I have been burning taillights bulbs for a while now in my 91 civic sedan and noticed there has been water buildup in my taillights with this new rain. I have to keep cleaning the tail lights and harness bezels, and I have even resealed the taillights assemblies themselves with black window caulking. Does anyone know where I can get brand new oem tailights assemblies? This way I don't have to drill holes in the bottom of my tailights.

 

just search around ..prob ebay or maybe even nos lights from honda. try majestic honda online parts. i buy stuff 4 my 90 hatch alot ..surprising to see they have alot of original parts still . put a wanted add in the marketplace on here ?

 

or just buy new gaskets from honda ..?

 

I did consider the seals because my light assemblies are still in really good condition. Thanks

 

you can make your own gasket like me by going to any craft store and buy foam paper and trace it with the old ones and cut out and you got new seals that work!

 

I did exactly that.

Don't drill holes in the taillights. You'll still have water running through them and it destroys the part.

I bought an '88 CRX with 40-60 holes drilled in the bottoms of each taillight. Both lights leaked and a LOT of algae and mold grew in the taillight assemblies (I didn't just take the lights off and notice the holes for ***** and giggles). The sockets also began to corrode!

This is how they looked after I took the time to make the outside light light up. If I drove like it and hit a bump the light would go back out.

I know this pic doesn't look so bad. That's algae growing up form the bottom. Look at the next pic to compare how bad it really was compared to clean lights. These are camera phone pics too so it washed out some.



Here's how they usually looked with the brakes on, but the direct light washes out the detail.

Being the purist that I am, I wanted the '88-'89 taillights still. Everyone only had '90-'91s for sale. I managed to find a replacement set of the '88-'89 lights through a friend's friend. Thank god!

Picked up some foam sheeting from a craft store for a couple bucks, soaked the new lights (no harnesses!) in the bathtub and cleaned them with a toothbrush and to reach the inside corners I used a cotton swab taped to a pen.

Just remove the old foam, clean it off (mine were caked in dirt and I didn't want to transfer it to the new ones) and the trace out onto the fresh foam. Cut that pattern out twice and you have your new gaskets.

Don't forget to wash around where the lights will mount to the car! There might be dirt there still, which could compromise your seal.

Ended up like this:

Attachment 537953

 

thanks alot for the tips. I know that kragen sells gasket material too so maybe ill use that.. I didnt even think of making my own, or cleaning my lights in a big tub of water. I definitely need to do that though! thanks again!! good pointers!

 

I seriously took the lights out one day when I know I had nowhere to go, gently removed the harnesses and then soaked them for a few hours. Then went in and scrubbed them as best as I could. Should only be needed if you look inside them and they're nasty looking though.

Leave time for them to air dry too.

 

The gaskets are fairly expensive from honda. I think something around $90 for the entire set shipped to my door. That is the best way to go. Water in those tails is always from the gaskets.

 

the diy for the gasket.
http://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=9263

 

or just buy my tailight, it no leak and not yellowing.

 

I actually just seal my lights up with some clear RTV. That usually gets rid of the leak pretty well. You gotta find the leak first.

 

It just happens that often the leak is between the taillight and the body of the car. Using RTV there could make it difficult to remove the taillights later on, if needed.

 

another diy http://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=38565

 

ah that happened to me asweel, but eventually I had a problem with the crack being on the black portion of the tail light.

 

Official EF Civic CRX Water Leak Thread:
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/official-ef-crx-civic-water-leak-thread-2832053/

 

sweet! Thanks for the thread