Water in trunk anyone?
 

After the whole ordeal I went through getting my tail lights replaced 6x, I thought the car gods would give me a break. However, you know what they say about there being no rest for the weary..

It turns out that the water getting into my taillights was an even bigger concern than I anticipated. Last night I took a look at my trunk (the spare tire area) and noticed a decent sized pool of water. It's even more troubling because it hasn't really rained lately, so the water seems to definitely be collecting there.

Have you guys encountered this issue before? If so, could you share some of your experiences?

As an aside: the build quality on these cars absolutely suck. If I had to do it again, I would have never took the plunge like I did. Toyota should be ashamed of themselves shipping a $28K brand new car that can't even do the basics... like keeping water out of the frame. I am so fed up at this point.

Where is the water coming in from? The tail lights? The trunk gasket? Figure that out first before laying blame on Toyota (Subaru actually builds the cars, but whatever) or the dealership's techs who replaced your tail lights 6 times before getting the torque right.

Okay, sure. I'll enter your "alternative reality" where $28K brand new cars are expected to leak and retain water in the trunk area. Makes a lot of sense. Rust? Who cares about silly stuff like that...

You have completed glazed over the possibility that the car, brand new, may not have leaked. The leak may have been introduced after the technicians replaced your tail lights six times.

Nice try?

German torque spec, what?

Do a search.

There are reports of the plugs not being installed in the trunk.

They are all over the place. Near the shock on the bottom ect..

Go to dealer have them fix it or go to ACe hardware, buy plug and install

Had an old accord that would leak into the trunk and could never find out where. I even went as far as to replace all gaskets on the trunk and use silicone caulk on every seam I could find.

If you want to fix it yourself, I suggest getting in the trunk and having someone spray water on the car and check for leaks that way (after doing the obvious checks).
Or just take it in and they'll do it for you. Wouldn't be surprised if it was related to crappy reinstall of tail lights.

^^^ this. Be sure the rubber plugs are Installed. They should have been
Installed by the dealer during PDI.

When my right taillight finally started showing the condensation issue, I booked an appointment for the fix. The night before I took it in, I removed the trim panels inside the trunk, and was surprised at what I saw underneath... There were water stains under each nut/stud that holds the taillight to the body. some ran towards the spare tire well, and some the other way down into the 1/4 panel. No tech had been in there yet, so I can't blame them.
The problem in my case was the diameter of the flange on the nut. It's way too small. The hole in the car body is more like a slot, and the flange on the nut barely covers the top and bottom of the slot, let alone the sides. Because of this, the gasket was swelling in on either side of the nut, and water was finding a way in.
The latest Subaru TSB includes new nuts with a larger flange, but at the time the Scion TSB didn't (I don't know if this has been addressed yet, or not). I went to the local nut and bolt store to get some 3/16" X 1" fender washers and gave them to the Tech when he put the new taillight in.
No water yet.