by **occasional demons** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:07 am

occasional demons wrote:It runs along the sides of the trunk area to the rear floor pan. some how it avoids filling the rear seat pan. (my experience) Prolly about 50 - 70% of us have had this problem. Trust us on this. If you want to see for yourself, have someone run water down the backglass and crawl into the trunk though the rear seat openig with a flashlight and check the tail lights. That's how I found mine. The water was literally pouring in. If you don't want to silicone the gaskets, new ones are fairly cheap from the Dealer.

The water has to run down the sides of the "gutters" under the trunk lid to find the leak.

Paul56 · Post by **Paul56** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:56 pm

Pee on the taillamps... then check inside the car

onewickedkid05 · Post by **onewickedkid05** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:28 pm

well i looked at the aftermarket taillights i had and sure enough there were those rubber things that went behind the taillights so i pulled mine off put the gaskets behind them and put the lights back in....we will see what happens

ty all for the help

onewickedkid05 · Post by **onewickedkid05** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:26 pm

so i put the gaskets in...it rained.....floor still wet

realllllly starting to piss me off

-Devil- · Post by **-Devil-** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:44 am

did you put silicon on there? ...

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:24 am

Water leaks can be tricky. There is no easy way to check them. Best way to do it....

Follow what occasional demons and I posted earlier. Remove as much of your interior panels from the trunk as possible. Make sure it's dry as possible before you start. With you on the inside with a flashlight and a friend outside with a hose, focus on ONE area at a time with the water and look for water intrusion. If you see water coming in, narrow your focus to that spot, and fix the problem. Re-check that area after your repair. If no more leak is present, continue checking the rest of the trunk area. Chances are good if you have a leak on one side (i.e. tail lamp seals) it will probably leak on the other.

As a side note, the earlier design trunk weatherstrip can be prone to leaking as well. Just remember, there is no easy diagnosis for this, sorry.

Panhead · Post by **Panhead** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:31 pm

onewickedkid05 wrote:so i put the gaskets in...it rained.....floor still wet realllllly starting to piss me off

check the trunk lining seal. after a good heavy rain, i still got water in mine but not as much as i used to.

Swordfish2Cowboy · Post by **Swordfish2Cowboy** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:57 pm

Turned out mine was the center taillight. Decided to fix the side tails with greatstuf, but that sucked. Also, it appears there used to be some sort of silicone on the underside of my spoiler at one point in time. I just put rubber gaskets on the inside of the trunk where the spoiler attaches after I let the water drain out of the spoiler from a crack in the side.

But now my trunk and backseat have water again, and this is after I thought the problem was fixed and had the car detailed. Makes it worse that a stray cat pissed all over my doughnut and now my trunk smells bad.

Time to rip the lining out and seal everything again, then watch it under a hose. Gotta wait until the weather gets warmer, though.

KrackstaR · Post by **KrackstaR** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:19 am

Swordfish2Cowboy wrote:Turned out mine was the center taillight. Decided to fix the side tails with greatstuf, but that sucked. Also, it appears there used to be some sort of silicone on the underside of my spoiler at one point in time. I just put rubber gaskets on the inside of the trunk where the spoiler attaches after I let the water drain out of the spoiler from a crack in the side.

But now my trunk and backseat have water again, and this is after I thought the problem was fixed and had the car detailed. Makes it worse that a stray cat pissed all over my doughnut and now my trunk smells bad.

Time to rip the lining out and seal everything again, then watch it under a hose. Gotta wait until the weather gets warmer, though.

bro please tell me how a stray cat pissd on your doughnut? was it in your car?

Swordfish2Cowboy · Post by **Swordfish2Cowboy** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:08 am

No, I took everything out and left it in my garage. I should've shot the damn thing when I first wanted to. Now I've gotta go steam the trunk lining and might as well burn the doughnut.

AMilbut · Post by **AMilbut** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:30 am

So a cat pissed on your doughnut while it was out in your garage, and THEN you put it back in your car?

Basically either you A handeled cat pee and didn't know, and most likely touched your face after. Ewww!!

Or you B thought you washed it off good enough, and hoped for the best?

Swordfish2Cowboy · Post by **Swordfish2Cowboy** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:00 am

I put it back in the car to take it to get it cleaned, along with the rest of the car. Apparently the guy did a crappy job and now the lining smells like piss. Never pay someone to do something you can do yourself better.

KrackstaR · Post by **KrackstaR** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 3:25 am

Swordfish2Cowboy wrote:I put it back in the car to take it to get it cleaned, along with the rest of the car. Apparently the guy did a crappy job and now the lining smells like piss. Never pay someone to do something you can do yourself better.

wow that sucks ass i hope you dont see the cat one day on the road coming home from work or something .... can you say road kill...