**Another** water leak in rear hatch thread (1 Viewer)

[Slimm]

Hi all, good afternoon.

I recently discovered a water leak in my rear hatch area, and thought I had it pinned down to the main rubber gasket (p/n 67881-60111) as I pulled the carpet, got inside, and watched as upper lift door by the third brake light was sprayed with low pressure water. Water was seeping past the rubber and inside/around the weatherstrip leading to accumulation on the carpet and by the flap that extends when the liftgate is closed.

Now, upon further investigation (and a LOT of rain) I seem to have found another leak. The left and right most areas on the rear hatch seem to have some sort of cutout where various layers of metal are pressed together. This does not seem to be entering from the weatherstrip- is there another common area that could be the culprit? I don't think it is the roof rack, as the headliner shows no signs of water. Rear sunroof drains are draining and functional, my last thought would be the bolt holes for the spoiler but those do not seem like they would let water all the way down to inside of that cutout. My concern is the rivnuts spin, and maybe that is letting water in? Oh yeah, carpet on the hatch door is dry as a bone.

I attached some photos for reference, the second one shows where water is collecting on both sides. I'm concerned with the rust, and want to seal this up and treat the areas in order to prevent any further spreading.

Also, I just replaced the third brake light with a new OEM unit. Thanks in advance!

 

[63cruiser]

Try the belt weatherstripping at the rear side vents. The little neoprene washers dry up and can leak. I also replaced the weatherstripping gasket on the vent windows while I was there.

Couple of water leaks

Hey guys Couple of weird water leaks I’m having trouble tracking down First is in the middle of the rear hatch right below the 3rd brake light. Pulled off the trim, bolts to the 3rd were tight. Have a front runner roof rack, all those bolts are tight too 2nd leak is coming inside the left...

forum.ih8mud.com

See post 18 for pictures.

 

[Slimm]

Hi all, good afternoon.

I recently discovered a water leak in my rear hatch area, and thought I had it pinned down to the main rubber gasket (p/n 67881-60111) as I pulled the carpet, got inside, and watched as upper lift door by the third brake light was sprayed with low pressure water. Water was seeping past the rubber and inside/around the weatherstrip leading to accumulation on the carpet and by the flap that extends when the liftgate is closed.

Now, upon further investigation (and a LOT of rain) I seem to have found another leak. The left and right most areas on the rear hatch seem to have some sort of cutout where various layers of metal are pressed together. This does not seem to be entering from the weatherstrip- is there another common area that could be the culprit? I don't think it is the roof rack, as the headliner shows no signs of water. Rear sunroof drains are draining and functional, my last thought would be the bolt holes for the spoiler but those do not seem like they would let water all the way down to inside of that cutout. My concern is the rivnuts spin, and maybe that is letting water in? Oh yeah, carpet on the hatch door is dry as a bone.

I attached some photos for reference, the second one shows where water is collecting on both sides. I'm concerned with the rust, and want to seal this up and treat the areas in order to prevent any further spreading.

View attachment 2031479View attachment 2031480View attachment 2031482

Also, I just replaced the third brake light with a new OEM unit. Thanks in advance!

Try the belt weatherstripping at the rear side vents. The little neoprene washers dry up and can leak. I also replaced the weatherstripping gasket on the vent windows while I was there.

Couple of water leaks

Hey guys Couple of weird water leaks I’m having trouble tracking down First is in the middle of the rear hatch right below the 3rd brake light. Pulled off the trim, bolts to the 3rd were tight. Have a front runner roof rack, all those bolts are tight too 2nd leak is coming inside the left...

forum.ih8mud.com

See post 18 for pictures.

Really appreciate the response- I tore down both sides to expose the rear side windows / their hidden moldings and this is not where the water is coming in from.

There was maybe one small drop, and this is after a literal torrential downpour this afternoon in Asheville. The water is pooling in these cutouts, specifically the driver side from what I can tell (although the rust is worse on the passenger side).

