Boot Seal

[shanra]

Having replaced my boot seal (sealsdirect ETS-59) 3 years ago I now have a leak again, only worse than before, so having looked at the dimensions of the aforementioned seal I realise it is meant for a 1.5mm to 3mm panel and the panel on the LS400 is 1mm, and as far as I know water doesn't discriminate on gap size and will just slide on by if it can. So this time I am going to use 3M weatherstrip and gasket adhesive as I believe the seal needs some help in keeping out the watery invaders. I shall of course prep and clean the panel before replacing the seal and treat any rust appropriately. One more thing the seal is meant for a 12mm high panel and the panel is actually 11mm in some places probably allowing the water more access to the boot and all the more reason to use the 3M weatherstrip. I shall report back when all is done and hope the liquid skyfall bothers me no more! Just waiting on the delivery of the new seal.

[Razor61]

Interesting topic, especially as the oem boot seal isn't available anymore. As far as I can see it isn't available from Amayama and isn't listed anymore on the LPD website.

[Malc1]

Rockauto maybe ?

Malc

[shanra]

No you can't get hold of one anymore!

 

[Razor61]

11 minutes ago, shanra said:

No you can't get hold of one anymore!

 

There is one for sale on eBay in Lithuania, £140 plus £45 delivery
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363405305477?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=k6atoiclQAG&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=im66MZjLQ6G&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[Malc1]

Breakers yard for one ?

Find a useful rubber pipe manufacturer somewhere and get him to make / cut / form / fabricate one for you ?

Malc

[shanra]

12 hours ago, Razor61 said:

There is one for sale on eBay in Lithuania, £140 plus £45 delivery
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363405305477?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=k6atoiclQAG&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=im66MZjLQ6G&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Bit of a dodgy looking seller though!

[Razor61]

5 hours ago, shanra said:

Bit of a dodgy looking seller though!

Feedback isn’t 100% but apart from that the seller looks ok, what makes you think the seller is a bit dodgy?
Lexuspartsnow list them but with shipping and duty from USA it ends up at £250.Only thing I would be wary of is placing the order only to be told it’s no longer available.

[shanra]

The feedback was quite poor and a fairly high percentage.

I have fitted the seal this morning and have shut the boot on it hoping for better adhesion. 3M  black weatherstrip and gasket adhesive was used and the problem with it was it goes off so quickly and needs to be used on both surfaces so I did about a third of the seal at a time but even then it felt like it was going off too quickly, it's for rubber and steel etc but of course the panel is painted so I wonder how well it adheres to that! I felt another person spreading the adhesive on one surface whilst I did the other would have really helped. Time will tell how well it has worked but I shall let it cure for a fair time before testing it.

[Razor61]

1 hour ago, shanra said:

The feedback was quite poor and a fairly high percentage.

I have fitted the seal this morning and have shut the boot on it hoping for better adhesion. 3M  black weather strip and gasket adhesive was used and the problem with it was it goes off so quickly and needs to be used on both surfaces so I did about a third of the seal at a time but even then it felt like it was going off too quickly, it's for rubber and steel etc but of course the panel is painted so I wonder how well it adheres to that! I felt another person spreading the adhesive on one surface whilst I did the other would have really helped. Time will tell how well it has worked but I shall let it cure for a fair time before testing it.

Hopefully it does the job so fingers crossed for you.
I presume the water leaking into the boot on the sides must be caused by the channel filling up/pooling and the water working it's way past the seal (up and over the lip inside the seal) or between the top of the rubber seal and the boot lid. I have seen someone drill a hole in the area illustrated below where the water collects, put in a rubber grommet with a plastic pipe running into the boot and out at the bottom to drain the water. This stops the water pooling in the first place I expect. If the car is perfectly level then I would expect the water to run off ok unless it's a monsoon.................but if the car is facing 'down hill' the water can't run off as designed and works it's way past the seal. I fitted a new seal early last year but I still park mine on the drive front first which is slightly uphill and stops the water pooling. It's a pain reversing out onto the road sometimes but I've got used to it doesn't cause much of an issue.
I also presume it's the same sort of thing for the water getting into the wheel well, it runs down the inside of the seal and ends up dripping/running into the boot behind the boot lock mech and then runs into the wheel well.

