Fixing a Toyota Yaris water leak

I’ve owned this Toyota Yaris new from 2010. We don’t use it that often, but it’s a cheap car to own and it’s great to have around when needed.

Unfortunately, during some very wet winter weather, we noticed that the car was very wet on the inside.

At the time, a quick look around showed me that the rubber seals for the light units in the rear were gone and needed replacing. So, I replaced those seals.

Still, water was coming into the car.

As it turns out there are some seams at the rear that let water in. Because I could not access them properly from the inside, I needed to remove the rear bumper.

Removing the bumper is not as hard as it seems. There are two 10mm bolts you can see with the hatch open. Next you pull the bumper loose at the sides. Lastly, you’ll need to remove about six plastic clips at the underside of the bumper. Disconnect the license plate light and you can take the bumper off.

Here you can clearly see the seam that is letting the water in. I cleaned it up an applied sealant to it. For good measure, I did both sides and along the entire seam.

It does not have to be pretty, just effective. This will all be hidden under the rear bumper.

After that, assembly is the reverse of disassembly. I ran into the problem that the plastic clips at the bottom were breaking left and right. In the end I replaced them with some tie-wraps.

Now, it’s waiting for some rain to see if this repair will hold.