Hunting more leaks down!

Here's where the leak was happening:



I tackled this leak by first sealing here:



Then I sealed up the area where a screw holds the weatherstripping. I also added a bead of silicone to the circled areas to make the roof/targa top interface seal tighter.



Closer:


By the way, I picked up this stuff at Home Depot to seal up the door hinges (not pictured in this post). It's about $1.50 and is plenty to do both doors.

 

Down to what appears to be the last leak...

This appears to be leaking in somewhere through the A pillar, it has nothing to do with targa top.



Closer:



I'll figure it out tomorrow. Stupid leaks...

 

I've been searching on my leaky windows and keep running into dead end old links. (below)

http://www.theredlion.us/window_blowout_clip.htm
http://www.theredlion.us/TipIn.htm

I read the sticky in the general section but the links are no longer good and I tried to search CorvetteActionCenter.com with no luck

General sticky info: " Water Intrusion
Water leaks have several ways of getting in the car, and none of them AFAIK are very difficult to fix. Proper adjustments and maintenance will prevent most leaks.
Bill Curlee’s thread abouting locating & cleaning the udders, and sealing the door hinges.
Here’s a few TSB’s from the CorvetteActionCenter.com:
1997-1998: Service Bulletin: Waterleak Above Door Glass (Reseal Blowout Clip)
1997-2002: Service Bulletin: General Waterleak Guide
1997: Service Bulletin: Water Drips into Rear Compartment After Hatch/Glass Has Been Opened "


Now I'm looking at this thread but still not seeing what I need. I have gaps in the window trim on both driver and passenger side. There is a gap right where the two seals meet it comes in towards the targa top and there is no seal touching the top of the window when its rolled up.

 

Well I am so glad you brought up the blow out clips. I went to see where mine were friday night... They were on my work bench. I forgot to put them in.

Spent saturday with a razor blade removing the silicone I put in the window tracks and put the blow out clips back on. siliconed it back up. Siliconed around the plastic window seals (roof and windshield) since it has been a week for the last bit of silicone to dry out.

Having the head liner out, I saw where a potential leak could be happening where the sun visor mounts. Above that area is the corner of the window seal (where the top windshield seal meets the side window). I pumped that area full of silicone on both sides up inside the top of the windshield steel frame.

I also pulled the weather stripping back from inside the car and ran a bead of silicone under it, where it is hidden. I put the bead where the weather stripping meets the track.

Sunday morning I water tested my car and fixed all the front leaks. Even the one where it drips through the window down the door and over the speaker grill.
The rear was still dripping a drop every 30 seconds. I hooked up the air compressor where the leak was dripping and shot air inside. I could hear the air come out around the trunk seal. At this location below.



I already had siliconed that area with a caulk gun. I must of done a crap job since the big gun with the trunk in the way made it hard. It was a small hole/gap.

I got a little tube of silicone gasket maker and used that. I filled the whole channel again full by hand and then pushed in the trunk weather seal. I will give it a day or 2 and test again. Also re-glued the area it was dripping from in the trunk, under the rear window.

Almost got this sucker beat.

 

If you have problems with dirt and water in the trunk drainage area,, you can add the C6 hood seal to the C5 trunk lid area. I did this and it does a great job keeping stuff out and seals the area:









BC

 

^Bill, that C6 hood seal around the trunk opening is a great idea! I hate how dirty it gets around the trunk opening and it's a PITA to clean... I bet that hood seal keeps most of the crap out of there!

Is this seal the same as the seal that runs along the side of the C5 hood also?

 

Well,, its the same TYPE seal but,, I think the C6 seal works a bit better

In this picture is shot of the C5 hood seal:



BC

 

Hey Bill,
Would this work on a hatchback as well ?

 

Dont see why not... You will just need MORE of the seal!

 

That's good enough for me !

 

Anyone have any links/pictures/info on blow out clips?
Thanks

 

I posted this in another thread, and decided to put it here as well in case it's useful to someone.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I cleaned out all of my "udder" drains last night. The whole process only took about an hour, and this included removing the wipers and cowl to give everything a good look.

The three drains under the wiper motor on the driver's side were pretty much clean. There were a couple of leaves inside the rearmost drain, simply squeezing the drain ground them up (they were dry) and the bits fell out. There's lots of room to get your hand in under there and check all three drains. Also, since there's lots of room under the drains all of the stuff in them seems to come out easily… my car has lived outside (exept in the winter) for seven years since I bought it in 2004 and I've never cleaned these drains.

