boot lid water leak

[david lee]

has anyone got a problem with the boot lid gathering water when it pours rain. my au xr6 does and cannot see how its getting in.the boot is sealing on the rubber.any help would be appreciated.thanks.

[Beer Baron]

Water can get in where the spoiler mounts to the boot if you have one.

[ronwest]

Originally Posted by david lee

the boot is sealing on the rubber

I looked high and low when mine was leaking. Silicon-ed this and that etc. Water tested with s-i-l in the boot with a torch and so on.

It wasn't until I replaced my boot rubber that the leaking stopped.

[baz]

Happened to me, was the spoiler, screws were a bit loose.

[EATHSV]

My spoiler too, someone painted them and ruined the rubber seals.

[2002au]

mine leaks a little too, ill check it out tomorrow. thinking it may be the spoiler screws

[baz]

Its just about always the spoiler screws, what I did was take out screw one at a time and push silicon up as far as possible then put silicon on end of screw and replace. fixed mine.

[GK]

1. Used silicone on the number plate screws (inside and outside)

Still had some water.

2. Boot seal replaces = a big step forward.

Still had some though, but now in a different spot.

3. Siliconed the hinge bolts that hold the boot on.

Still had a bit.

4. Siliconed the rubber grommet that weatherproofs the wiring that goes from inside the car into the boot area. The one on the right hand side.

Voila! Success. No more water.

If all that fails, then I'd say it's the spoiler screw rubbers.

All the best with it.

GK

[Beer Baron]

Mine leaked between a metal join near the strut mount. Cost me about $2 worth of sealant to fix.

[Silver Ghia]

Firstly, the rubber grommets at the bottom of the bootlid effectively seals the drainholes there. In my BA Ghia, I used a punch to make holes in the side of each of the two grommets to allow water out. I then sprayed fishoil inside there to stop rusting. You could also just remove the grommets.

With regard to the spoiler, I dispensed with the soft foam type rubber seals that are under the spoiler posts, and replaced then with a suitable thickness solid rubber from Clark Rubber, cutting out gaskets to fit inside the recesses at the bottom of the posts. Fitting the gaskets with a light coat of neutral cure silastic effectively seals the spoiler holes.
Never had any water leakage after doing that.

[Kerberos]

Hi there, it's an old thread, I know, but my 2006 falcon sedan takes in water when it rains, then when one opens the boot the water pours in. How is it only getting into the lid and how does one fix this?

Can you please make a couple of photos so I can understand where to seal to avoid the water getting in?

[commodorenutt]

If you don't have a spoiler, check the fasteners for the trim panel above the number plate - it's basically the only other penetration (apart from the number plate screws) that could leak water into the bootlid itself..

[Kerberos]

I have the spoiler. Do you think it might be the main reason? How do I seal it? From inside or outside? I find it difficult to get the water inside the lid through the number plate. The trim panel is the plastic behind the number plate, isn't it? Well, I don't have it at all.

[commodorenutt]

The advice for the spoiler has been posted further up.
The trim panel I'm talking about houses the number plate lights. It's fastened to the boot through a number of holes. If you look inside the boot frame when the lid is up you can see where the wiring goes out to that panel, and where it's fasteners are.

[Kerberos]

Ok I got you. From your description though, it's impossible to get the water inside the lid through these holes unless it's raining horizontally.. I'm gonna check the spoiler issue later. Thanks.

[fordfalconed]

Gidday Kerberos,

I have a spoiler and mine is an Au3 sedan and had the same problem especially after heavy rain.

I ended up swapping my Au3 boot with a Au2 spoiler sedan because internally my original boot was rusting like hell and showing up as horrible bubbles all below number plate area, not worth scrapping an repainting.

Anyhow read this carefully because when I removed my original spoiler to reuse on the Au2 boot I could shockingly see that the spoiler third holes (beside the spoiler screw in holes) on the Au3 boot lid that help by holding the spoiler was very rusted and most likely here was the leaking point into the boot which then accumulated at the bottom and then splash when lifted up.

So I used remaining tube of black gasket goo usually used for rocker cover and made a thickish circle gasket around the two screwing spoiler bolts and both the third spoiler hole on the replacement Au2 boot. Waited for them to be become very firm before ressembly.

I also did the same gasket gooing around all the x4 assembly number plate lights, plastic number plate holes inside and outside boot area, the wiring harness loom at corner of boot and around the corner going into the car on the drivers side.

You can remove the spoiler carefully by first manually unclipping the electrical connection inside the boot that have the two wires coloured- Dark Green with red stripe and Black with two silver stripes (these are for the spoiler brake light).

To remove the number plate light assembly one has to unclip the two wired colours- Brown wire and Black with two silver stripes. Then unscrew the x4 nuts and remove the whole light assembly and you will see the holes on the boot area, the harness hole and x4 holes for the bolts.

Then to remove the spoiler carefully unscrewed the x4 10mm nuts inside the boot that hold the spoiler onto the boot. Then carefully lift off the spoiler and you will clearly see the state of the three holes on top of your boot.

If rusted then clean holes and apply antirust paint let it dry proper then apply a good gasket or use my method.

I carefully torqued the x4 spoiler nuts to only 5Nm (Newtown Metre) as I did not want to crack the spoiler bolts.

And for the light assembly I only hand tightned the x4 nuts.

Now that there has been heavy rain the boot has remained dry and no further splashes of water. Good luck