Leaking Taillights (Again)
 

I bought my car certified pre owned(first owner worked at the dealer). I noticed a few months after that my tail lights filling with water. I took it to the dealer the told me they had already replaced them once on that car. They replaced them again and assured me I would have no problems.

I wanted to get them painted red, but wanted to make sure I didn't spend the money and then have to change them again. I did some research on here and found the gasket ninja thread. I ordered them and put them on when I had the tails painted. Now a few months later sure enough tail lights full of water again.

I called the dealer today and they told me there is no recall on them and the only fix is new tail lights again. And that potentially I will be forced to change tail lights every few months, until my warranty runs out then I have to pay out of pocket for them every few months. Also that there is no way to dry them out and if its not fixed it will be "very bad" I called Toyota's customer service line and they basically told me the same thing, how ever they started a case, I don't really see what they can do except fix it which they would anyway since my car is under warranty. I'm hoping to at least get them to refund me for getting them painted. But then Im either stuck with the ugly(my opinion) stock tails or spending an extra $150 every time to get them painted again.

This is the first new car I have ever owned. So Im not sure how these things work. Is this going to really be an on going issue that can never be solved? Or will they likely do a recall/tsb on them or develop a part that will correct the problem instead of masking it? Or maybe someone on here has another fix for it? Maybe more people should call them and complain lol.

Just gonna have to buy aftermarket.

But I hear such bad things about aftermarket quality and fitment.

I have buddy club aventador tail lights and the fitment was perfect

Maybe they didn't do step #2 on page 5 of TSB? When they did mine, they specifically said in the work order that they flattened the sheet metal and put touch up paint on them. I think if the crack was caused by this sheet metal and this sheet metal (root cause) is not flattened, the newly replaced tail light housing will get cracked again.

Interesting, they told me there was no TSB for the tail lights. The work order says:
Installed lens and body both sides
Installed packing both sides
Installed nut flg m5
Inspected and replaced both rear lens and scraped off old body seals and straightened both side mounting holes.

Nothing about touch up paint or sheet metal, unless that is referring to the mounting holes. They also never mentioned anything about the tail lights actually being cracked.

I've got valenti tails on my car, and they've been leak free. Hell, the first day I had them it rained, and I throught I might have an issue, but nope! All good!

Just make sure you buy through someone with a warranty, like Modbargains, so if you do have an issue for some reason, they get swapped out without issue.

as far as stock goes, its usually a gasket issue...but it sounds like you've just had bad luck with them since you've had multiple sets. Time for new haha

maybe the techs are over torquing them as well. I noticed that I could basically loosen the 8mm bolts using using a deep socket in my bare hands when I painted mine.

Just get some clear silicone caulk and seal the seams yourself... OEM / aftermarket... takes 5 min, and its good piece of mind.

because of the design of the rear trunk/taillight area, water will always drain right onto the taillight gaskets.. pop your trunk, and look down at the top of your tail light.. see that big hole?

Option 2 - get some "snowman Snot" and seal the area with that, and re-direct the water off to the rear instead of down that hole into the back of the tails..

just my $0.02..

I'm pretty sure this is it. I think they did perform that step of the TSB.

lol

You may have luck with the Gasketninja gaskets. I put mine in about a year ago and haven't really had an issue since.

Yup gasketninja i installed mine after my first time getting a leak, never had the problem since, i use the gaskets on both sets of aftermarket lights with no issues on either.. I get why people claim just take it in, but after i read how someone will do it over 6 different times, i dont get why not just spend the 25$ and not worry about it again.

-Thomas

This last set leaked with the gasket ninja ones and the 3m silicone