Here is a photo I snapped of some sort of vent, it seemed wet as if water had either entered from here or made its way up there:

It seems like it could be coming from above but there was no evidence of a stream of water coming in this afternoon. It was just pooled up and I have most of the trim removed. It almost looks like those are drain bolts (17mm I believe).

 

[Slimm]

So it poured here tonight and after replacing the rear hatch weatherstrip, I went out to have a look in my main (lower) brake light compartment. Good news is, I was able to find the source of water- bad news is, I have no earthly idea where it is coming from.

If you look at the first photo, above (and inside the panel) the top right mounting hole for the brake light is a small pinch weld/seam. The drip is slowly coming from there and traveling down the body to the area where the drain plug is under the rear trunk area. The third photo is the entrance to that area.

It’s inside the body, it’s not the taillight foam seal, and if you look closely you can see a water droplet falling down the channel. So frustrating! My sunroof drains work, they aren’t clogged, and the water isn’t anywhere else inside the trunk area aside from the drain plug cutout spot.

I also tried shining a flashlight up into the panel and didn’t see any water in there. It’s like it’s coming through a pinch weld somewhere above. The second photo shows taillight orientation to try and make this more understandable.

Anyone ever seen this before? Any insight/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Did you ever find the source of your leak. I have the same thing going on

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Bumping this thread again.

@Slimm Did you ever find out where the water was coming from?

I have the exact same leak. I replaced the body to hatch gasket as you did and resealed the 3rd brake light/block-off plate on the hatch and it's still leaking just as yours was.

I checked the trim mouldings from inside and they are dry.

No water is in the jack/tool or rear ac compartments.

Going to remove the roof rack and roof garnishes tomorrow to clean and seal up with rtv.
Hoping you could shed some light on what the water intrusion point was in your situation.

Thanks

 

[Jrod]

I'll bump this one too because I'm having the same issue and can't track it down. It's not the sunroof drains, not the 3rd brake light, and not the vent wing moldings.

 

[gatormark91]

I'll bump this one too because I'm having the same issue and can't track it down. It's not the sunroof drains, not the 3rd brake light, and not the vent wing moldings.

Check the rubber molding that covers where the hatch wiring goes into the body. If there is a bad seal there, you WILL get water intrusion.

 

[Slimm]

It was the body seam under the roof rack plastic covers. I used silicone to seal the seam and no leaks since! Check this out, as it puzzled me for months- definitely frustrating!

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Thanks for the replies. I'll add those to my "to seal up list"

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Thinking I found it!

It's been missing the left rear mount's, rear most mounting bolt, the whole time I've owned it!

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Posting this up to help any other who encounter this.

So I pulled the rack and trim rails, aside from the missing rear bolt I found a few areas where the painted seam sealer had some cracks and a few small areas where the seam sealer wasn't smoothed down before paint. As a result a drop of sealer had sheared off creating another possible entry point.

The channels under the trim collect ALOT of debris.

After a good cleaning and some cleaner wax, they look good and we're ready for some RTV.

I think my leak was caused by a combination of the missing bolt and the cracks. The debris formed a dam of dirt crap at the rear of the channel that blocked water from draining down the hatch channel. Once the water got in there it would seep through the cracks in the sealer and once the water got high enough, such as during a heavy or continuous rain, it would drain through the open hole.

Lucky there was no rust anywhere in the inside.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Here's the hardware used.

Some of the wafer thin washers on the hardware cracked upon removal so they were all replaced with nylon ones

I couldn't find an exact length bolt replacement so a 50mm with 3 washers kept the hardware at the same depth as the others.

Thread lock was also used as they had green thread lock on them from the factory. I only had medium blue on hand and wasn't driving an hour to get green.

Hope this all helps another mudder.

 

[Bwamccain]

It was the body seam under the roof rack plastic covers. I used silicone to seal the seam and no leaks since! Check this out, as it puzzled me for months- definitely frustrating!

Did you take the screws off completely and clean the area before using the silicone? I have the same issue and going to take mine apart soon to troubleshoot and see if this helps.

My mechanics told me to unscrew the bolts, clean up, and place silicone around the edge of holes and then screw everything back down.