Spare tire well filling up with water, pulling my hair out

[MeteorBurn]

Hello all,
I have a bad water leak that fills up the spare tire well with water. I traced the water down to the gas cap housing area. It is not coming from the taillights or the drain tube. Anyone have a similar water leak? I don't know where to RTV if I can't see where the leak is coming from exactly. It's a 1998 eclipse.

The gas cap housing is tucked behind the sheet metal of the passenger wheel well. I can stick my hand in there and feel water, but I can't see it. I tried to put RTV on the hinge bolts of the gas cap door, but I don't think it made a difference. If I remove the ring with 3 screws on it behind the gas cap, will the filler neck drop out? I just want to know any possible leak points in this area. I am literally pulling my hair out with this as I've had this leak for over a year now and have revisited this maybe 10 times. The trunk is rusting out badly from this and I don't know what else to do. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[red_devil]

When I was getting water in the trunk it was getting in through the cracked sealant around the edge of the filler cap area. Check all the areas where they use sealant on the body. If it's cracked it could let water in.

 

[Dsmkauai]

Make sure the drains arnt all clogged up. You can also take out the plug and let the water drain out. But most likely it's the drains for the hatch. Blow them out with air or poke a bigger hole in the bottom part so it drains faster.

 

[Nathan1993]

It sounds like a clogged drain to me. As far as the seal by the gas cap I'm not entirely sure if a large amount of water would be able to get through there unless it's a downpour.

 

[Vrooom-BANG]

I had the same problem with mine when I first bought it. Regular swimming pool in the trunk! I could feel water on the inside behind the quarter panel but couldn't see where it was comming from. My problem was as red devil suggested. The quarter panel and the inner panel that holds the filler neck are 2 seperate pieces. If the seal from the factory goes bad, when it rains water will wash into the recess for the gas neck, pool, and leak into the car and fill the trunk. I cleaned mine with a rag soaked with brake clean to remove any residue then used silicon to fill the seam where the 2 pieces join and haven't had a problem since. Car has been out side for 2 plus years so far.

 

[Lou98GSX]

Take the panels out and water test it . sometimes water enters through the rear taillights .

 

[MeteorBurn]

Thanks for the replies guys. I really appreciate the help.
The drains are definitely not clogged, I cleaned them out and inspected them after removing the left and right trunk trim covers. They are in good shape and don't leak. There was water leaking from the taillights a while ago, but I sealed the cracks in the gaskets behind them and have not had any leaks from that area since. The water is only getting into the trunk when I spray the gas cap area. The leak's actually not that bad, but it's definitely coming from there.

Here's where it got tricky. I found a few cracks in the seam where the bottom of the housing meets the quarter panel on the outside, and sealed them up with RTV. I also sealed the area around the gas door hinge bolts with RTV. The only thing I didn't touch was the ring held by 3 bolts under the gas cap, because I was afraid that if I removed it to check for any water entry points that the filler neck would drop down - is that true? Anyways, after sealing those points up, I sat inside the car and watched the area mentioned by Vrooom-BANG. Right where the housing meets the quarter panel there was a small stream of water coming in on the bottom seam. I went ahead and put plenty of RTV on it. Will check tomorrow if it's still leaking. Not sure why it didn't stop leaking after I sealed it from the outside.

The first photo is the outside bottom seam, and the other 2 are from the inside of the car.

 

[red_devil]

Yep exactly where mine was leaking. Hopefully this solves it for you.

 

[MeteorBurn]

Alright, I'm ready to cut the car in half to find this stupid leak. I poured water near the gas cap area, and WATER IS STILL COMING IN. After putting the RTV the water is definitely not coming out from that specific seam any more, and whatever I can feel with my hand is dry, so it's sealed well. Now I can't feel or see it anymore. I think the water is trickling down from somewhere else, and putting the RTV simply redirected it. I'm at the end of my rope with this!

Should I try to remove the ring under the gas cap? Anyone know if the filler neck will drop down if I do that? That's honestly the last thing left to seal up, otherwise I'm about to give up pretty soon.

 

[MeteorBurn]

Alright, well shortly after I found the leak still coming in, I decided to water test just the part that I sealed on the outside, on the bottom seam of the gas cap area. Looks like my RTV job wasn't that great, because water was still getting through. I cleaned it all off (that was a major pain) and I got some actual seam sealer instead. I applied with a caulk gun, smoothed it out, and let it dry for a day. It's been raining all day, and so far I have not seen any water in the trunk. I also water tested it and no water came in. I will update if by tomorrow after the rain stops any water came in.

Ironically, my 1995 cutlass just decided to get a water leak in the trunk, so that's gonna be a lot of fun. At least I found it out before it rusted unlike my eclipse where the tire brace was in pretty bad shape. This will be the 4th car I had to hunt down a water leak. Looks like a part of life for older cars.

 

[red_devil]

Well hopefully it's fixed this time. But fyi the trunk floor will start to rust just looking at it so don't let it get to you. I'm just gonna cut the bloody thing out eventually.

 

[91talonts1]

I don't have a factory filler neck anymore, all the pieces are removed and behind the fuel door is just a hole. I could take pictures of the area for you, if seeing what all is underneath it would somehow help. Fwiw I don't have any leakage there from anything being removed, but it does get a lot of road grime thrown up in there from the tires.

I have a hatch area leak as well that's bothering me but it seems to be coming from somewhere on the hatch itself because it's getting caught in the hatch plastics around the rear wiper motor.