I drive a Toyota Camry 1998, anyway, water keeps getting into the far left panel, under the boot mat thingy. Also, water is getting under the spare tyre panel, which is located under the middle of the boot. Do mechanics fix these! Is the rubber seals gone!
eagles9999,
May 18, 12:12am
Its a Toyota, leaks come as standard
andrea_w,
May 18, 12:15am
Try a panel beater. mechanics work on mechanical things, not panel work The leak could be coming from any number of places. it's impossible to guess
robbo36,
May 18, 12:17am
x1
If the car boot rubber seal is intact, then could rule that out. Has the vehicle been in a rear ended accident at some point! If so, the accident could have stressed the panel joints sealant and causing them to leak. Water has a way of working it's way into the car and not from very obvious places. Also, check behind the tail lamp on that side to ensure the wiring loom rubber boot and seals are secure. Forgot to ask, is it a sedan or station wagon! If wagon then could be from the wiring loom rubber boot at the top by the hinges or the rear washer bottle supply line/nozzle. Strip out the spare wheel, tools, boot mat, rear panel cover, etc, so it's all bare panels and get some one to lie in the boot with a torch, close the boot and run the hose over the rear of the car while the person in the boot has a good look inside. Hope this helps!
mm12345,
May 18, 12:21am
x1
Rear window seal is a possibility.Drain and dry the wells in the boot, apply water carefully area by area, and eventually you'll find it.Unless it's a "known issue" for that model by a mechanic/panel shop, then it might take them just as long as it will take you to find the problem, and they'll be charging you $80 / hour or so to do that.
kazbanz,
May 18, 12:45am
someguy -robbo pretty well has it covered off. but in my experience the most common leak pointfor that area of the car is the tailight seal.By that I mean the rubber joint between the back of the tailight and the cars body
tonyrockyhorror,
May 18, 1:06am
The water in the tyre well is almost certainly only as a result of the leak - it's the lowest point. You need to find the leak. Jump in the boot with a torch and have someone run the hose indirectly over the boot - no direct jets of water.
batman4321,
May 18, 1:27am
Its a sedan, and no accidents from the looks of things. Its done 220km, and had 3-4 owners before me. I'm fairly certain the leak was there when I bought the car.
nicolaas3,
May 18, 7:20am
Open the boot and take out the rubber boot seal along the top. Check for rust causing the leak.
ema1,
May 18, 8:11am
Also check for defective body flange joints, the seal product can fail over time. Other than that I'd say it's either a defective boot seal rubber or the body flange the boot seal rubber mounts onto is compromised by a rust spot letting water through! I have removed the boot seal rubber before and smeared RTV sealant around the boot seal flange and into the mount grove on the boot seal rubber then refitted the seal rubber back onto the flange (clean up any excess RTV before it sets!) Worked well for a persistant leak I had in a Cressida years ago, never leaked again after that excercise. Check the rear window to see if it's seal isn't compromised.it can happen and it's possible too for rust to form in the window glass aperture and let water in that way. On a good dry day get a good torch,climb into boot and have a helper mist spray water over the rear area's of the car and you'll no doubt locate the leak. Make sure you dry out the boot beforehand to positively identify where leak presents itself. Must be a fairly bad leak if there's a quantity of water pooling in the tyre well, good luck. Does the car leak leak when parked up or do you mostly notice it after driving on wet roads! I'd even check the joint seal quality around the rear wheel arches in the boot
r15,
May 18, 8:15am
do you get wet carpet and stuff! or just the panels are wet!
if its not wetting anything other than painted panels, just drill a hole at the bottom.
that's the cheap / easy way.not the correct way
ema1,
May 18, 8:34am
The tail lights shouldn't be a problem as the whole lamp assembly mounts "externally" in a fully panelled recess in rear bodywork and only a grommet where cables go through the bodywork is the only place any water or dust can enter the boot in those Camry's. The earlier Toyota products though like RX60 -GX60 & GX71/MX73 Cressida's had the tail lights mount in an open type aperture in the body and these types of mountings were very prone to leakage and dust ingress past the factory seal gasket, these gasket seals between the "open type" body apertures and lamp units were rather prone to deterioration and rust around the apertures was often a problem as well. The Cressida's I had, the first thing I did with all of them ( I had a total of 8 of them over 14 years.) was to remove the tail lamp units and seal the apertures with RTV Instant Gasket and make sure they had a continuous strip along the top half of the lamp to fend off any likely water entry if water was present The sealant could be neatly done to look like a factory finish item, worked perfectly for me. I also removed the boot seal rubbers on all my Cressida's and used RTV sealant and replaced the rubber boot seal on it's flange as described in post #10, never had a problem with any of them once I did that, worked like a charm.
