I just purchased an '03 Sentra GXE (40,000 miles). I had my mechanic inspect the car top to bottom and he found nothing except a very small amount of water in the trunk (it rained all last night). This is my first Nissan, someone mentioned to me their Altima does this, is this common for Nissans? I want to get it taken care of, if it's the trunk seal what's the ballpark cost to replace those seals/gaskets? I've also read that some people report leaks around the tail lights, is this common for 03 era Sentras? Thanks!!
03 Sentra trunk leak
Nov 26, 2007
3 Replies
Had the same prob with my '93 Sentra. I had water 6" deep in the wheel well after a good rain! I've heard the tail lights are the usual culprit, but I just slathered silicone sealant all over everything. It works. 10 years later, and nothing--apparently--has changed!
I just did some investigating on the trunk. All the seals look to be in fine shape. I took a five gallon bucket full of water and poured te entire thing over each part of the trunk (checking inside each time).
1.) over driver side of where trunk lid meets rear quarter and over that tail light. 2.) over passenger side same as above 3.) down rear windowEach time showed no water inside. Before doing this there was about
1/8 inch of water in spare well. Jack and spare had no rust so I don't think water ever gets deep. The carpet was dry, the padding under it was slightly damp at most. The "shelf" around the spare well was damp, slightly more so on passenger side (not completely wet, more like condensation).
My 93 used to leak from the joint between the top of the driver's side rear wheel well and the fender. There is a lot of gop at that joint and it was applied before the car was painted, because it is painted the car color. I noticed it because the dust on top of the wheel well had streaks from where the water ran down into the trunk. If your car trunk is cleaner than mine was, put some dust up there and drive around in the rain.
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