BEWARE when installing aftermarket tail lights, you must seal the area !

[Kayzer Soze]

Just a heads up, i installed Collins tail lights a couple months back, and i probable should have had the common sense to notice this when installing, but there is no gasket on back of the light sealing the holes that lead to your trunk....


a few bad days of rain will lead to what you see below, water pretty much flows through the trunk. thanks go i had no damage to the car or wiring, but had i not noticed this sooner, the 2 inches of water wouldve been 2 feet!

solution, i got sealing tape used mainly for windows and joints on the house, i bought a compressed roll which expands up to 1/2 inch in thickness to fill gap, and applied two layers as seen in photo, it wont expand since being comrpressed between the light and the body (they sell a thicker version that expande to an inch, using that would avoid needing a double layer)


after application, i tested it and it seems to have sealed off the trunk

[djdnz]

Wow that's a lot of pooling water. The valenti's come with a seal.

[Minovsky]

Originally Posted by djdnz

Wow that's a lot of pooling water. The valenti's come with a seal.

Yeah good thing the valenti had seal.

[Mitch]

TOM'S has a gasket/seal comparable to the stock unit.

[JPxM0Dz]

Yeah Colin's are the only aftermarket tails I've personally seen that do not come with a gasket. I ordered a set of stock gaskets from my Subaru dealer for that very reason, but yeah I would never install a tail without one for obvious reasons and your pics prove that.

[xjohnx]

I used these when replacing my OEM lights with red painted OEM lights:

http://gasketninja.com/