ema1,
May 18, 8:35am
Easy enough to remove a drain grommet in the floor of the tyre well too, seen that done often, search around the side wells there could be rubber/plastic drain plugs there too. I have used an eyelet punch on those drain plugs to punch a small hole in the plugs odd times just enough to let water out
rayzor14,
May 18, 8:55am
It's a camry for goodness, do the decent thing and park it on a boat ramp in neutral with the brake off.
ema1,
May 18, 8:58am
What do you drive rayzor14.out of interest!
thewomble1,
May 18, 9:24am
Must have an even number of holes.one to let water in and one to let it out.
rayzor14,
May 18, 10:16am
BF xr6 turbo and a 300zx TT - why!
ema1,
May 18, 10:29am
Falcons leak too rayzor.also rust prone to boot. The Turbo XR6 has a damn good engine for sure, is yours the Herrod version! Have you had any issues with rust at all, especially leaks in the rear window area and under rear parcel shelf regions where they are prone ! Ford Australia had a lot of paint issues with Blue color Falcons for some reason and there has been reference to the subject on here before about it I believe! Lots of Falcons and Commodores for that matter have rather anemic paint jobs where there are areas that haven't had paint AT ALL and are still bare metal, absolutely shoddy workmanship to say the least as has also been referred to on here previously and I have personally seen first hand disgusting is the only way of describing what I saw recently.
neville48,
May 18, 10:45am
Drill a wee hole in the rubber drain bung in the spare wheel well so the water doesnt build up if you cannot find the leak but I would go for the tail-light/body seal first.
ema1,
May 18, 10:47am
Must say though both the GM & Ford Australia products while good in design side of things are badly let down by disgraceful workmanship. Quality .NAH the word hasn't been discovered by them yet. Care and attention is the vital element missing from them which is a pity, good cars totally spoiled by crap assembly and finish and total lack of attention to detail
andrewph,
May 18, 10:54am
Get a friend to lay in the boot with a torch. spray the garden hose over the boot, the taillights the rear window, number plate mounts rear spoiler etc. Anywhere theres a gap. Let him out to lay on the other side and look on that side. Also spray round the inside of the rear guards. Good luck. Does it get wet when parked at different angles. Good luck.
ema1,
May 18, 10:56am
The Camry model mentioned here does not have any tail light unit /body seal per say as the tail light unit is effectively "externally" mounted ie. the body has a sealed pressed steel recess in the rear of body where the tail lamp units sit in snug and don't have any portion of the lamp unit protruding into the boot space at all, to replace bulbs etc you simply dis mount the lamp unit from the body and access to bulbs is right there on back of the unit, and they are easy to disconnect from car .just uncouple the junction plug to the whole unit,which is effectively outside the body also. The only interior exterior "link" is the wiring through a body grommet in the lamp unit recess in the body which it's highly unlikely any water will pass through unless it's totally immersed or heavily hosed in that area. Defective boot seal or defective seal at rear screen is most likely cause in the Camry, also body joins seal lines need to be checked for possible seal defect! A rust pin hole will let in a surprising amount of water in a short time and boot seal flange area and rear screen aperture needs to be checked for small rust holes that could possibly be lurking hidden under boot seal on the boot seal flange . I own a Toyota Avalon and the method of tail lamp unit mounting is virtually the same as I describe in the Camry. Avalon is pretty much part of the Camry family models anyway.
rayzor14,
May 18, 11:35pm
Yep, I have had to have the entire right rear guard removed to deal with rust issues on mine due to shoddy sealing around the boot chanel from new along with paint just flaking off in the same area. I didn't go the Herrod route with mine. I've simply added Process West gear along with tuning. Plenum, intercooler, new exhaust, turbo wastegate actuator and flapper enlargement, injectors, valve springs, fuel pump to name a few bits. The end result has not been huge power but a very usable 360kw atw. Much more "could" be had but I dont always have access to 98 octane gas and prefer to err on the side of conservative and know it isnt going to throw all its cookies out.
lucus2011,
May 18, 11:48pm
My 92 Camry sedan had a big leak and the right part where the jack is kept filled right up with water every time it rained, turned out there was a little rust under the right side of the spoiler, where it bolts onto the boot. Took it off, grinded the rust out, bogged it up, painted, then silicon sealed the spoiler when I bolted it back on. Problem solved.
mugenb20b,
May 19, 12:01am
Fail.
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