The pass side drain was another story. There was about an inch of wet "gunk" in the bottom of it. I found it odd that the gunk was still wet as we hadn't had any rain for almost a week (beautiful dry weather right through the long weekend ). I got the impression when reinstalling the drain that the end of it was resting on something, but this is not possible to confirm from up top as you can't see down there…

I bet the drain's end is either crowded and can't open properly, or it's sitting close enough to whatever is under it that the gunk that comes out is piling up around the end of the drain and keeping it from clearing itself as designed. If I get real ambitious this weekend (and the predicted rainy weather doesn't interfere) I'll pull the access panel from the pass side wheel well and see what's going on in there.

Another thing I noticed was the cowl design. It would appear it was originally designed to ferry most or all of the water coming off the windshield over to the three large drains on the driver's side, but the hole in the cowl for the pass side wiper arm will let most of the water from the pass side windshield go right down into the wiper well where it will be forced to drain from the single drain on the pass side. If there was a ridge around that hole it would keep a significant portion of that water flowing over to the three drains on the driver's side, and probably reduce the volume of water required to drain from the pass side. That pass side drain is right in front of the HVAC opening, which is right above the blower motor in the passenger's foot well… it's the one and only path for water to escape the wiper well without flooding the interior!

 

Alright getting a tad frustrated here. 2002 z06, with a trunk leak, in the center pan. Not one other spot in the back is wet except for the middle pan. The drains all work perfectly and are not clogged. Took the carpet out and had someone hold a hose over the trunk/rear window/roof for about 15 minutes. Not a single drop. But sure enough every time it rains I have water in the trunk. Any ideas?

 

Just a thought from what I went over on my 01 Z. I removed all the interior panels. You could yank the 3 in the rear. The one under the rear window, and the rear speaker panels. I found water dripping through the body color painted square rail under the rear window. I filled all the seems inside with silicone (went over what GM did). It still leaked. Siliconed the trunk seal where it meets the body on the hinged side. Still leaked. I filled that square tube with expandable foam. Still leaked a drop every here and there. It finally stopped when I filled the outside seem with silicone between the trunk and the quarter panel. It was a PITA to do but I have not had any more water issues. Looks kinda ****** as well if you peak in the crack there since it is not easy to get to.

I also siliconed the trunk seal together at the gap so it is one piece. Then I lightly siliconed to to the trunk ridge it sits on. I did this when I first found out I had a leak.

I also found it would leak depending on the angle it was at. in my driveway it would leak pretty bad. All I had to do was run the water down the roof and it would run down to the seam between the trunk and the quarter panel into my rear drivers side storage bin.

 

I dont know what to report on them, they are just those little metal tabs sticking out of the weather stripping. They are about 2" long.

I would like to add the fact that I glued the hell out of window seals it has helped a ton. I actually did not get my passenger side door shut one night and it rained. Not a single drop in the car. I got in it in the morning and the door ajar warning was on. I was shocked. Usually with the door shut I would have a puddle on the passenger side floor board. Not a single drop.

 

If it is on the pass/side it will be the above, I am saying this from you saying you what you did on putting water hose on the car. That one little tube is bad to get stopped up and water coming into the pass/ side floor...

 

Well, I've managed to fix the two A-pillar leaks on my 2000 FRC. I also fixed the "hinge" area leaks. A trip to the touchfree car wash confirmed the fix. What the car wash also confirmed is that something in the trunk area is leaking like crazy! In pinpointing the leak, it seems to be related to "Condition 7" in the Waterleak GuideHere's the picture from there:
In reading, it looks like this can be fixed by forcing some 3M strip-calk into the channel, but I'm a little unclear on what exactly that diagram is showing me. Has anyone else tackled this? Thanks!

 

One small note on the driver's side udders: it took me forever to find the third one in the back. And it is really easy to knock loose (what I assume is) the washer-fluid-level sensor and send a pint or so of washer fluid down into the same cavity where the cruft from the udders just landed.

It's trivially simple to vacuum out the cruft when it's dry. When it's saturated with washer fluid...not so much.

 

Hi I cannot acces this link. CAC comes back with the message this article does not exist, is not visible, is not in a category, or you dont have authorisation.

Any ideas?

 

Joe, is the water your pouring over the rear window making it's way down into the gap between the quarter panel and the roof panel?
That is where mine was coming in. I had a hell of a time sealing that gap, only after I pretty much put RTV over everything in the rear area. I still seemed to drip out those tab holes no matter what I did, untill I filled the seam between the roof and quarter panel with RTV.
I did not just caulk the gap up. I got it in there and used a coat hanger I think to get it down in a thin layer so the car could be taken apart later if need be.