Hi all,

 

My 2002 OBW is taking on water in one of the tail marker lights on the hatch. I recently noticed the light was out, pulled off the assembly, and found the assembly and the bulb itself were full of water and that everything is corroded.

 

It seems to happen only on the left side, not that it should make a difference...

 

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there a gasket i can buy or anything i can seal to prevent this from happening again? Also, can i buy a replacement socket for that bulb as the current one is rusty?

 

As always, all insights and advice are greatly appreciatted!!

 

Thanks!

Likely a broken seal between the housing and the lens. I fixed a fog light that failed in this way by spreading some marine epoxy (PC-11) over the seam.

Heh, my right hand one is like this.

 

I'm going to dry it out and find where the seal broke after I am done replacing the crank pulley and seal, the oil pan, and the steel coolant lines that are just about rusted through.

 

Drying it out fully is the trick. I have put them in an oven that has been set for a very low temp, but only after the oven has been turned off.

 

A hair dryer would probably work OK, a heat gun would be a bad idea.

 

The plastic gets soft at a surprisingly low temperature.

I had a water-leak in the roof of my 2002 Forester.

Water leaked in around the rear mounting-bolt of the roof-rack rail.

The water ran down behind the roof-liner, and behind the rear side-liners, and then out onto the cargo-floor.

It took a while for me to figure this out!

 

I wonder if such a leak could get into the rear lights?

On these outbacks, I don't think so. They essentially bolt to the outside of the car.