To all hatch owners out there, what do you do to keep your rear windows from leaking? The leak is towards the rear of the window and subsequently drips onto my rear speakers. I put in some used seals to replace the original ones following the instructions in my FSM, but that doesn't seem to have worked... AT ALL. I didn't use silicone since the FSM didn't call for it, and I won't resort to band-aid solutions. Should I just pony up and buy new OEM seals, or what? Does anyone else have this problem?

I cleaned the seals of all mold and such (glass to), and adjusted the latches so they put a bit more pressure on the glass when closed. That seems to have worked for mine. Both the latches were broken when I got it, and the windows were ajar for several years. Even so - the seals seemed alright.

 

GD

To all hatch owners out there, what do you do to keep your rear windows from leaking? The leak is towards the rear of the window and subsequently drips onto my rear speakers. I put in some used seals to replace the original ones following the instructions in my FSM, but that doesn't seem to have worked... AT ALL. I didn't use silicone since the FSM didn't call for it, and I won't resort to band-aid solutions. Should I just pony up and buy new OEM seals, or what? Does anyone else have this problem?

 

I had this problem once... I added some washers to the latches to force them to close tighter... I don't have the hatch anymore to show exactly, but if you look at the mechanism, you can figure out where they need to go....

Update: I installed the washers like you suggested. It seems to have cured the leak on one side, and slowed the other. Any other ideas?

Did you clean the seals? If they are clean of mold, dirt, etc they will seal to the glass better.

u need moar washurs

Haven't preoperly cleaned the seals, and they are pretty nasty. I'll put that on the to do list.

 

I don't know about adding any more washers. I've seen too many of the latches cracked to want to add any more resistance to the mechanism.

Very late update; I installed the washers behind the latch mechanism as suggested, but that only partially solved the problem. I still get some weeping from the rear side windows on my hatch.

the most important thing to do is clean the seal and the glass, if it isnt clean it wont seal, no matter how much pressure it has applied to it.

-Bill