Boot Leak?

[Ninety-Eight]

The boot of my new (to me) 1999 LS400 smells musty like the cellar in an old house. I presume water has been getting in somewhere for a while. Are there any "known leak areas" on this model of car I can check first?

Thanks

[ManicMark]

Hi common problem,

remove the boot seal clean it run a bead of silicone around the metal boot lip replace the seal. Remove your boot carpet & let it dry also check the rubber bungs in the bottom of the boot.

Ta & welcome Mark

[Ninety-Eight]

thanks. I'll try that. And a gallon of Fabrize to get the odour gone!

[Alex C Brown]

I own a 1998 mk4 and have also discovered this phenomenon. First picked up on it from previous service reports given to me with the car. I eventually mustered the courage to take out the spare and carpet only to find a pool of water. I assumed that the leak was through the floor pan seals (round 2" bungs). Wrong, the leak was finally traced back to the boot lip. The water was running along the left hand drainage channel of the boot, then down and around the seal on the vertical fall, then into the boot at the bottom.

So, pulled off the boot seal, let it dry, then cleaned it up. I bought some silicone sealant (£4) and ran a bead of this along the entire length where the leak was. Put it back on and left it to dry. No leak yet.. (fingers crossed).

[simontaylor]

Crude...... but you could take out the rubber bungs, spare and the carpet for a while to let it air and dry out as you drive around during the summer.

[steve2006]

Wasn't there also a problem with the Moonroof drain pipes getting blocked and causing water ingress in the boot as well?

[Nitmoi]

I had no success with silicone or clingfilm drain plugs etc.until I changed the complete seal as the seals get squashed with age and no longer seal. I bought the Lexus part but someone on here bought a length of it from a factors (much cheaper).

[TimC]

I had a boot leak on my Mk4 LS400.

The garage put an apprentice in the boot with a torch and then hosed it down.

When they opened it the guy inside was pointing to exactly where it was leaking.

The seal had flattened on the corner where it drops down.

It needed a new seal.

[simontaylor]

I read a post on here about a company in New Milton (I think) near new forest that did replacement seal by the metre.

[SteveAudioX]

The boot of my new (to me) 1999 LS400 smells musty like the cellar in an old house. I presume water has been getting in somewhere for a while. Are there any "known leak areas" on this model of car I can check first?

Thanks

You can always shut yourself inside the boot, have a friend outside (key ready off course) run water from a hose pipe around the boot lid and rear screen (upper) region and see where the water is getting in from, also pour buckets of water as sometimes the leak needs pressure (i.e. travelling on rainy day on motorway and water is pushed into the seams with force) I had a simular thing going on many many years back on a peugeot 406, and found it was the seal. just removed it, and put it back on, solved the problem, seems to have sunk too low, well worn in fact. it was an old car so never thought of replaceing any thing on it.