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Leaking boot / trunk

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Hi

I recently found the under-trunk storage area was soaking wet. I lifted up the carpet trim and dried it all out with a hairdryer. It's rained heavily for the last 2 days and having checked, it's wet again.

Looking at where I can see water when I open the boot/trunk - water is finding it's way in and onto the plastic trim around the boot latch, through the hole and into the under-trunk area:



Anyone seen this before? Anything I can fix without having to travel to the service centre?
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Hmmm... my vehicle has been exposed to lots of heavy rains during the 1-1/2 years of ownership, and I’ve never seen/had water breach the main seal surrounding the trunk. So, my trunk has always stayed bone dry.

Hopefully, having the service center replace your trunk liner seal/gasket will resolve your problem. Good luck!!
 
OP - see all the 'similar threads' that show up below (new forum feature).

This is a well known and somewhat common (hit or miss) issue on the 3s and less so but also the Ys of various build years.

There are a few things you can do and a few different service approaches to addressing it too.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I have read every trunk-leak related post (the ones linked below, and by searching), as well as posts on other forums, and watched every "leak" related YouTube video. None have shown this particular problem which is why I thought I'd post it.

I'll continue to investigate whilst I wait for an SC appointment, and I'll update this thread with whatever the resolution ends up being for any other owners that might experience this problem.
 
I would suggest getting into the trunk close the lid, have someone with a strong flash light move along the lid seam. If you see light, that's where it could be infiltrating.

You could also check the lid bumpers, they can be screwed in or out. One or both could be set too high, causing the lid to break contact with the gasket.
 
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I have had same issue since I was rear ended and body shop fixed everything but now my trunk leaks and water pools along seal as on the picture. Body shop replaced gasket but still have issue. Any fixes out there?
 
Same issue with 2021 Model Y delivered in Sept (Michigan).

I took it to the service center a few weeks ago and they claimed to have fixed it by adjusting the hatch.

I haven’t driven much in rain, but it has leaked last two times I did in the last week. I have another service center appointment.

And agreed with OP that I haven’t seen other posts with this exact issue.
 
Hi

I recently found the under-trunk storage area was soaking wet. I lifted up the carpet trim and dried it all out with a hairdryer. It's rained heavily for the last 2 days and having checked, it's wet again.

Looking at where I can see water when I open the boot/trunk - water is finding it's way in and onto the plastic trim around the boot latch, through the hole and into the under-trunk area:



Anyone seen this before? Anything I can fix without having to travel to the service centre?
View attachment 643514
What was your solution? Having the exact same issue where only the cargo area is soaked
 
I too have this issue on my 2018 Model 3. I've been spending $$$ on service visits with them either saying "we cannot repoeduce the issue" or "it meets Tesla standards." I've been dealing with this issue for almost 3 years and I'm tempted to just give up and sell the damn vehicle.

The biggest issue I found is that there's a leakage that's not just the trunk lid but the inside of the vehicle on the right side (little vented areas underneath the window.) I'm not able to get my hand anywhere in there to see where the leak is coming from but I can see a weld point where it drips water just right on the edge of my all weather mat. If Tesla can't fix that then it's truly worth selling/trading in at that point. I tend to fix my cars but this issue is bigger than it looks. Otherwise I'm having to disassemble the chassis of the vehicle to get a deeper look. Something I'm not fond of, especially since there's glue connecting both pieces together. And I'm out of warranty too.

I have more pics but this is a brief idea as to what I'm having to deal with, alongside OPs pic.

The leak portion within the trunk lid is leaking on both sides. I just submitted one side to show the amount of water at that time. Had I taken the lid off earlier today, there would've been a lot more water than these droplets.
 

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Hi

I recently found the under-trunk storage area was soaking wet. I lifted up the carpet trim and dried it all out with a hairdryer. It's rained heavily for the last 2 days and having checked, it's wet again.

Looking at where I can see water when I open the boot/trunk - water is finding it's way in and onto the plastic trim around the boot latch, through the hole and into the under-trunk area:



