I'm painting the interior of my door and took off the cover of my door courtesy light and noticed there is thick brown sealant all messy around the bulb housing. Why would this be there? Is it so no water leaks through the light housing into the interior? It's on both doors and is very sloppy. I also found some on the chrome cover of the light which makes me suspect it was not from factory.

I want to at least trim the sealant to make it look better or remove it all together, but I don't know WHY it was put there.

driver's side


passenger side

 

It's ordinary strip-caulk, same as used on the moisture barriers in the doors, and probably was put there by the factory, not known for neatness with sealant. Go ahead and scrape off the excess.

 

Ok cool, so the actual hole in the door is far enough in that cutting off the excess won't hurt the effectiveness of the sealant?

 

no cutting off the excess won't affect anything, the sealant will still be underneath the light sandwiched in between the door. The stuff that is squeezed out can be removed