[shanra]

The 3M weatherstrip adhesive seems to be holding quite strongly and it rained last night. I did find a slight leak on the left boot drain channel at the top just under the plastic cover just above the brake lights, there is a join that looked ok but each time I ran my finger over it a tiny amount of water would come out and although the join had some sort of mastic in it,it was obviously leaking. I cleaned it with acetone and spread some silicone sealer on it.

[shanra]

On 1/6/2023 at 9:54 AM, shanra said:

The 3M weatherstrip adhesive seems to be holding quite strongly and it rained last night. I did find a slight leak on the left boot drain channel at the top just under the plastic cover just above the brake lights, there is a join that looked ok but each time I ran my finger over it a tiny amount of water would come out and although the join had some sort of mastic in it,it was obviously leaking. I cleaned it with acetone and spread some silicone sealer on it.

Well the left hand join is still leaking or something very close to it. I shall take off the silicone and try and seal it again! It appears to be coming from this area and then running forward/down the underside of the water channel.

[Supafly]

Fingers crossed for you.  I've had more than my share of these frustrating situations too 🙂

[m4rkw]

Are you sure it's the boot seal that's leaking? I had a similar problem on my RX a couple of years ago, I solved it at the time by putting a bit of silicone under the boot seal and it seemed to resolve it but the problem recently came back with a vengeance. I was convinced it was leaking through the seal but according to my trusted specialist the leaks actually occur through the bodywork where the metal has been joined and sealed when it was built, over time the sealant breaks down and lets water in. It can look like it's leaking through the seal but is actually leaking through cracks or tiny holes in the body somewhere.

I dropped the car off with the specialist this morning, the repair process is quite labour intensive as they need to strip all the interior out, but the boot seal isn't a major concern - I think he'll replace it at the end just for good measure but from what I've heard the boot seal doesn't tend to leak it's mostly just to reduce noise (at least on an RX).

[shanra]

Hi Mark thanks for your reply. The boot seal is a known problem with the LS 400 and it was leaking into the tyre well , that is now fixed but as I mentioned earlier I am going to redo the seam that you have talked about. I am going to try Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure and I shall dry out the area first.

[m4rkw]

9 hours ago, shanra said:

Hi Mark thanks for your reply. The boot seal is a known problem with the LS 400 and it was leaking into the tyre well , that is now fixed but as I mentioned earlier I am going to redo the seam that you have talked about. I am going to try Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure and I shall dry out the area first.

Good luck! I wasn't brave enough to try that stuff without really knowing what I was doing haha

[hockeyedwards]

The previous owner of mine had obviously had a complete melt down trying to locate the leak into the boot and had siliconed EVERYTHING to within an inch of its life including each side of the boot seal, boot lock, behind the lights, over all the nuts that keep the rear lights in place 😆

[Malc1]

1 hour ago, hockeyedwards said:

over all the nuts that keep the

a young lad called Harry might have the ultimate solution then

1 hour ago, hockeyedwards said:

siliconed EVERYTHING to within an inch of its life

then he'd sure have summat to whinge about methinks  .........  siliconed nuts seem some sort of solution to this on-going crap emanating forthwith

Malc

[Stanwithaplan]

On 1/5/2023 at 5:41 AM, Razor61 said:

Feedback isn’t 100% but apart from that the seller looks ok, what makes you think the seller is a bit dodgy?
Lexuspartsnow list them but with shipping and duty from USA it ends up at £250.Only thing I would be wary of is placing the order only to be told it’s no longer available.

In December I  purchased the boot seal from Lexus Parts in the UK, they took my order and then a couple of days later returned my payment and told me it was discontinued.

[Malc1]

On 1/4/2023 at 11:59 AM, Malc1 said:

Breakers yard for one ?

Find a useful rubber pipe manufacturer somewhere and get him to make / cut / form / fabricate one for you ?

could this be a potential solution ?

Malc

[Stanwithaplan]

My recently purchased UK LS has a severe leak into the boot.

So I dried it out, parked it facing uphill, bought and used a car cover, while I travelled for a couple of months.

Unfortunately I uncover it today and the swimming pool is back!

I purchased the seals direct replacement before I left and added it today, so fingers crossed it works enough for me get it dried out get the other work done.