I have a 96 civic hatch and everytime it rains somehow water ends up in my spare tire compartment why is that and how can i fix it? 
I got a problem and i need some answers please.
- Thread starter TeddyLuvsU
- Start date
solutions?
usually if somthing is leaking you need to find out where its leaking from... grab a garden hose and spray your hatch...find out where its leaking from. then use your brain to come up with a solution to stop it from leaking.
+1. My brother had the same issue with his 98 4 door. We pulled everything out (trunk carpeting etc etc), and then sprayed all the cracks slowly until he (who was sitting in the car) saw water leaking in. We found the leak and he used some silicone to plug up the leak.
do you have a space between your rear bumper and rear corner panels?
drill holes get new weather striping thats about all there is for this problem
I had the same problem and I found 2 small holes in the track that the water flows down from when it rains. I used silicone and it works fine now. you just can't clump is on there make it smooth so the water flows over it easy. look carefully!!! the holes in mine were SMALL but enough to let the water in.
{drill holes bad advice} get a towel / blanket suck it up never drill holes unless body work or mods
That used to happen to mine as well. In a rainy night, the next morning I'd have like two can sodas worth of water by the spare tire so before i fixed it I would just put an absorbing cloth in there to clean it out but then I replaced the trunk seal and it worked. It could also be from your sunroof/moonroof if you have one... Like the other guy said, wet ur car and find out where the leak is prior to buying any parts...
Being female is fine. Don't use it as a crutch. Don't use it as an excuse. I know plenty of guys who are morons.
Get a flash light and a friend.
One of you get in the car and shut everything (make sure there is no junk in the hatch area), but lean the rear seat forward and watch the hatch area.
The person on the outside of the car takes a hose or even a big cup of water and GENTLY runs the water down the suspected leak area. START LOW on the exterior.
The person in the car watches for a leak.
If no leak is found, the person on the outside pours water on the car again, but a little bit higher. I'd probably move about six inches at a time.
Eventually you should be able to narrow down where the leak it.
Now the reason you don't want to use a spray of water or any high pressure is that this can open you the seal where there isn't normally a leak. It can even cause damage to the seal.
On '96-'00 hatchbacks though, often they get a leak that only happens when the car is driven in the rain. This is usually the tail light seals.
Pop the hatch on the car. Remove the little plastic panels from the inner corners within the hatch compartment. Use a ratchet and socket (10mm or 8mm, I can't remember) to remove the nuts holding the tail light in. Unplug the tail light to free it.
On the back of the tail light is a black foam seal.
Go to a craft store and get foam about the same thickness.
Remove the seal from your tail light carefully. Trace it onto the new foam and cut out the new seal.
Then just replace the seal (you can use silicone dots to make it stay firmly in place).
Don't just drill a hole in the bottom of the hatch or else you can end up with a bigger problem. Rust. Anyway, that won't keep your car from getting moldy inside.
At least some hatches have a removable plug on the bottom of the hatch compartment that can be removed though. It might be tough to remove and I wouldn't touch it unless you try the other methods first because vapor can get into the car this way and can make the car smell musty inside.
The hoses are for the moonroof drains. USDM Civic hatches don't have moonroofs and therefore should not have hoses.
I have a leak in my car ('98 coupe - rear window needs to be pulled to fix mine and the glass could break) and when I used to have it out in the rain I would just put a nice dry towel in the trunk and change it often. I also removed the stock carpeting so it wouldn't get gross.
hey thanks for the advice that helped more than the others ^^
Lol yea if its a hatch its mostlikely the tails... I had the same leak what I did was removed the tail light then I silicone the edge of the car from the inside then the top edge then finally I put the light back in and siliconed the edge of the light and now no more leaking.
i kinda figured by ur profile pic. lol
and leave em in the trunk.