Anyone seen this before? Anything I can fix without having to travel to the service centre?
View attachment 643514
I just bought a used 2020 model Y and I know what is causing this issue. I did several leak tests myself and it is not the seal around the trunk that is causing the problem. The problem is that the area around the tail lights on the lift gate are just spot welded and there are giant cracks where water can get through. I just sealed that part up with silicon today and I will be doing another leak test tomorrow but I am almost positive this is where the leaks are coming through. The reason I know is because I took the trunk lid liner off the part with the speakers on it and I can see where the prior owner had drips of water for probably the entire time they owned it and it left big black water marks or dirt plus water marks where it dripped onto the white padding underneath the black plastic stuff. So I will be doing another leak test tomorrow but yeah if you take off the light on either side of the lift gate which is accessible via an 8 mm screw once you remove the plastic stuff which requires you to remove some pins and stuff you will see that there are tons of giant gaps where the spot welding was around the lights that are on the hatch back itself where water can get in very easily. I am flabbergasted that Tesla did not discover this and do basic leak tests. All I'm doing is using is using a garden hose and make acting as if it's raining on the top of the car and running down the back. I'm not squirting high pressure water into anything it's just running down the back of the car over those lights and getting right into the trunk oh. And the place where it's coming out is the two stoppers that have the little stopper pads at the bottom of the lift gate. Those screw into the base of the liftgate and there are two holes in the lift gate and the water comes out there and then fills the liner seal thing with water and then gets to the end of that and then leaks down into the trunk to all three sections of the bottom of the trunk.
 
Hi

I recently found the under-trunk storage area was soaking wet. I lifted up the carpet trim and dried it all out with a hairdryer. It's rained heavily for the last 2 days and having checked, it's wet again.

Looking at where I can see water when I open the boot/trunk - water is finding it's way in and onto the plastic trim around the boot latch, through the hole and into the under-trunk area:



Anyone seen this before? Anything I can fix without having to travel to the service centre?
View attachment 643514
I just bought a used 2020 model Y and I know what is causing this issue. I did several leak tests myself and it is not the seal around the trunk that is causing the problem. The problem is that the area around the tail lights on the lift gate are just spot welded and there are giant cracks where water can get through. I just sealed that part up with silicon today and I will be doing another leak test tomorrow but I am almost positive this is where the leaks are coming through. The reason I know is because I took the trunk lid liner off the part with the speakers on it and I can see where the prior owner had drips of water for probably the entire time they owned it and it left big black water marks or dirt plus water marks where it dripped onto the white padding underneath the black plastic stuff. So I will be doing another leak test tomorrow but yeah if you take off the light on either side of the lift gate which is accessible via an 8 mm screw once you remove the plastic stuff which requires you to remove some pins and stuff you will see that there are tons of giant gaps where the spot welding is around the lights that are on the hatch back itself where water can get in very easily. I am flabbergasted that Tesla did not discover this and do basic leak tests. All I'm doing is using is using a garden hose and acting as if it's raining on the top of the car and running down the back. I'm not squirting high pressure water into anything it's just running down the back of the car over those lights and getting right into the trunk. And the place where it's coming out is the two stoppers that have the little stopper pads at the bottom of the lift gate. Those screw into the base of the liftgate and there are two holes in the lift gate and the water comes out there and then fills the liner seal thing with water and then gets to the end of that and then leaks down into the trunk to all three sections of the bottom of the trunk.
 
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We took delivery of a new MYP in September. I noticed water pooling on the trunk seal a while ago but thought it was due to me washing the car and opening the hatch while wet, until we did some driving in salt where I noticed residue on the inside that was clearly not coming through the seal after i did some pressure washer testing. Figuring Tesla would waste my time, I took matters in my own hands and removed the interior panels, assuming/hoping it was simply a leaking tail light. But the splatter pattern didn't line up with that on the white interior noise insulation. So I did some testing with compressed air and it took about 20 seconds to find the issue which is the folded seem just to the right of the hatch tail light. I put some Optimum no rinse in there around the seam from behind and boom, found it.

Not sure how to proceed. On one hand, I don't have confidence that Tesla knows how to fix this even if I lead them to it. So I'm contemplating just dropping some flowable windshield silicone in through the rear of the seam. But on the other hand, if that doesn't solve it (I'm 99.8% sure it will), I'll be a bit screwed when I do contact Tesla. I'd like to find an auto body grade flowable adhesive with a needle to pump in there from behind, but silicone is probably more than fine. For now I put a small piece of paint protection film over the seam as a temporary stop gap. If you look at how much dirt ends up on the rear of the car, there's definitely some serious vortex back there, hence why the water gets pushed in such a tiny hole.

I just wanted to put this out there for the community as a reference point if you have this issue. I'll keep the post updated when I decide how to continue. I knew there would be a new car issue I'd have to deal with. I don't really think this is something "Tesla build quality" specific, however I've never had to deal with water ingress on other cars.

See dirt spray.
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See the water trail coming out of the angled folded joint. I have a video of water pouring out from compressed air blowing on the back side
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Unfortunately hard to see the actual hold in the corner due to the double layer.
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I’ve had a trunk leak twice so far on my 2018 LR RWD. After a lot of playing around I found the issue is pretty basic. What happens is leaf debris get stuck at the top which when you close the trunk it breaks the gasket seal. There doesn’t appear to be a channel to capture that water and evacuate it.

It just happened to me again this past week. I had a good 1/4 of water in my trunk. :(
 

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