Weird Problem With Water Collecting in Tailgate

[sport2004]

Lot of rain lately. I opened up the tailgate today and when closing it back down a bunch of water poured out from the inside plastic/metal seam. This is a pic of the tailgate raised, showing the latch and seam right beneath. It takes several raise/close motions to get all of the water to drain out. Most of the water drains right where shown. You can hear the water sloshing around by moving the tailgate up and down.

My questions, how is the water getting in there and why does it only drain out only when the tailgate is raised, then lowered back down? Weird.

Any insight appreciated.

 

[AuSeeker]

Lot of rain lately. I opened up the tailgate today and when closing it back down a bunch of water poured out from the inside plastic/metal seam. This is a pic of the tailgate raised, showing the latch and seam right beneath. It takes several raise/close motions to get all of the water to drain out. Most of the water drains right where shown. You can hear the water sloshing around by moving the tailgate up and down.

My questions, how is the water getting in there and why does it only drain out only when the tailgate is raised, then lowered back down? Weird.

Any insight appreciated.

Check your bottom exterior window rubber weather strip, mine is cracked and dry rotted thus lets water into the rear hatch, just ordered a new weather strip last night, about $22 plus shipping, easy to install, search the forum for numberous topics on how to replace it.

 

[Silver4RunnerIS300]

Lot of rain lately. I opened up the tailgate today and when closing it back down a bunch of water poured out from the inside plastic/metal seam. This is a pic of the tailgate raised, showing the latch and seam right beneath. It takes several raise/close motions to get all of the water to drain out. Most of the water drains right where shown. You can hear the water sloshing around by moving the tailgate up and down.

My questions, how is the water getting in there and why does it only drain out only when the tailgate is raised, then lowered back down? Weird.

Any insight appreciated.

Weatherstripping. There's one on the back window that is probably deteriorated and letting excessive water in. I would check all of the weatherstripping and replace as needed.

 

[sport2004]

Thanks, guys. Looked at it, guess it is just not fitting correctly. I'll address that and go from there.

 

[AuSeeker]

Thanks, guys. Looked at it, guess it is just not fitting correctly. I'll address that and go from there.

If rubber is not soft and flexible it will not seal correctly even if it's not cracked.

 

[4Runner010]

Have the exact same problem at the moment will be ordering a new weatherstrip soon.

 

[TDOG 94]

The weather stripping may not be the problem, the if you look where the weather stripping meets the upper window seal you will it's not designed to completely seal up, it's made for water run inside the the rear hatch. If it's raining and you leave it up or simply lots of water on the window already gravity will spill that water all over the inside of the hatch, not a design flaw, same in every window, if they completely sealed them they wouldn't dry out you would get mildew inside, make sure the drain plugs are clear .

 

[AuSeeker]

I'm sorry for not mentioning that it is normal for a little bit of water to get pass a perfectly good lower weather strip, and that there are 2 drain holes in the bottom of the rear hatch, if these drain holes are plugged up you will get excessive water accumulating in the rear hatch and then the only place the water can get out would be at the latch.

When you open the hatch on either side of the latch you will see 2 plastic plugs with 2 little holes in each one these are the drain holes and if any debris has gotten inside of the rear hatch or there's any flaking rust they could very well be plugged up and not letting the normal water seepage drain out of the hatch.

 

[sport2004]

Update. Thanks for the additional useful comments.

Removed the plugs, they were full of crud.

Cleaned them

Shut the tailgate, poured water over these bottom corners of the window, which flowed virtually unimpeded right into the interior of the tailgate compartment

Left

Right

Quite a bit of crud flowed out of the open drains. There is a lot of debris and dirt in there.

So it was no surprise when I re-installed the cleaned plugs, and poured more water over the corners, while there was some drainage through the plugs, they crudded up and plugged right up again.

