spincycle

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking here for months and I'm glad I've found a more mature Honda forum. Anyways, I've finally got a few questions that I can't find a satisfactory answer for when doing a search.

Problem 1: Leak in the Hatch

I've got water (seriously large amounts) getting into the spare tire area after a rain storm. The carpeting in the hatch area stays dry. I checked the seal around the hatch and it's in good shape. So I'm a little puzzled. Opinions?

Problem 2: Busted Rear Defogger

Everytime I go to turn on my rear defogger I blow the fuse. I checked the relay and that's fine. The defogger itself seems to work when I run a load across it. So what do you think is causing it? A broken wire somewhere?

Thanks!

- spin

RStoR

I too have a problem with water leakage, but only have a very hard storm. My hatch is gutted, so I can kinda looked for a water trail last time. Seems mine may be linked to the tail-light area. Hasn't rained hard enough again to provide me with any more proof.

Considering your carpet isn't wet, your problem could be in the same area. The water comes in behind the plastic and flows underneath the spare tire cover. Just a possibility. Good luck!

RedHatch

i have that too!
(water leak)

Eee Pee

Water may be coming from the drain plugs underneath the carpet.
Inneffective plastic.

spincycle

Where are the drain plugs located? I checked around under the carpet.. and the only plug I can find is a large metal one.. which is for the gas tank I believe.


Thanks,
spin

PnX-R

You're saying that everytime you turn on your Rear Defogger (Heat Grid) you blow a fuse.. Well the only reason why you'd blow a fuse is because you're grounding before the load. So trace the Hot Wire and look for a break in it. The break in the wire can cause it to touch the metal of the car and ground it. Thus it will blow your fuse.

White S2k

I have the same leak as you guys
it does leak through the taillight because everytime it rains hard sometimes my brake light bulbs get water onto it and then blow out the bulb
if anyone has a way to fix this please let me k now

StolenSi

I too have this leak. After doing a bit of reasearch, it seems that others have just replaced the gasketing that lines the tail lights. I'm not sure if OEM gasket replacement is the best option here since it obviously has a pretty consistant failure rate after seeing all the, "my EK's hatch leaks" posts. I would just look into some better gasketing material.

jo3blo3

Seeing as how the rains are coming in my area once more... I felt the need to not only BUMP this thread as a reminder to those whom will be reminded of this common problem when the raining begins... but also to explain what I did today.

So, after the last rains I found myself with a trunk full of water in the spare tire area as well. This sucks pretty hard when it starts to dry and get all musty. Boy that stinks. I came to the boards here at Honda-Tech in search of a possible cause and solution. I could not find the leak. It seemed to mysteriously appear in the tire area and leave no trace to its entrance. I pulled the car into the stall after the leak was noticed and vacuumed the crap out of it. Let it dry. Poured some water over the rear hatch area to see if a trail would show its face. No luck. Yet the water found its way in once more.

All the research here... mostly found topics relating to newer model hatches, but none the less, they all seemed to be aware of this tail light gasket leak. Having faith in the HT locals I ordered new gaskets for the tail lights both inner and outer as I have a 93, and replaced them all.

Four screws on the outers and three screws on the inner hatch lights. The outers are a pain in the *** if you're not in the mood to start pulling the plastic moldings inside just about completely off for access. Made me wish I had my Digi-Cam to help out the less experienced and post them here. Either way... it wasn't too hard at all just a bit more time consuming then anticipated.

As I was tearing apart these panels for access I seen broken clips and what appeared to be adhesive smeared around the passenger side light which by the way is where my leak seemed heavier. I think the dick head I bought this from was fully aware of this and failed to notify me of this situation. All to the good.

After replacing the gaskets I ran the water across the hatch once more expecting to fully see water all over as the seals looked very dry and in tact when I removed them.

To my surprise... NO WATER in the car. WOW! Could it be?

Only test left will be the rains coming. I'll let you know how it goes if the rain actually rains hard enough to matter. I love California!

jo3blo3

OK... so yesterday it rained a decent bit. Opened up my hatch and yes to my surprise once more I found I had a vehicle that looked like perhaps the MTV guys "Pimped my ride" and installed a small hot tub where my spare should be. ******* SUCKS!

So... this time I was heated. Begin to tear my rear end apart from top to bottom. The leak was definately on the passenger side just below the tail light (outer). I seen the bitch dripping. Upon further inspection... my detective work lead me to find that the ******* whom I purchased this vehicle from was definately aware of this problem and made a **** poor attempt to repair this issue.

The vehicle had some minor damage at one time to the rear passenger side which apparently, after pulling the rear bumper, I found that some sort of "BONDO" type material was applied to this area between the frames meeting spots. Where the factory welds would have been. I removed the shitty faux bondo and began to dry that **** up.

Good old tube of house type window silicon and your finger as a spreader was all that was needed.

It rained harder last night... and... DRUM ROLL PLEASE.
NO WATER IN THE CAR.

(I know that this may have seemed unimportant to a lot of you... but if I would have seen this write up... might have saved me a lot of time.)