Damn Vancouver Weather - Leaking Car (Help!)

[Paul Chernoff]

yeah thats the plan, guess i gotta wait till spring time , or a warm day.

[Fred Cheng]

Holy, crap, that sounds like a LOT of work.

Are the rest of your cars leaking pretty bad?  Mine isn't (yet)...

What do I seal the leak with?  What kind of silicon do I buy?

Thanks!  

Fred

[John Hartman]

yep, water leaks can be alot of work, if they are hard to find, and under alot of trim.

GET IT BEFORE IT GETS BAD!!

I've seen some that could have been fixed up nicely in a couple of hours, and were left for 6 months more and now the car is a seive and a rust bucket and a mold factory.

[Fred Cheng]

So, John, or anyone else... is there a brand/type of silicon sealant that better than the rest for the purpose of sealing these leaks in our cars?  I'd like to get some on-hand before I check for the leak this weekend...

Thanks, guys!

Fred

[Andrew Steele]

I went to CT and picked up a tube of mono outdoor sealant. (clear silicone) Good for warm & cold temps, won't crack, etc etc ... like $6 (not including the calking gun)

[John Hartman]

Andrew, how's that stuff stick?  Whats it like to work with?

We use professional body shop stuff, I forget the name now, sorry, but if you go to any body shop, they should be able to tell you.

[Mike Schmid]

KMS Tools:

OEM Sure Seal Seam and Joint Sealer

Tubes are PET-CSB for black or PET CSW for white. $7.99 in the flier.

It's urethane, so it's paintable, this is similar to what the factory would use to seal the joints in the sheetmetal.  (look under your hood around the shock towers for instance)  The problem with silicone is it sticks to everything and nothing sticks to it, including paint.  This means down the road you can run into problems with paint adhesion.  This is also why I shy away from waxes with silicone in them.  Also the reason why if you're sealing up stuff in your house, like around a backsplash on a counter top, or sealing up the trim around windows, anything that is painted or might someday be painted you never use silicone but instead use a caulking of some sort, like a polyurethane.

Silicone also feels really gross on your fingers and takes forever to wash off, don't laugh this is important.    If you're going to use your finger to smear some sealant on a hard to get crease, or if you want to make your seal look half assed decent you need to fillet it out the bead with your finger.  


If you don't want to cough up for a caulking gun and $8 tube of caulk you should hit up home depot or revy and look in the caulking isle for those toothpaste like squeeze tubes of caulking, again, try and find a non silicone based waterproof outdoor sealer.  Again, I wouldn't use silicone because new paint will NOT stick to silicone, and even when you clean the silicone off there might be enough residue to cause problems.  It won't affect existing paint tho.

[Fraser Cassells]

Mike, when you run your finger along a bead of silicone, keep a cup of water beside the bead and wet your finger everytime you touch it. I tend to just spit on my digit but you seem a bit squeemish about yucky stuff ..

[Andrew Steele]

it's worked so far, but we havne't had much rainy weather since Christmas.

The clear silicone sealant was suiteable for my application as it was goin on the glass<->metal trim piece, no-where near paint.

[Mike Schmid]

Mike, when you run your finger along a bead of silicone, keep a cup of water beside the bead and wet your finger everytime you touch it. I tend to just spit on my digit but you seem a bit squeemish about yucky stuff ..

Thanks Fraser  :p  I'm not squeemish about yucky stuff, I just hate that lingering greasy slimy feeling of silicone in particular.  I've never tried wetting my finger beforehand tho, I should try that next time.  Goop from caulking just rubs off if you rub your fingers together.  

Andrew, I'm not saying it's silicone isn't suitable, it certainly is, just given the choice and going to buy something new when you don't have anything on hand I'd get something else.  As a sealant silicone will last longer than a non silicone caulking and probably do a better job, there's just the paint issue.

[John Hartman]

in my experience doing on average 3-5 water leaks a week, I find that most of the leaks are very small, and usually cannot be seen until you either soap bubble/air pressure test them or water test them.  A little bit of whatever goo you have will do, as long as you clean and prep the area first and the sealer will stick to it and not have problems of durability down the road.

Also most of the leaks(95%) are not visible when the car is put back togeather, so painting is less an issue that you might think.

[Andrew Steele]

*MUTTER*MUTTER*

So, despite my efforts, the bitch still leaks.  I'm going to tear the wing off and silicone it and the wiper arm.

[Nathan Tralenberg]

I had a small leak that pooled in the corner, puller off my trim on back side window and used aqua seal in the corner where the trim has the little rubber piece closest to the hatch. Its been about 2 months and no leak!

[Kimyee Lai]

Mike, remember to just spit on your finger and not lick it .  Anyone tried using a fluorescent water soluble dye to try and trace the leak?  It'd have to be something that's inert and won't attack paint...but maybe something you can sprinkle on the hatch then use blacklight on the inside to try and locate it?

[John Hartman]

I've thought about the dye/tracer thing, especially when I first started doing these.

But seriously, there is no need.  I mean it.  If you have the panels off that expose the leaky area, you WILL see the water running/dripping in.  No need for anything else.  Usually the first time you take it apart, you will see water traces in the dust too.

I am currently working on 3 waterleaks at once.  A Cavalier, a Canyon(not the cars fault, future shop fuxored the install) and a Montana.