Want to replace your old tail light seals for around 15 bucks?
well, here ya go!
EDIT: as per my update, these seals are not really re-usable, you possibly could re use them, but I wouldn't, they wouldn't seal very well. So if you plan on taking your lights off again soon be prepared with more weatherstripping to re-make the seals!
Recently acquiring my car, I had no idea that it came with a portable pool.
However, It's a bit small for my tastes, so I decided to get rid of it.
Toyota wants me to keep the pool, they want 70 dollars for both tail light seals.
That's just ridiculous in my opinion, so I decided to try and make my own. After all, they're only rubber-foam cut out to fit around the screws.
I could not find rubber-foam sheets however, and I'm willing to bet that would be easier and better.
Instead, I used weather stripping from Autozone, 3/4" wide, 5/16" thick.
Boxed in the light, and sealed the corners together using some marine sealant (but silicone or similar would work).
edit: READ MY UPDATE (at the bottom) ON THE SEALANT! Use marine sealant at your own risk, the stuff is strong, it will make the lights hard to remove! It may cause you to break the housings when you need to remove them again.
So, here's the basic steps for those wanting to make their own gaskets:
pickup a 10 foot package (you should use about 4-7 feet) of 3/4"x5/16" weatherstrip with adhesive backing, it looks like this:
(I've already used some of it in these pics)
cost: 10 bucks
then, you need some sort of sealant, I used white marine sealant, goop stuff by 3m (~5 bucks).
seems to work great.
heres a picture of everything I used:
Swiss army knife- used to scrape off the old gasket/clean the light/car. Also used to make holes in the gasket for the bolts on the light.
Cutters-used to cut the weather strip (I tried using the swiss army knife for this first-and it's hard to do, just use cutters)
After you have everything together, your gonna have to cut strips of the weather strip via trial and error to fit it. (It's pretty darned easy)
The obvious recommendation: cut the strip a little too big each time so you can trim it to fit.
At the end of the project, you should still have at about 3-4 feet of the stuff left, so don't be sparing in your use.
The edges/corners of the weather strip should contact each other so that you can easily seal them together with goop.
The adhesive surface of the weatherstrip should be facing towards the light lens, it makes them more easily stay put when working with the light.
I also put goop around the bolts to MAKE SURE that water didn't leak through those.
see here for the (nearly) finished product:
when making this, there are two things to make sure you do:
1) make sure that the strip overlaps on BOTH sides of the plastic lip that sticks up off of the light where the gasket lays. Because when you tighten down the light, this is where it seals to the body of the car.
2) seal the edges of the strip together-that way there aren't gaps in the seal that will let water through. Also, I HIGHLY recommend that you seal underneath the weatherstripping in the corners to make sure water cant seep through where the strips meet.
you don't really want gaps like this, they need to be filled in with goop
it should probably look more like this (and obviously pressed onto the plastic rim more):
I also recommend that you add goop UNDER the strips in the corners to ensure water cant get in there.
I did.
after getting rid of the gaps, sealing the screws with goop, and making sure the its all good to go, go ahead and bolt your light back on!
Now your good to go! If you used marine sealant like I did, your good to go ahead and test it right away-the stuff isn't affected by water whilst drying.
But if your using something else, you might want to wait to test it.
My trunk no longer leaks around the lights! Or the bolts! woohoo!
now just to fix the other 5 leaks in my car...dangit...:3d_frown:
Just thought I'd put this out there to help anyone wanting to save some $$$
edit:
S.A. Supra brought up a good point I didn't think to add for some reason- the bolts around your trim may be leaking AS WELL as your lights. At the very least-go through and tighten stuff like spoiler and trim down, or maybe even goop it if you feel like it, up to you. Eliminate possible problems!
EDIT after months of use:
These seals have worked great. No leaks whatsoever. However, I have discovered two pitfalls for going this route:
1) the seals are non re-usable they rip and stuff when you pull the taillights off again because the goop sticks them to the car body. (I sort of expected this)
2) the taillights are VERY difficult to get off when you have to pull the lights off again. The reason is simple: the goop sticks to the seal and the car and the light, and the white marine goop I used is REALLY strong. Like seriously strong. I darn near broke the light covers trying to get them off prying with a screwdriver. I think a better option would be a knife or some guitar string to cut the goop and separate the goop between the seal/car.
so make your decision on going this route accordingly. I still think its worth it. Another 10 bucks and my seals will be replaced again (already have goop etc). still more cost effective than Toyota.
however, I HIGHLY recommend that you NOT use marine sealant. It works great for sealing, don't get me wrong, but it is meant for gluing stuff in place as well, which I did not realize before. Try using something else, like maybe gasket maker or something, silicone, I'm honestly not sure what.
end result: marine sealant is strong and will make the light hard to pull off. but it will seal effectively.
well, here ya go!
