Help with massive water leak and rear light removal

[Midnight 2]

So i just picked up my 91 Celica and was looking over the car when i found a huge pond under the spare tire.. I disassembled all the plastic in the trunk to get a better idea of where the water leak was coming from. I thought it may be from the antenna so i removed it and added silicone calking around to form a good seal.

After retesting the leak water was still pouring into the trunk from the left side.. So now I'm wondering how to take the rear lights out to see if i can find anywhere water might be getting in...

Is there a special way to remove the lights because i couldn't really see to much from the inside of the trunk.

THe car had previously been repaired by Maaco (HUGE MISTAKE) and i figure the leak may be coming from some seams they may not have sealed.

Please help with the removal of the rear lights

THANKS !!

[CryoGoblin]

to remove the rear light on the left side just take out all the screws in the middle and all the screws on the left...once u did that take out the plastic that might be there that connects the wires its just comes out np...once u did that there are 4 bolts that u have ur wrench out a little difficult cuz there small...once u climb that mountain take out the yellow plastic on the left side...it pops out...then pull out the light dont be afraid it wont break its just the kinda stiky kinda glue they use. and thats it.

have fun

[thousand_five]

I had the same problem. My water came in through the rear quater panel. The back tires kick up water and it goes in the pocket directly below the atenna then it leaked from there to the spare tire compartment. It's hard to comprehend how this happens, but it does.

[flex-appeal]

depends on your car, if its a coupe then if you look carefully, the car is designed to dump water in a channel going along each side of the hatch.. anything around there that isnt sealed will leak a lot..
and by the way, if it is indeed a coupe then its very easy to remove the lights, no bolts involved, just need a PH#1 screwdriver.. open hatch, unsrew 2 screws from top of light, unclip orange plastic corner and remove 2 more screws, and thats it!

[maxpower_hd]

I never had this problem with my Celica but have had many leaking issues with my wife's Chrysler Sebring convertible. I actually had to suck out over nine gallons of water from the interior. The spare tire recess was full to the top. I found and fixed all of the abvious problems but it still leaked into the trunk. There were rain channels that were filled with pine neededs and other such gunk. I have to clean them periodically and it keeps most of the water out. The Sebring has plastic nuts that hold the tail light assembly in as well. I siliconed those and have had no leak since.

It took me the entire summer to finally pinpoint all of the leaks. What I ended up doing was drilling a couple of holes in the spare tire recess to drain the water out. Once I stopped all the leaks I plugged them with rubber plugs I found at the hardware store.

If you decide to do this, be very careful not to drill into the gas tank. I was lucky that the tank was more toward the passenger compartment so it wasn't an issue.