Tips on installing rear quarter window weather seal (1 Viewer)

[TheRealPoser]

Did your weatherstrip come with any sealant preinstalled? I took off my old weatherstrip, spent a long time cleaning it, test fit the new weatherstrip and when I went to take it off, it was already nearly stuck again with sealant that had been preinstalled. It was a little unexpected.

Did your weatherstrip come with any sealant preinstalled? I took off my old weatherstrip, spent a long time cleaning it, test fit the new weatherstrip and when I went to take it off, it was already nearly stuck again with sealant that had been preinstalled. It was a little unexpected.

Neither of mine had any sealant, that's interesting. Maybe that's why I had to dink with mine so much?

 

[shakeandpop]

I replaced this seal on my truck for both sides. There was no sealant that I remember, neither on the original I removed or the new original I installed.

 

[MrA]

I replaced this seal on my truck for both sides. There was no sealant that I remember, neither on the original I removed or the new original I installed.

Did you install new sealant on your own? I was quite surprise when I started peeling off the strip after the test fit. At first I thought I'd done a poor job cleaning, but it was everywhere again.

 

[awesomeissquid]

When I installed mine it appeared to have a bead of sealant within the groove. It took some pressure to fully seat the gasket.

 

[bajageorgia]

When I installed mine it appeared to have a bead of sealant within the groove. It took some pressure to fully seat the gasket.

Yep, I’m with Awesomesquid on this. I’m just installing quarter glass seals in mine for the first time. The seals have pre installed gooey stuff. The groove is actually pressed shut due to the pre installed gooey stuff. You can gently pull open the groove and you’ll see that the groove is deeper and has gooey stuff inside. I had to tap mine gently with a rubber mallet to get it to seat fully on the pinch weld window frame. In the corners I used the round end of the mallet to push it tightly into the corners.

 

[Kieron]

I have the same problem water trickling out of the speaker vent in th cargo area any tips or video clips welcome

 

[2005BlackBeauty]

I'm in the process of replacing the rear quarter window weather strip seal on my LC. I had a leak in rear cargo area that was leading to some water pooling in one of the 3rd row seat brackets. I pulled out the interior panels and carpeting, hit the window with the garden hose, and found water starting to come out under the weather strip on the inside. The seal is not damaged, so I'm not sure how it was getting through. I can only guess the contact cement may have broke down enough with age that water was able to get down into the bottom of the seal on the top and then run down into the inside of the seal.

Regardless, I decided rather than trying to clean up and reinstall a 18 year old seal I'd just put a new one in. I'm now looking for any tips I can find on how best to apply the weather strip sealant, as it seems like it could be a bit tricky. I found some nice youtube videos talking about how to properly use weather strip sealant. In those videos they applied a thin layer to the strip and metal surfaces, let it get tacky, then put together like a contact cement. That method resulted in a very solid adhesive bond.

However, in those examples they were also just gluing a flat rubber seal to a flat plate. Our weather strips have a "v" channel that sits over the sheet metal lip around the inside of the window. The problem I see is, if I use this technique I'm going to risk the gasket bonding to itself inside the channel in the gasket. Meaning if I hold the groove open and apply cement to each side in the channel and let it get tacky, if I don't perfectly hold that channel open it will snap shut and glue together on itself. I really don't want to ruin my new gasket screwing it up, as they are a bit hard to come by and not exactly cheap.

FWIW, the gasket comes from the factory with some sort of sealant, but the weather strip is not glued to the metal. It pulls of rather easily and there is a sticky black sealant of some sort that is still sticky 18 years later. So they clearly do not use the contact glue method in the factory.

Does anyone know what the technique is here, or if there is some other sealant that should be used? I was planning to use 3M black super weather strip adhesive. I can't tell if they used adhesive and just gooped it in at the factory so it never set up like contact cement, or if they use some other sort of sealant for these seals. From what I could find it seemed like the 3M adhesive is the gold standard these days.

I appreciate any tips. I searched the forums and youtube but I couldn't find an answer to this specific question. If it's out there please redirect me. Thanks!

This thread has been fun to stumble across as I’m experiencing the same thing in my 05. Water pooled in the seat hook cavity and all. I’ve made it to the point where I’ve removed all the paneling (and carpet that i had to dry out) and have the new seal from Toyota. I just need to figure out the details (can I pop it out or do i have to remove part of the window?). Any chance you know of a video that walks through it? Regardless, this thread has helped me, thanks for being thorough. Pics are of my leak area by the OEM sub and where it’s at now, after installing sound deadening (i thought might as well).