This write up is about as detailed as I can make it, it was a pain in the A$$, but worth it. Water inside your truck has no business being there. As proof this worked, it rained 12hours last night, a hard driving pacific coast rain, and there was zero ingress. I found a few very helpful thread on this: so thank you for those that came before me!!!
Symptoms: How do you know you’ve got this leak: a) you’ve got a damp carpet in the rear corner near the tail gate, b) the third-row seat belts are damp (I’ve deleted mine so that was not a tell for me), c) and most obvious the bracket the jack stand is has a puddle in it (like mine).
The Cause:
The rear louver trim behind the third-row window are held on by two little plastic clips, and a stud that passes through the skin of the cab, these ingress points were protected by tiny little neoprene like gaskets, but overtime 1-3 of them will have degraded to the point where they have the water permeability of Wonder Bread.
Gear and supplies list:
Step By Step:
Note: I ended up putting a little filet of epoxy around all of these, broken or not!! Can't hurt.
Since one of the clips stayed in the skin, I was able to test ingress by spraying water on this…. this leaked into the cab almost instantly.
Symptoms: How do you know you’ve got this leak: a) you’ve got a damp carpet in the rear corner near the tail gate, b) the third-row seat belts are damp (I’ve deleted mine so that was not a tell for me), c) and most obvious the bracket the jack stand is has a puddle in it (like mine).
The Cause:
The rear louver trim behind the third-row window are held on by two little plastic clips, and a stud that passes through the skin of the cab, these ingress points were protected by tiny little neoprene like gaskets, but overtime 1-3 of them will have degraded to the point where they have the water permeability of Wonder Bread.
Gear and supplies list:
- 10mm deep socket on an extension (don’t need the rachet)
- Trim levers
- Thickish PET plastic 3”x1.5” (scrap from some packaging)
- VHB tape (I used about 20” of ¾’, but that was a PITA see below)
- Xacto Knife
- Goo Gone
- Toyota FIPG
- West System G/flex (if you brake your louver bits like me)
- Interior trim clips
- Louver trim clips
- A bucket of patience
- Something for the gasket on the lower louver stud (I used 1mm EVA, but prob too thick) YMMV…prob a better material out there.
Step By Step:
- Remove the gasket around the rear hatch. Remove the interior plastic quarter panels on both sides. You’ll probably break a trim clip or two in this process. Have these on hand. They are not perfect, and they will self-destruct when you remove them next time, so have two bags in your spares stash. The brown clips are usually the ones the break vs the red ones.
- I bought this trim lever kit a while ago, it really helps to remove the trim clips AND it was indispensable to this repair as you will see later…
- Remove upper third row belt mounts, and the plastic trim behind them.
- Use a 10mm deep socket to undo the bolt on the stud via the access hole (it’s about an inch in diameter under the rear corner of the window)
- NOTE these are really only hand tight, I just used the socket on an extension w/o a rachet to remove and reinstall
- Now go to the outside and GENTELY pry the louver up and away. NOW. I SNAPPED both of the clip retainers on the louver itself. Not to worry. If you do, find the little black pieces that fall off. One dropped straight down, that was easy. The other flew across the driveway and I was lucky to find it. (I might try to use some painters tape to fashion a little catch damn under the louver next time)
- Someone else may have a better technique….I hope.
- The one the broke on both sides for me was in the middle.
- It is a funky design…. the upper clip retainer on the back of the louver is an ‘n’ and the other one (in the middle) is a ‘u’. If these were both an ‘n’ shape you could slide the louver up and free from the clips, which would stay in their holes in the skin….oh well, snap snap.
- I fixed the clips with west systems G-Flex and a little bit of micro spheres as fill to make it more of a putty. I register the broken clip retainer back onto where it broke off, if you get the consistency of the epoxy right it will not sag or slip, and you can also make filets with it… (not an epoxy tutorial, but handy skills to have and practice (I repair boats and surfboards…a lot). (prep the area with denatured alcohol or equivalent. Mind you these broken bits are about the size of a fingernail, so they are fussy. I rubbed a bit of wd40 on the new white plastic clips to also help register the repair, and also allow me to remove them since the epoxy won’t stick to them, this proved invaluable as I made a mistake when reinstalling the louvers and one broke off in the hole (more on that later). Let this set
Note: I ended up putting a little filet of epoxy around all of these, broken or not!! Can't hurt.
- G-flex?….hell yes. But a $30 kit from West Marine. I could give you a billion examples of how this stuff as saved $$$ in plastic and aluminum repairs – most relevant I used this same repair to repair the clip retainers on my fender flares after I ripped one off. 4 years later, they are still in place.
- A pause for diagnosis: To test whether or not this was the culprit of the leak I got out my trust half gallon pump sprayer and systematic worked from the lowest point to highest point. And all around the rear quarter window. I had a waded paper towels tucked up under the windows and in the pillar.
- I covered any HOLES left by the clips with duct tape.
- Check and clean the drain holes in the slider channels. (dribbles after cleaning)
Since one of the clips stayed in the skin, I was able to test ingress by spraying water on this…. this leaked into the cab almost instantly.
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