Overall dx, the system is sick. I probably need replacement weatherstripping and new plugs, but it is pointless to do this without first taking the interior panel off and completely cleaning and evacuating the compartment. Otherwise, as water continues to seep in, it will just keep plugging the drain plugs, which themselves have little sponge filters in them preventing the debris to fully wash out.

Next question, do you think it is OK to just leave the plugs out until the process mentioned is complete. Downside to that? Otherwise, the little plugs will probably function marginally well in the meantime, since I did manage to wash some of the debris out of there. Thanks.

 

[sport2004]

The weather stripping may not be the problem, the if you look where the weather stripping meets the upper window seal you will it's not designed to completely seal up, it's made for water run inside the the rear hatch. If it's raining and you leave it up or simply lots of water on the window already gravity will spill that water all over the inside of the hatch, not a design flaw, same in every window, if they completely sealed them they wouldn't dry out you would get mildew inside, make sure the drain plugs are clear .

BTW, thanks for the pic...

 

[Trumpet]

I'd leave them out for a bit. give the crud a chance to flush out.

Maybe even help it a bit with the garden hose. Once crud stops coming out, put the clean plugs back in.

Happened on my Ramcharger years ago...

 

[AuSeeker]

No harm leaving them out for a while, they're there to keep dirt and or bugs from getting inside making nests, laying eggs, etc.

When you remove the inside panel you will have a plastic sheet covering the access/opened areas of the hatch, be careful while peeling it away from the sealant around the edges so not the tear it and keep the sealant on the hatch and plastic clean so it will re-seal, make sure when you replace it that you press it firmly into the sealant, it has to be sealed well to keep mositure/condensation inside the hatch and not allowing any into the interior of the cabin.

 

[blackoutt]

TOYOTA-OEM-03-09-4Runner-Liftgate-Tailgate-Belt-Weatherstrip-Seal-6829035031

Mine was the seal at the bottom of the rear window. $26 shipped on fleabay, this fixed my wet rear hatch, the old one crumbled when I pulled it off. Took two minutes to wipe down the edge and install new.

 

[sport2004]

TOYOTA-OEM-03-09-4Runner-Liftgate-Tailgate-Belt-Weatherstrip-Seal-6829035031

Mine was the seal at the bottom of the rear window. $26 shipped on fleabay, this fixed my wet rear hatch, the old one crumbled when I pulled it off. Took two minutes to wipe down the edge and install new.

Thanks...

 

[unevolved]

Thanks, reminded me I've been needing to replace that seal at the bottom of the window.

 

[The Yin]

Just went through the same thing with my Runner. I knew that weather striping was falling apart for some time and paid no attention to it. Until I started hearing water splashing around when I would take a turn. At first I feared it was the sun roof!

After I pulled the drain plugs and let all the water drain, I went on and took off the inside panel and plastic cover (as mentioned above) and cleaned out the inside of the door. I had a good amount of leafs and mud in there. Just wiped it down with a damp cloth and a dry one. I then left it open to dry for a few (non rainy) days.

The replacement weather striping snaps in real easy, and that's that.

 

[sport2004]

With the drain plug/filters out, you would not believe the amount of crud washing through onto the tailgate ledge. There is no way the plugs would function properly with all the debris in there to clog them up.

 

[ben550]

I'll look on my 06 but on the 04 there were two little "drain slots" built into the bottom of the back door. I noticed water had collected in the door and was sloshing around. I noticed debris/leaf matter poking out of the holes on both sides of the door. I used some wire to clear the holes and it drained all the water out onto the driveway. Not sure if those holes should have been plugged with something after but I just left it open and never had a problem again.

 

[sport2004]

It looks like to me that there is some substance (OEM or aftermarket undercoating?) disintegrating in there. Making a heck of a mess. A lot of flecks and pieces flowing out of the drains. I won't be re-installing the plugs any time soon.

 

[blackoutt]

Pulled my tailgate plugs last night, they were clean with no debris and dry. There's also a little slot in the very center of the tailgate that looks like it was draining the water out before I fixed the rear window trim. I must have gotten to it before it let too much crud in.