Alright guys I’ve started to have a leaky hatch area after changing tail lights in the integra. I made my own gasket out of thick window weatherstripping, but it didn’t work very well, even though I thought I sealed it up well. I’ll post pics of water in the car, as well as the gasket that you can see from the inside.
My question is, there is water towards the sides of the hatch, closer to the air vents, so are those areas wet SOLELY because I possibly did a shitty job sealing my taillights to the car, or should I look for another leak? The other question is should I just cave and buy a gasket that’s already cut for the shape of the light instead of trying to make one? I’ve searched a bit, and asked on facebook, and people said to just make one, so I was pretty disheartened when it didn’t work. Anyway, thanks in advance!
Also, the method I used, my strips of weather stripping wouldn’t stay in place on the tail light so I just placed the strips on the frame of the car, where you could see where the gasket WOULD go. Also, there are pics of the top of my taillight, where I put an extra strip of weather stripping because there was a LARGE gap. Is that detrimental?
The pics with the circled sections show that my gasket is sealing the tail light to the car (or so I thought). The pics of water in the sides of the hatch are AFTER I mopped some up.
Here are the drain tubes, both the passenger and driver side look like they don’t reach far enough into their fittings. If they were literally an inch longer, they would fit better. I barely touched them and they came out. Also, small tube on drivers side didn’t lead to anywhere but it had water around the fitting that’s in the floor of the hatch. The big one on the driver’s side also didn’t fit very well, Any ideas on how to get them to fit better? I guess I could find some plumbing tape or some other waterproof tape for the tubes, then silicone the rubber fittings.
Passenger side> 
Driver’s side 
2 things:
buy the actual gasket from honda and stop listening to the clowns on facebook. for most of our cars, the tail light gaskets have lasted 20+ years. why would you want to use anything else?
if you want to pinpoint the leak then sit in the trunk with someone spraying the car with a water hose. you will find the leak.
Pull the clear tubes out of the rubber boots and make sure that the boots are not plugged. I just shoved the clear tube back in and used duct tape to hold it there. Just wrap it around the boot and tube. I did it about 5 or 6 years ago and it’s still holding strong.
Also, use the factory gaskets as stated above. I replaced mine about a year ago and still had factory ones still in there. You can buy them for cheap enough and they fit perfect.
I definitely agree about getting parts that are made to fit and everything, but I figured for 5 bucks, it couldn’t hurt to try making a gasket. I took a trip to the hardware store, extended the sunroof drain tubes that barely fit inside the boots, cleaned the boots out, and siliconed everything haha. And a new pair of gaskets are on the way! Hopefully this will clear the problem up. Thank you guys for your input!
