We’ve been in a crazy drought this past decade, but California’s been getting rolling rainstorms that they call Atmospheric rivers this first part of the 2023 year. After the heavy rain in California, I found this puddle of water in the trunk area of my rsx. I was a bit sad since I just got the car, but I guess I should have expected it. This car was in the desert area of Arizona and Southern California so it’s been through some very hot and dry weather, and now it’s jumping into a colder climate in Northern California. The rust was really frustrating, and likely it’s been here for awhile so this problem has existed before. It took awhile to for me to diagnose, I took a watering hose and pretty much soaked the RSX to see where the leaks were coming. Every where was pretty dry until the trunk area near the taillights. I saw a tiny drizzle that lead to the wheel well.

This seems to be a common issue with the RSX where the taillight foam gasket deteriorates. When I took it off and felt it, it was very brittle. Luckily, I bought a new set of gaskets and decided to change out both the gasket to fix the issue, but also refresh the tailight itself. The old one was worn down and has lost its finish due to 20 yrs of hot sun. It took awhile to clean, but we have very new tailights and the car looks great again.

You can see my Youtube video of the fix here:

Replacing Tail Lights on my 03 RSX Type S: Fixing Water Leak Gasket Issue