Is your seam sealer intact?

[74hct04]

After reading Jikky's post here

and one other post in a thread about water leaking into the footwells where the dealership replaced the seam sealer (which I've failed to find again), on a recent trip under the car(!) I noticed that the seam sealer sealing the footwell floor panels to a "tunnel" section above the exhaust had stretched and torn to stringy threads in many places. (See attached photo of the undeside of a red iQ for the location of the two 'beads of sealer affected). I felt like doing some preventative maintenance and I had a tube of this white seam sealer to hand, so after testing the adhesion to the existing seam sealer, I cleaned the area with water and brake cleaner and liberally applied the on top of the factory-applied sealer. In retrospect, I'd recommend anyone attempting this (at their own risk) ensures the new sealer goes right over the old with a good "margin" on the panel itself (otherwise the weight of the new sealer may continue to tear away the old. Better still, do the job properly and remove the old sealer before completely replacing it... But I can't give a tutorial on that as I am no expert!

Sure enough, the seam sealer in my roof gutters is painted white but the paint is cracked too. If the boot starts leaking, I know where to look.

To illustrate my point, I've attached a photo of the chassis legs (or whatever they are called) in the engine bay. Please excuse the mess but look carefully and you will see the sealer has torn into comb-like arrangements stringy threads. This is what I saw under the car.

Is anyone else suffering from this issue please? My gut feeling is that it's relatively commonplace and that there's an issue with the seam sealer Toyota chose for at least part-of the vehicle's production run. Basically there seems to be a problem wherever the sealer is bridging a gap of more than an couple of milimetres, where it tears apart.

 

[APS]

Interesting. Not seen that before. Not on our iQ nor any other car. But, I agree with you, it looks like a poor choice of / quality sealer. 

[74hct04]

3 minutes ago, APS said:

Interesting. Not seen that before. Not on our iQ nor any other car. But, I agree with you, it looks like a poor choice of / quality sealer. 

Thanks for the reply. My car was built in April 2013 as far as I know. What year is yours?

[APS]

It was 2014 - bought new, but we no longer have it.

[APS]

However, as by chance I happened to take a video of the car in exactly that spot on the day we sold it. (as you do!)

[74hct04]

As you do indeed! 😄
This is a handy refrence, thank you.

I am not sure if I can be bothered to get the black seam sealer out of the garage and get messy to do this job. I've spent litterally days and days working on this car so far (nearly 2 week-long holidays off of work)! It might go on the 'when I get around to it' list...

[APS]

Unless the car is collecting water in the footwells, I agree, it's probably not worth the bother. 

[74hct04]

16 hours ago, APS said:

Unless the car is collecting water in the footwells, I agree, it's probably not worth the bother. 

I'd already done the floor panels 🙂 . When I said "It might go on the 'when I get around to it' list..." I actually meant the bracket that goes between the frame rail thingy and subframe and it irritated me enought that I've now completeted that job!

[74hct04]

You can see the seam sealer tearing into threads at 3:15 in Kevin-Albert Williams' clutch change video! (This is one of the two beads I over-sealed)
 

So this affects older model years also then!

[APS]

Seems like a common thing then. It seems odd for a car manufacturer who uses tons of sealer doesn't pick this up. They're just not bothered by it. 

Anyway... what's with the balaclava? And how to you wear out a clutch in less than 10000 miles?

[74hct04]

1 hour ago, APS said:

Seems like a common thing then. It seems odd for a car manufacturer who uses tons of sealer doesn't pick this up. They're just not bothered by it. 

If only I could find the other post on this forum... If I recall correctly, the dealership said it was a known problem when they replaced the sealer on this persons car... As it happens, mine has another bead of sealer running 90-degrees to the other two and along joint which is roughly above the exhaust rubber. I'd imagine only later cars have this.

Yes, the MOT history of that car shows it had insanely low mileage for a 2009! Quite how the clutch had been destroyed is beyond me, but it looks as though it was the concentric slave that started leaking(?)

The balaclava had me puzzled at first! 😆 I guess if you work all day as a mobile mechanic, you're going to want to avoid a facefull/mouthfull of grit (and sometimes worse), so I can see the logic!

[APS]

I'd sooner wear swimming goggles. 

[74hct04]

10 minutes ago, APS said:

I'd sooner wear swimming goggles. 

Not a bad call! 😁Having had an eyefull (and moutfull) of dirt last time I was under there, I think you might be onto something there!

[Cyker]

As long as you're not wearing a speedo too then fine...   

[APS]

3 hours ago, 74hct04 said:

Having had an eyefull (and moutfull) of dirt last time I was under there, I think you might be onto something there!

The mouth is a minor inconvenience. The eyes are another matter. You don't think much of it at the time but it does damage your eyes. Last time I had my eyes checked at the optician she asked what I'd done since I had multiple scars on the on the cornea. (eye opening moment )

[APS]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

As long as you're not wearing a speedo too then fine...   

Nah... just the goggles and socks 😛 

[Cyker]

Gahk! Curse my overactive imagination!    

[Big_D]

6 hours ago, Cyker said:

As long as you're not wearing a speedo too then fine...   

What's a Speedo? Is is similar to wearing Budgie Smugglers at the beach 😁