Hi! I'm not the most mechanical person, but I made some new neoprene seals for my tail lights. Water was leaking into the car and pooling under the spare tire.

I installed these homemade seals, which were made from 1/4 inch closed cell neoprene foam, but I wasn't sure how much to tighten the nuts (two for each side, four total) that hold the assembly in place. Is there a specific torque value? My seals are a little thicker than the stock ones.

I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I tightened the nuts to about 7 Nm, heard a light plastic creak sound and decided to back down to 6 Nm. Everything seems sturdy, so I don't think I damaged anything... but who knows (no sense worrying about it, even if that is the case though, ha ha). I poured buckets of water on the places it was leaking before (then it started raining, luckily enough for my testing) and no leaks. So that's good.

Any other tips or concerns for reinstalling tail light assemblies on this car are also welcome! It looked like there was a bit of a gap also at the top of the light assembly while fully installed (with the hatch open), on the black part that meets the rubber seal of the entire hatch. Does anyone else have that? It looks like that gap could allow water to come directly into contact with the seal and put much wear on it.

Thanks so much for reading and your time...

 

you'll be just fine with that #thumbsup