Weifast

Hey guys, the gasket (pictured as #5 below) is around 3 bucks a piece at magestic honda. I was wondering if it's possible to double up on each side of the tail lights to make the seal more thick to prevent the gasket from wearing out in the future (are the bolts long enough, will it fit, etc). The gasket on my right tail light is causing water to leak into my spare tire wheel well. I don't want to ghetto rig this with foam, etc...I saw the thread where they did that, I prefer a more precise method haha. Let me hear your inputs.

L8apex

Short answer: Yes the extra foam will help and yes the studs are long enough. Just be careful tightening the nuts and tighten them in a criss-cross pattern.

Long answer: If you're getting water in your trunk area with just one known-good foam seal, there might be some body damage that you might not know about. Inspect the sheetmetal and welds around the taillight housing when you have it out, there might be a crack. The hatch seal may also be due for replacement if it's cracked or just hard.

Weifast

The hatch seal is still in good condition and my best friend who owned the car before me told me he has never replaced the foam gasket, so I'm assuming that is the most likely culprit at the moment (there's condensation building up in my right tailight, so I figure it has to be the gasket). I'll make sure to check for other things while its out, but the car is a clean title 2000 and I've known the car the day my friend bought it at the dealership, I was there to help him haggle haha. He hasn't been in any fender benders or hit anything with the car, so hence I'm thinking it just has to just be the tail light gasket, but I'll make sure anyway. Thanks for the look out, much appreciated as always .

gwl

Look around the roof seams, you can see it better when you open the hatch door. Even in SoCal weather, the body seam sealer had hairline cracks allowing water to leak. It didn't leak much but when I took the headliner off to replace the fabric, I could see water stains on the cardboard.

Weifast

FYI, replaced the gaskets this past weekend and you can't use two gaskets and double up. Problem is that the taillight is pushed WAY out, about a .25in out and looks like crap and doesn't fit right, not to mention you leave a bigger gap up top on the taillight to allow even more water to stream through. Even though you can use two and still bolt the taillight to the car, I wouldn't recommend it.

I realize it's better to just replace the worn gasket the OEM gasket and seal the gasket with automotive sealant on both sides to provide a tight seal (sealant on foam to car, and foam to taillight). If it ever needs to be changed out, you can just push out the tailights again and worst case scenario is that the foam rips since it's stuck to the chasis, but the sealant can easily be ripped off since the sealant I got can just be pulled off (silicon based). I doubt with using automotive sealant that you'd ever have to replace the gasket again if you did it properly and got a tight seal. I tested the next day to allow the sealant to fully set; works like a charm and zero drops of water went through.