Trunk Vent Leak

My first winter with 2202 SES,found water leaked into body wells at sides of trunk. Based on this forum, I sealed other areas including the rubber plugs on trunk floor and passenger compartment.

There's water on both sides of trunk well, don't know where it came from, this is cavity beneath trunk floor at sides sides of trunk. I suspect rubber plugs at front of cavities, seemed to be designed to let water out, have cross shaped cuts in plugs Perhaps water from freeway forced its way up. Cleaned and caulked plugs. Also on the body, there are air vents (?) in this cavity facing the outside and covered by the plastic body molding. I' don't think waters leaking at the vents, just strange to see them. One had come loose, but don't think thats a leakage point.

I have to ask, is it normal to have air vents in trunk and rubber plugs that allow water to drain.
I find this really strange.
I haven't seen this particular problem mentioned on this site. Suggestions welcome.

Wow! How long are you going to need to own that 2202 Taurus before it becomes an antique!?!

Check for leaks around the taillights as well.

Do you have a younger brother or sister? If so, remove all the trunk liner panels, lock the younger sibling in the trunk with a flashlight, and run the garden hose over the car. Tell the sibling that when they find the leak, you will let them out (don't remind them about the trunk release pull cable inside the trunk).

JUST KIDDING ABOUT LOCKING THE SIBLING INSIDE THE TRUNK! CONVINCE THEM TO AGREE TO IT FIRST.

-Rod

I sat in car during rain storm and found leak coming from sheet metal approx under left rear window corner. Don't see any leaks from up top but will attack back window and trunk weather stripping with silicon seal. This was source of water leak on left side. On right side. there's a water leak behind the antenna suppot. Much slower leak and havent found source yet. There is piece of molding and rubbber strip beneath the rear window and its really loose on edges, will try to seal to glass.

I never did saw any water coming through those air vents.

WOW! They must have built yours on Friday because I have an 03 SES 45.6K miles live in SC on the coast and have driven it through many tropical squalls and driving rain storms and never had one drop leak in. Have a 2200 PSI power washer and every now and then I wash it with that and our Marquis or Taurus never leaks, 'Course, . . I hold it a few feet away and don't stick it in the door cracks, but they get a pretty good water blast anyway.

HeHeHeHe . . . Put one of the kids in the trunk and close it. Yeah, right . . . And when the kid tells Mom what you did you get your tail stuck in a crack and eat Sardines and Vienna Sausage with Saltines and sleep on the couch for a week.

On the rear window,Took out weather strip piece thats attached to bottom edge of glass. I think its channeling water into plastic blocks this strip is clipped into. I dribbled a lot of water on these blocks and eventully water started leaking from the left corner of sheet metal into trunk. The block was a little loose, no rust. I don't see where it could be leaking. The strip has a channel that locks into the glass but mines was loose, this channel has a gap where it meets the block and I think is channeling water onto blocks. Channel was also full of accumulated wet dirt. Caulked area around block and entire weather strip piece. Since the channel was loose, maybe its carrying water to the blocks and leaking(??) I don't think any gaps were left anywhere. If I did it again, I'd cut a few more gaps in channel to let water out. Storm coming next week

When there is water on the roadway and you travel at Highway speed somehow those vents in the wells you are talking about pull a vaccuum and the well does fill up with water.

It did it on my 2000

Mike
:smokin:

I just had two stormy days with no water leaking into trunk. I believe it was something to do with back window corners. The back window sits on a piece of flexible rubber covering the channel, all corners appeared to need attention. At top edge of window corner, the rubber was sitting on top of the roof molding - its runs from front to rear ontop of the roof and allows water to channel under the rubber channel of the window. On the other corner it was worn away where I could see paint.

I also checked the air vents in the wheel wells. temporarily blocked them on inside with packaging foam, Drove thru water on highway, No water leaks. Will need to think about permanet fix, I don't want to prevent car from venting, but don't want water or dust coming through. One of the vents had fine road dust covering it. As an after thought, duct tape could be used to cover vent, except half of its tough to reach, they measure 6 X 3 inches. I had to seal around one of the vents, its just a plastic vent stuck into sheet metal and it leaked at the junction point.

I looked at new rental Taurus, the air vents have closed shutters, where mine are open, saw no evidence of water leak on rental.

Final Note Jan 26:
The air vent actually has closed shutters. some of the shutters are open and no I couldn't get them to stay closed. Plugged and sealed those open vent holes.

I noticed something new, the rear bumper cover was very loose. There are 2 plastic anchors on both sides along the bottom edge. The heads were sheared. Not sure about this water leak but once I reinstalled anchors from az, the cover was no longer loose. Only three of four holes were pluggable, 4th was too far out of align. There was 1/2 to 3/4 inch of loose flapping cover on the bottom. There are two directly behind the rear wheel wells. I'm guessing bumper was whacked hard and sheared off the plastic anchors, I replaced with plastic rather than metal nuts ad bolts. Don't know if this will help, but I feel better.

Today I finally found water dripping from the anternna base. Its really slow and I had to actually see it to believe it. I taped a plastic container under it and finally caught water in it. Its like one drop every few minutes. Will be taking off antenna and base next and seal the hole where the antenna passes through the body. I'm guessing there is some kind of gasket or washer thats worn. The antenna and base appear to be tight. I'll report back when done

update: Feb 11
Rained for last few days, could not separate antenna base to check for leak. There's a 4 slot nut that couldn't remove. Tried punch and tapping at slots with no effect- it did move plastic base slightly. Put coating of silicon around nut and tried squeezing some under upper edges of plastic base. I think tightening antenna with a wrench might squeeze the rubber under the antenna enough to prevent leak. My antenna was loose and could be loosened by hand.