__My new taillights + moisture prevention__
 

Well I've put off getting my taillights replaced for quite some time, mainly because the my dealership never ordered me any or contacted me for replacement after I stopped in. Then when I did contact them again recently they told me Scion would only let them try new gaskets first to see if it fixes the issue. When I asked about how they were planning to get all the water out of my current lights the service manager said, and I quote, "oh, we've got a heat gun". :confused0068:
So with that bit of info and other reasons I won't go into, I wanted to keep my car out of that dealerships hands.

I contacted another dealer and worked out a deal to warranty my lights mail order style. I am not sure this dealer would want to do this regularly so I am going to withhold their info so please don't ask.

Anyways, onto some pics...

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/4700/54893335.jpg

My lovely fishbowl...
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/7415/75735231.jpg


http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/1033/31203220.jpg

New lights and gaskets...
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9615/19929909.jpg


The gaskets on the original lights weren't in the best shape...
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/9970/46272913.jpg

Note the traces of water on the gasket...
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/740/80254451.jpg

On the drivers side as well...
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/6954/24147548.jpg

New gasket. The white strip is adhesive. I'm going to go overboard with that concept...
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7622/68674112.jpg

Black RTV silicone...
http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/7964/35081075.jpg

Everywhere!...
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/4512/58102736.jpg

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/2729/49269165.jpg

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/9430/26891867.jpg

Let's hope they stay this nice forever!
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8263/90918177.jpg

It's funny I now feel like I own a new car again not that the eyesores on the back are fixed lol

hahah thats one way to do it!

With all that glue, how would you get it off in the future if you need to change it again?

i thought they fixed this problem already?

It's not glue; it's silicone sealant. With that said, it would probably still be a PITA.

Nope. I took delivery of my BRZ on Feb 20 and I have condensation after just 3 days of owning it

I've yet to have an issue with mine. Got it jan. 17th. I'm gonna beef up the gaskets though...

I believe this was covered already under here...
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...ght=tail+light

I have this same issue and I got the dealer to replace the lights but it came back, so I'm going back to get it fixed again since it's all covered under warranty. If you want you can have your dealer try to fix it via this TSB.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21868

Unless I'm mistaken, the small grey spot circled in orange is a vent which is covered with a super fine mesh which should keep out moisture, but I'm not so sure about that. The green line is where the front half and back half of the tail light are connected/glued together. The foam gasket only seals the assembly to the body and prevents water from getting in the trunk/rear panel area and should play no role in moisture getting inside the tail lights.

Attachment 29151

You're right about that seal, it's only to seal the trunk from the outside area and not the tailight itself from outside.

However, looking at the gasket, it seems to let water through the top and it gets trapped behind the light and the lower portion of the gasket keeps the water trapped where all the wires and vents are..and water slowly seeps in the lights over time through the connectors and vents. So even with a perfect tailight seal around the two halves, water can still get in from behind.

I noticed small condensation on mine, I might just put silicon on it right away and skip the dealer totally knowing all I read on here!

I would think that maybe another option to try is to double up on the stock gaskets. I know there was someone else who made their own gaskets out of thicker material and hasn't had any reported issues. I think I would rather try double-up'd gaskets than have to try to remove my taillights in the future with silicone all over the place.

Silicon once cured is very easy to remove and becomes brittle - I wouldn't worry about finding it all gooey if you have to remove them again.

interesting

Hmm. . you must be using some different stuff than what I have. The silicone sealant/gasket stuff I use is the same stuff I used on my motorcycles and that stuff stays a little tacky and has to be scraped off. It's not like the silicone in the shower that you can just pull off in one motion.

yeah i heard about that TSB seeing how i dont own the car yet till early next month i did some research, does the tsb actually fix the problem?

I'm going to get the dealer to perform what is on the TSB and let you know, I wasn't sure if anyone else in that thread had any luck.

Also I am betting on the more of us that actually do complain and have dealerships order these parts to get them "repaired" the more attention it should get to Toyota to have these things fixed.
I mean if a big portion of the north american owners had to get these things replaced in assumption that the dealership has had to replace a set 2x that's four units purchased multiplied by a majority of owners....someone who's doing the books is probably wondering why they've had to produce so many tail lights in the last 3 months....again these are all my assumptions.

When I pulled my pass taillight out late last summer to drain the pool (about a half inch deep at the bottom) I left the bulbs in and rotated the lights around in all directions to see where it came back out. The only place it came out was around the bulb sockets themselves. No cracks or anything anywhere. Which is why the guy making his own thicker gaskets is having good luck last I saw.

As for the silicone, it will peel off the lights and body plenty easy. I've used the stuff tons in the past. Worst case I'll need to buy new gaskets at $10ea. Besides I really can't see any reason I'll ever want to take the lights back out again if this solves the issue...

I don't know if I am just lucky or not but I bought my fr-s in October and have yet to have any condensation!

I've had slight condensation in my tail lights and they usually disappear the next day. I took it to the dealership and they said they were going to order gaskets and fasteners per TSB 12-145-13 (SUBARU). I suppose this new TSB is what's overriding the tail light replacement per the TSB that was out last June.

and generally this is actually correct , because thats how TSB's are created basically problems that are consistantly showing up on the same vehicle, it basically gets recorded at the dealership and then once toyota sees a pattern they get the engineers to find out why things like this happen.

according to toyota its apparently the bolt torquing sequence that is incorrect that is causing the moisture build up in the tail lights. thats kind of interesting...

I read that in another tail light condensation thread too, apparently it causes the plastic to crack where the bolt has been tightened...but we will see as I am getting my lights replaced again for a second time next Saturday as the parts will be in by Wednesday but work is preventing me from getting it done sooner.

I just had my lights replaced for the second time today. They showed me a new TSB (dated January 16th) explaining that they made a new gasket. I suppose time will tell if it works, but glad they at least attempted a permanent solution.

The new TSB also says to flatten out the body (sheet metal) on page 4.
Mine had this done and there is no condensation now. :)