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Water in trunk/spare wheel well

18K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  Cdn17Sport6MT 
#1 ·
Hopefully the mods don't mind me cross posting my issue. I posted this in the model/trim section of the forum, but I'm hoping I'll get more of an audience here.

I'm on day four of my ownership of a second hand 2014 Mazda 6 Touring model. So far it's been great and the car has performed exactly how I've expected. It rained quite a bit when I picked it up and I did drive it through some light showers on the way home. After driving it some more Saturday morning I went through the trunk and I discovered quite a bit of water accumulated in the spare wheel well - almost an inch. The green foam pad was soaked in water that was quite warm. I see there are two rubber drain plugs at the bottom of the wheel well, but I can't figure out how water is getting in there.

None of the carpeting inside the trunk is wet and I can't see any obvious wet trails. Since the exhaust is directly underneath the spare wheel well I suspect the water isn't spraying in from the drain plugs. Are there water drains from along the trunk seams or somewhere else I should check? I don't mind pulling the trunk apart to track this down, but figured I'd start here to see how anyone else has addressed it. I've found some videos on youtube and threads on reddit, but no remedies...
 
#2 ·
That's very strange. Have you checked all your weather seals? The ones around the windows, doors, trunk, etc? It's probably worth taking it up with the dealer.

Beyond that, a good way to test this out would be to take a hose to it on a sunny day and spray it in all the nooks and crannies - see when water starts to accumulate in the trunk and trace it back :)

Let us know what happens.
 
#3 ·
Since the weather is looking wet for the next several days I took some time this afternoon to open up the trunk and track this water infiltration situation. I sprayed water directly at the closed trunk at all the seams and gaps between the bodywork. I think I've located two culprits.

The first attached pic is looking at the back wall of the trunk with the plastic trim removed. You can just make out where water is dripping in. It's angled such that the water would drain right into the spare wheel well. There a bunch of dimples in the sheet metal that are machine pressed from the factory.

Second point of entry appears to come by way of the rubber trunk seal, see the second pic. The seal pulls out easily and appears to have some sort of gasket maker applied underneath.

I feel like I can plug the metal dimples with some gasket maker or even some sink caulk. As for the rubber deal I think again some stratgetically placed gasket maker might do the trick.


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#6 ·
Since the weather is looking wet for the next several days I took some time this afternoon to open up the trunk and track this water infiltration situation. I sprayed water directly at the closed trunk at all the seams and gaps between the bodywork. I think I've located two culprits.

The first attached pic is looking at the back wall of the trunk with the plastic trim removed. You can just make out where water is dripping in. It's angled such that the water would drain right into the spare wheel well. There a bunch of dimples in the sheet metal that are machine pressed from the factory.

Second point of entry appears to come by way of the rubber trunk seal, see the second pic. The seal pulls out easily and appears to have some sort of gasket maker applied underneath.

I feel like I can plug the metal dimples with some gasket maker or even some sink caulk. As for the rubber deal I think again some stratgetically placed gasket maker might do the trick.

I found water in my trunk last night and started looking for the sorce. Mine was coming from the exact same spot as your top image, from under the metal dimples. Working with the hose I discovered as water is on the trunk and collecting from the trunk into the channel the water runs down, it’s getting underneath the weather seal and then up and over the metal lip (out of sight) the weather seal attaches too. Looks like there is some type of sealant from factory on the underside of that weather strip, I’m going to remove it and apply new sealer all the way around the metal lip and reinstall the weather strip.

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#4 ·
Has this car been in an accident?

When I bought my 2005 6, it had been in accident (unbeknownst to me). I started getting water in the trunk a year later. I took it back to where I bought it and they found the repair from the accident and a crappy weld job. They fixed everything and now the car has 310,000 miles and still running strong.

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#5 ·
^ it was a private party purchase with nothing on the carfax report. I had a detailed pre-purchase inspection performed that did catch some traces of non-oem paint work on the front passenger door, but they did not discover anything else.

I did find some youtube videos of other 3rd gen 6's that have water in their trunk too. My suspicion is that trunk seal isn't doing its job.
 
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