I went to look at buying a 97 prelude sh. Everything seemed pretty good on the car. The only thing when I popped the trunk and looked under the cover the bottom of the trunk had water in it. It had about 1/2 gallon down there and it looks like it had been there for a while. The owner had no clue about it. What would cause it? Thanks for any replys

 

the weather stripping around the trunk

 

weather stripping and/or taillight seals are generally the problem.
just look it up ive seen this thread atleast once a week.

 

I have seen this a few times in preludes. Everytime it's either getting in from tail lights or moon roof drain tube.

 

If it was bad weather seal you would have seen the water marks on top of the carpet. Most likely its the sunroof water tubes.There are tubes the lead from the top of ur car where the sunroof is and then down your quarter panel and drain out near the side of your bumper. When those get clogged it can cause the water to back out and fill up your trunk. The tubes are hidden behind all the carpting in your trunk thats why water would run underneath the the carpet and down into the bottom of your trunk where you spare tire is so you wouldnt see it unless you lifted the spare tire access cover up. I opened my soonroof up and poored HOT water down the sunroof channels which unclogged the tubes.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 577HondaPrelude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have seen this a few times in preludes. Everytime it's either getting in from tail lights or moon roof drain tube.</TD></TR></TABLE>

x2. that damn tube can come apart quite easily

 

Thanks guys. I tried to pull up a search and nothing came up. I don't know if i'm doing it wrong or not.

 

Actually this is a very common problem is 5th gens and there are several threads on this topic. Be sure to hit the archives button because that is where the real info is.

 

I put my money on the taillight gasket. if you take the covers out that are covering the taillights up you might be able to see water marks coming through the gasket. I had this problem for awhile. I just barley replaced my taillight gasket with some new ones and my trunk doesn't leak anymore.

one way to see which leak you have. would be to take out all the trunk interior and wait for a rainy day and then pop the trunk and see if you can see a stream of fresh water coming from any place in the trunk. taillight, sunroof tubes. around the weather strip. etc....