Leak in the Hatch area

:
mazda5
Anybody has a problem with a leak in the hatch? I notice that every time it rained there is a foul moldy smell inside the car. After inspection I found a leak in the right rear upper corner side of the car coming from the plastic molding and making the carpeting wet including the inside of the hidden covered compartment next to the light switch. Now lately whenever I wash the car I see some drips in this area. I tried to wet the front area first to locate the leak with no luck so I continue to wet the whole car then I notice the leak, so I assume that the leak is coming from the back.

The tech at mazda couldnt replicate the drip with a power wash, only wetting the back portion of the car. They say they suspect its a faulty seal and ordered the seal. I have to come back when they have the parts on order. Anybody had this problem before? Any suggestion where to look for the leak? TIA
 
I just found this on my 06 sport on Friday. Living in Florida, we get torrential downpours at least once a week and lately I've noticed a damp/moldy smell in the car when I come out of work. On Friday we had a good rain storm, and again the smell was pretty bad when I got in the car but I couldn't pinpoint anything.

I just happened to look in my rear view mirror when slowing down and noticed drips coming from the roof. I pulled into the gas station and started looking for the source of the leak. There is an access panel at the top of the inside of the hatch that covers the wiring for the tail mounted stop lamp. It looks like the water is getting inside the third brake light and coming in through the lamp housing and leaking inside the rear.

Here's the cause of the leak on my Mazda5. Click on any of the thumbnails to get a larger version of the image.




* With the cover panel removed, you can see the wiring for the third brake light. I noticed some stains around the plastic panel which indicated the leak was in here.



* There's a stud on each end of the light that passes through the hatch and get fastened by the nuts on the inside. You can also see the light bulb connector here. When i first opened the hatch, the water was leaking in through the light bulb connector.



* Here is an up close image of the connector where you can clearly see the corrosion starting.



* It's pretty hard to make out in the above photo, but there is moisture trapped inside the third brake light.



* With the brake light assembly removed, you can see that there's a hole on either side for the stud to pass through and a third hole for the brake light bulb connector. There's a gasket that attaches to the brake light that's supposed to stop the water from getting in.



* Fuzzy picture of the holes.



* Finally a picture of the gasket around the light bulb fitting.

In my situation I think that water is leaking into the brake light housing and finally in through the brake light connector, into the inside of the hatch area and then dripping on to the carpet. The moisture inside the brake light is a good sign that there's a problem in addition to the corrosion on the connector.

It doesn't look like the gasket is the issue in this situation so I'm going to have to break down and buy a new brake light to see if that solves the problem. Does anybody have a good source for a third brake light?
 
Last edited:
I just noticed this on my 5 the other day, got me right pissed off seeing water back there. I have no cracks on my wing or top of hatch, Ill will have to pull the 3rd brake light and take a look.
 
Back