A leaky trunk in the Buick and a puzzle for Rick

Sometimes, we have to do a little work on the road and occasionally, we are presented with a puzzling situation. This was certainly the case with a leak in our tow car.

We have enjoyed our Buick LaCrosse tow car seen above and Rick particularly likes the sun roof feature. We have had very few issues with the car, but in the last couple weeks, we have noticed that there has been quite a bit of water in the trunk. 

In fact, the spare tire well, seen above, had about 4" of water in it. Rick had a great time taking everything out, sponging the water out and letting it dry. He wondered where the water was coming in and checked the weatherstripping, but that looked OK. Then he removed all the trunk lining. 

Finally, he poured water around the trunk (no leaks), the front of the sunroof (water drained under the front of the car -- OK) and then around the back of the sun roof (no water drained to the ground!) Bingo! Rick found that the water from the rear sunroof drain was coming right into the trunk.

Here you can see the water actually running through the drain hose into the trunk. This pipe should connect to the rubber grommet/drain seen at left which then drains water to the outside of the trunk. You can also see several wires running outside the grommet -- which should run THROUGH the grommet! 

 This is how the grommet and drain pipes looked after the trunk lining was removed. The wires running around the grommet are the problem and come from the installation of a trailer hitch and trailer wiring. The installer (NOT Rick!) should have run the wires through the center of the grommet, so that the grommet can be fit into the hole of the body to allow draining. 

After a fair amount of effort on both side drain grommets, Rick ran the wires thought the center as seen here, re-connected the trailer wires, weather-proofed the connections and installed the grommets and drain pipes. This is how it should look. Finally, we have a trunk that will stay dry!