EDIT: as per my update, these seals are not really re-usable, you possibly could re use them, but I wouldn't, they wouldn't seal very well. So if you plan on taking your lights off again soon be prepared with more weatherstripping to re-make the seals!
Recently acquiring my car, I had no idea that it came with a portable pool.
However, It's a bit small for my tastes, so I decided to get rid of it.
Toyota wants me to keep the pool, they want 70 dollars for both tail light seals.
That's just ridiculous in my opinion, so I decided to try and make my own. After all, they're only rubber-foam cut out to fit around the screws.
I could not find rubber-foam sheets however, and I'm willing to bet that would be easier and better.
Instead, I used weather stripping from Autozone, 3/4" wide, 5/16" thick.
Boxed in the light, and sealed the corners together using some marine sealant (but silicone or similar would work).
edit: READ MY UPDATE (at the bottom) ON THE SEALANT! Use marine sealant at your own risk, the stuff is strong, it will make the lights hard to remove! It may cause you to break the housings when you need to remove them again.
So, here's the basic steps for those wanting to make their own gaskets:
pickup a 10 foot package (you should use about 4-7 feet) of 3/4"x5/16" weatherstrip with adhesive backing, it looks like this:
(I've already used some of it in these pics)
cost: 10 bucks
then, you need some sort of sealant, I used white marine sealant, goop stuff by 3m (~5 bucks).
seems to work great.
heres a picture of everything I used:
Swiss army knife- used to scrape off the old gasket/clean the light/car. Also used to make holes in the gasket for the bolts on the light.
Cutters-used to cut the weather strip (I tried using the swiss army knife for this first-and it's hard to do, just use cutters)
After you have everything together, your gonna have to cut strips of the weather strip via trial and error to fit it. (It's pretty darned easy)
The obvious recommendation: cut the strip a little too big each time so you can trim it to fit.
At the end of the project, you should still have at about 3-4 feet of the stuff left, so don't be sparing in your use.
The edges/corners of the weather strip should contact each other so that you can easily seal them together with goop.
The adhesive surface of the weatherstrip should be facing towards the light lens, it makes them more easily stay put when working with the light.
I also put goop around the bolts to MAKE SURE that water didn't leak through those.
see here for the (nearly) finished product:
when making this, there are two things to make sure you do:
1) make sure that the strip overlaps on BOTH sides of the plastic lip that sticks up off of the light where the gasket lays. Because when you tighten down the light, this is where it seals to the body of the car.
2) seal the edges of the strip together-that way there aren't gaps in the seal that will let water through. Also, I HIGHLY recommend that you seal underneath the weatherstripping in the corners to make sure water cant seep through where the strips meet.
you don't really want gaps like this, they need to be filled in with goop
it should probably look more like this (and obviously pressed onto the plastic rim more):
I also recommend that you add goop UNDER the strips in the corners to ensure water cant get in there.
I did.
after getting rid of the gaps, sealing the screws with goop, and making sure the its all good to go, go ahead and bolt your light back on!
Now your good to go! If you used marine sealant like I did, your good to go ahead and test it right away-the stuff isn't affected by water whilst drying.
But if your using something else, you might want to wait to test it.
My trunk no longer leaks around the lights! Or the bolts! woohoo!
now just to fix the other 5 leaks in my car...dangit...:3d_frown:
Just thought I'd put this out there to help anyone wanting to save some $$$
edit:
S.A. Supra brought up a good point I didn't think to add for some reason- the bolts around your trim may be leaking AS WELL as your lights. At the very least-go through and tighten stuff like spoiler and trim down, or maybe even goop it if you feel like it, up to you. Eliminate possible problems!
EDIT after months of use:
These seals have worked great. No leaks whatsoever. However, I have discovered two pitfalls for going this route:
1) the seals are non re-usable they rip and stuff when you pull the taillights off again because the goop sticks them to the car body. (I sort of expected this)
2) the taillights are VERY difficult to get off when you have to pull the lights off again. The reason is simple: the goop sticks to the seal and the car and the light, and the white marine goop I used is REALLY strong. Like seriously strong. I darn near broke the light covers trying to get them off prying with a screwdriver. I think a better option would be a knife or some guitar string to cut the goop and separate the goop between the seal/car.
so make your decision on going this route accordingly. I still think its worth it. Another 10 bucks and my seals will be replaced again (already have goop etc). still more cost effective than Toyota.
however, I HIGHLY recommend that you NOT use marine sealant. It works great for sealing, don't get me wrong, but it is meant for gluing stuff in place as well, which I did not realize before. Try using something else, like maybe gasket maker or something, silicone, I'm honestly not sure what.
end result: marine sealant is strong and will make the light hard to pull off. but it will seal effectively.
Last edited:
