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Trunk- water ingress, which seals to start

Started by dnaspazz, 30 January 2020, 04:40 PM

dnaspazz

I'm getting water into the trunk. I know I getwater within the rear light housing, but I can't tell if I get water leaking around the light or directly into the light.  So, which seal would you start with for replacement 1) the chrome trunk trim pads, 2) the seal around the lenses or 3) the tail light assembly seal?  I had planned 3, but those are NLA and I can't find any options to buy.

Any suggestions?

UTn_boy

It's the tail light seal and the trunk trim seal 99% of the time.  For the tail light seal you'll have to remove it, clean it, and reseal with some type of sealant.  The trunk trim seal was STUPID expensive as of last fall, but was still available.  Bear in mind that the tail light housing seal also serves as the tail light lens seal.  There are no two separate seals unless you have a 1972 model.....apparently the very early models had two seals.  However, 99% of the W116 cars left have the "one seal seals all" seal. 
1966 250se coupe`,black/dark green leather
1970 600 midnight blue/parchment leather
1971 300sel 6.3,papyrus white/dark red leather
1975 450se, pine green metallic/green leather
1973 300sel 4.5,silver blue metallic/blue leather
1979 450sel 516 red/bamboo

dnaspazz

Thanks! For follow up, I did pull out both taillights. I cleaned them In soap and water, and the tried  soften the hard, dry rotted seals with Vaseline.  Overnight, the seals soften/expanded somewhat.  I put them back on the assembly and installed the metal assembly. I then ran  a bead of liquid seal on the inner lip of each lens and installed. So far so good.

UTn_boy

Great!  Please keep us informed as to how well it holds up! 
1966 250se coupe`,black/dark green leather
1970 600 midnight blue/parchment leather
1971 300sel 6.3,papyrus white/dark red leather
1975 450se, pine green metallic/green leather
1973 300sel 4.5,silver blue metallic/blue leather
1979 450sel 516 red/bamboo