My car leaks...I hate rain

[smallblockfever]

I drive a 2002 sonic blue SVT
her name is sasha
Sasha is slowly getting repairs and upgrades, but one thing that i failed to fix all last summer was a leak!

I discovered one day after a heavy rain storm that i had about an inch of water in my spare tire well. The jack was rusted through as was the metal in the well.
I pulled off the rear bumper as well as the ENTIRE interior of the car.
I searched and searched for the leak, simulating a monsoon of a rain storm, and tried sealing what i thought was the leak. Afterwards, i sanded and painted all the rusted metal and cleaned the car and everything, put it all back together and thought i was done.

Lo and behold, i used old silicone and it never dried.
Sasha still leaks.
Nothing to rust now, but just knowing that i have water back there bothers me hugely, and i want to upgrade the stereo and make a falsefloor, put some serious investment back there. I cant do that with a wet floor.

I think it is leaking from a bolt hear on the driver rear tail light because it runs down a sidewall inside by the air vent (that is usuallly under the exterior bumper) and leaks through and runs into the spare tire well.


Has anyone had a similar problem with their car? any tips of finding the leak? and sealing it?


any body shop guys that can tell me common places to have leaks??

any help is greatly appreciated.

[Sponsor]

[Dardas]

My car had the same problem... one day i opened the trunk up and realized the mat was soaking wet, i took it off and sure enough the whole spare tire compartment was filled with water.. i unplugged the the plastic piece on the bottom and let the water drained out. After examining the car i noticed that a plastic pieces that holds the taillights in place was missing on the right side, went to ford bought the part put it on and it still did it.. all my seals were good.. i ended up replacing my taillight with aftermarket ones and after that i havent had any issues. another problem that i thought of was water coming from underneath from the wheel well. mine are shot, they are starting to break off so i put mudflaps on the back and that might of helped to, but being January now and me living in snowy environments i have not had a problem since i replaced the lights and mudflaps in fall.

[Buickboy]

pop the tail lights out and use some good silicone there. both of my foci had that issue. both were hatches and my 2nd i bought new then this leak showed up at 30k. the stock seals suck

[jakeru]

I had a water leak in my 2001 Focus wagon, but it would collect in the rear passenger side floor area. Turns out the water was leaking back there from the front. The water was entering into the cabin area from the rear of the front passenger side fender into the floor area, leaking around a grommet for a major wiring loom that wasn't quite sealed well enough to the sheetmetal. The water entering the raintray area would, by design, leak sideways into the fender area, and then trickly its way down past the grommet, and some of that water would enter the passenger compartment area,

I remember removing the passenger fender for access to the loom and grommet. Removal of the grommet was not feasible, so I tried re-seating the grommet better, and sealed it additionally with silicone.

I found the location of the leak by peeling back some of the carpet, and tracing it's way upstream. Spraying water on the windshield would trigger the leak.

I'm not sure if this is your leak of not. It was quite aggravating to find, but I am so happy to have a dry car now that it's fixed. It was horrible, with standing water back there, and fogging all the windows up all the time. Now completely dry. Good luck.