I am having an issue with the tail lights leaking when washing the car. I have new assemblies/housings, and the white foam gaskets. I also have strip caulk around the lights to help seal them. That helped, but they still leak. What is going on? Does anyone know?

 

did you actually seal the lens to the housing with the caulk? Typically that's done with 3m bedding compound but I don't see why the caulk wouldn't work

I would remove the foam gasket as water could, I would think, propagate through the semipermeable gasket membrane. Simply run a nice bead along the lens cover and place it on the housing with enough pressure to extrude the caulk from the seam. Allow it to setup then secure the bezel and I would think it would be water tight now.

The down side is any moisture trapped in there can only exit from the light socket. If you drilled a very small hole on the top of the light housing inside the trunk that would make a nice vent.

-Gun

 

Maybe try driving any moisture out with a hair dryer before inserting the bulb.


Norm

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Water is not getting inside the light, but it is getting inside the trunk. I should have been more specific. Sorry about that.

 

I sealed the housing to the car with 3M strip caulk. I tried the white foam gaskets first and that didn't work so I used the strip caulk. I used the black foam gaskets for the lense to housing.

I actually thought about making a small vent hole in the top of the lights since I have the 3 bulb incandescant sequential lights. I also thought about not using any of the replacement gaskets and just sealing it up with the strip caulk only on both similar to what you just suggested. Maybe thats the best idea.

I did actually get water inside the tail light once, but I have looked and haven't seen it since then.

 

I also thought the concern was about water inside the housing...If its getting in the trunk then same thing applies might as well do both surfaces (lens side and trunk side) That should solve that issue.

-Gun