206bruce

After reading this forum for a couple years, I realize there's no one fix-all for any one symptom. When I noticed a very damp trunk and wet rear driver seat, I did a search here. There was the overly prescribed "clear the clogged sunroof drains." Of the few related threads I read, this fix only worked for the person that posted this fix in the first place. Then there was the "re-seal the rear windshield" fix at a glass shop. Which I was going to do until I got some escalating quotes. "It's $95 for a re-seal, no, $195 if we need to cut the glass out, no, it's gonna be more because we will most likely have to replace the lining too. That's gonna be a dealer special order." Forget that! I'm gonna try to tackle this myself first!

Seems like around here all the auto repair shops are rip-off artists. If you say you have a Lexus, a light bulb goes on over their head and you get a higher quote. If you walk into their shop looking like a busy office worker with a nice leather jacket on, BAM "I'm gonna tax this guy." Any reason to charge you more, they will!

Anyways, to the topic of this thread. I stripped out the rear seat, side panels, and rear deck to diagnose this problem. I had someone run a hose on the rear windshield while I was inside. I'll start posting pictures to better show what I'm talking about. Here is the area where I found most of the water coming in.

206bruce

The water was coming from under that little rubber strip behind the rear windshield. More exactly, it was coming in from that improperly installed holder. The yellow plastic piece you see in this picture.

To get to it, just pry off the rubber strip first with a flat-head screw driver. It just snaps off.

206bruce

You can't tell from here, but it is not seated properly. Just want to focus in on the problem area.

206bruce

Here is a picture from inside the car. Sorry, it was very hard to take this one in this tight area. I drew a little arrow showing the problem. If you can see from this picture, only one of the tabs from that yellow piece came through and the screw is going in at an angle. That screw was supposed to go straight down and split the two tabs out to hold it in place.

206bruce

Here it is after i took it out. You can see that the rubber seal is also rotted and broken. Although that wasn't the main cause of the problem I cut up an old bicycle inner tube to make a replacement.

206bruce

I forgot to also point out in the previous photo that you can kinda see how one of the tabs is bent outward.

Here in this photo you can see better why it wasn't seated properly in the first place. The glue from the windshield flowed out a little too far and didn't allow it easily go back in properly. And the person/shop that worked on this last didn't bother to make sure it did. Jumping to how I fixed this, I first clean this area up with soap and water and then use a razor blade to cut off the excess glue/rubber.

206bruce

I forgot to take anymore pictures until after mounting the yellow plastic clip back on. Here you can see I have cut back the excess windshield glue/rubber. New rubber seal made from bicycle inner tube. I did two layers because one seem slight too thin compared to the original. And lastly, you can see that the yellow clip is sitting flat on the car. No more leaks and there's been a couple showers already.

206bruce

I did the other side of the car too. I used some red rubber tube to make the seal instead because it's thicker than the bicycle tube. Only problem with it is that it keeps wanting to roll back up into a tube. You can kinda see below, and with my fingers crossed, that I got it flatten out pretty good when I mounted it.

I didn't take another picture from inside the car after getting this done but I can tell you that it was more visible (the yellow tabs were) but the screw wasn't (because the tab is covering in front of it like it is supposed to).

So here is another thing to check on first if you get water from behind the back seat. The good thing is you don't have to rip out the rear seats and most of the rear interior....YET. Because the moral of this story is, not all cracks crack in the same place, but you can definitely fix it yourself if you put some effort into it.

schwarz

iTrader: (3)

Well done! Props for finding the leak and fixing it right.

If you had taken it to a shop, who knows how much they would've charged you to smother it in silicone.

$C300

iTrader: (1)

Great DIY
did u replace the yellow clips or did u jsut clean them up?, if u did replace them wear did u get it from and how much?

206bruce

I did not replace the yellow clips. They were fine. I just cleaned them up.

Unless someone break them when they remove or install them, I don't see how they won't last for a fairly long time. It lives a fairly stress-free life under there. That rubber strip that clips onto it doesn't really do anything, no moving parts and it is not supporting any weight.

If I were to look for a replacement then I'd probably start by looking for a parts car then last resort the car dealer.