Quote:
Originally Posted by EndlessAzure
Check your tail light gaskets
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You got me wondering, so I decided to order a pair of new OEM gaskets and take the lights off to see what was going on behind them.
There seem to have been two revisions to the gasket part numbers: the ones I got are SU003-05121, SU003-05122.
The old gaskets had a bunch of crud along their top edge where water and debris had poured over it for the past 4+ years I've had the car. But they held up: I never had any condensation in the lamps, and I don't believe water was getting past them and into the car.
But, I think I found how water's been pooling under the spare. There are three clips in the vicinity of each tail light that attach the bumper to the body. When I had the lights out, I could see that only one of the three (circled in green) has a gasket on it. The other two clips don't. I think these naked clips are how water has been seeping into the spare wheel well.
Compared to the gaskets that came on the car, the new ones seem to be slightly thicker and made of a denser, more memory-foam-like material. My lights also seem to have been lightly tightened down at the factory -- I could basically un-do the nuts by hand. After tightening the lights with the new gaskets to spec (39 lb-in), there is now a visible gap between the lower edge of the light and bumper. I don't think that was there before, but I could be wrong. It's a little annoying, but only noticeable if you look real close and from beneath the tail light.