negusm Site Admin
Joined: 25 Aug 2004 Posts: 5188 Location: Charlotte, NC
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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 1:35 am Post subject: Leaks |
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Contributed by Marq
On fixing the spoiler related leaks. If you suspect the spoiler area might be
the cause of your
potential leaks, here is what I did to solve that problem :
a) there are four bolts that retain the spoiler to the trunk lid. You access
the nuts of the
bolts through four openings found on the underside of the trunk lid. Remove
the bolts.
b) undo the two screws that hold the rear spoiler tail light in position.
This will allow the
rear tail light housing to be moved around ( which will come in handy as you
try to remove the
spoiler )
c) gently try to lift the spoiler off the trunk lid - noting that the rear
spoiler tail lamp
assembly will have to be nudged around to remove the spoiler ( I was able to
pull the housing out
and have it dangling by its connection wires.
Assuming that you have safely removed the spoiler, remove the flexible black
'rubber' or is it
plastic seal that runs the length of the front of the spoiler. In theory it is
'siliconed' on to
the spoiler.
Remove any left over silicon that you find on that black rubber seal and from
where it was
attached to the spoiler.
Take out your handy dandy silicon adhesive ( I like the black one as compared
to the clear
silicon) and smear a line of silicon across the spoiler where you will be
re-joining the seal back
onto the spoiler. Smear some silicon on the black rubber seal - as the stuff
works best when you
treat it like contact cement on both portions to be glued together.
Re-Attach the rubber seal back onto the spoiler and let it cure properly.
Making sure that you
have 100% contact and adhesion for the entire length of the spoiler.
Ok... prior to re-assembling the spoiler back on to the trunk take out your
handy dandy silicon
and run a nice thick bead of silicon around the hole that is cut out of your
trunk to allow the
rear tail light assembly to be housed in. The idea here is to build a little
dam around it so
that if water should ever find its way under the spoiler it will be blocked or
redirected around
that gaping hole.
Ok... we are ready to re-bolt the spoiler back on to the trunk lid.
a ) Run a fresh bead of silicon on the black plastic seal that you previously
joined to the
spoiler.
b ) Now go and dump a pile of the silicon at EACH OF THE FOUR HOLES where the
bolts will be going
into your trunk when you re-attach it. The idea here is to create a silicon
seal of each of those
holes, so that when the bolt is stuffed back through those four holes, the
silicon will help to
keep the holes relatively watertight.
c ) Dump a blob of silicon around the base of each of the bolts that are
attached to the
underside of the spoiler. The idea here is to double up the effort being
performed by the blobs
that you had just placed on the trunk lid holes ( we are really trying hard to
seal those holes ).
Now attach the spoiler and hopefully at this point you have done just about
everything humanly
possible - given the nature of the wholes and spoiler design to seal up
potential leaks from
reoccuring through the spoiler.
Marq |
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