Splitting roof seams near back window, water leaking into rear quarter panels

[JasonGiudici]

Also...anyone checking, water won't necessarily be in the spare wheel well. It runs down the c pillars and fill the areas behind the side trunk trim panels.

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[Elp_jc]

So guess the better test is to pull the headliner down... but would you also be able to tell if water is coming in from the upper rear glass corners? Finally, is your car garaged or not? Being a 2016, and if it sat outside most of its life, then I would not consider it a potential issue for my garaged 2019, but it's nice to know in case it happens down the road. Glad you could finally fix it. The good news is it appears to be isolated cases, and apparently on older cars. But curious if they sat outside or not.

EDIT: Just checked my car, and the driver's side of the 3rd brake light is also higher than the right side. I can push down on it a little. On the right side, it's solid. The outer studs are like 2 inches from the corners, so don't think the nuts are loose. Guess the right corner is where the leak would be. If Ford doesn't fix an engine issue of 9 years (the infamous tick), no way they'd fix something like this .

 

[Melty]

I had water leaking into my trunk after washing my car or leaving out in the rain. My car is a 2019 and it rests in a garage so it took me a while to figure out I had a leak. It turns out mines was leaking from one of the body seams somewhere under the rear glass, I'm not entirely sure where as I never asked after they fixed it. I took it to the dealership they diagnosed where the leak was coming from and had to remove the rear glass to reseal the body seam, all of it was covered under warranty with a loaner given to me as well. I would see moisture/water drops from right above the driver's side wheel well in my case.

 

[StangTime]

Inspected my 2019 last night and found more cracks in the sealer. My car only has 6000km on it and is parked inside whenever I'm not driving and it doesn't go out in the rain. Can't imagine how these cars hold up parked outside year round with all the freeze thaw cycles. They are likely stress fractures in the sealer. I don't have any water coming in that I can tell but I will be inspecting it closely now.
Guys, check your cars. I'm betting many S550 versions have it to some degree. You will likely not notice it on a white car.
I really want to avoid taking this to the dealer but it looks like this is a problem that gets gradually worse until you have water leaks. By then you may be out of warranty. Not sure what to do about it.

Passenger side:

Drivers side:

 

[NoVaGT]

Just in case Ford doesn't come through, I'd think that's would be a repair you could do yourself for a lot less than $1500.

A local glass shop should be able to R/R the rear glass for a few hundred, and then you can just apply some new seam-sealant yourself. It's easy. You car is black, the seam sealant is black, so it doesn't have to be prefect.

If that were my car, I would go get some black polyurethane caulk and just nip the applicator real skinny, and squeeze it in there. Then smooth it with a tiny brush. That might cost you $30 or something.

Then you need to strip out all the areas inside the car that were wet, remove any rust, and apply a rust-prevention product heavily. That's just some elbow-grease.

It sucks, but it's all easily repairable. Might even be something you enjoy doing.........or not.

 

[Zathras]

Why don't these cars have proper rubber moldings around the perimeter of the glass, to cover the gap? Some designer thought this looks sleeker?

 

[Elp_jc]

I had water leaking into my trunk after washing my car or leaving out in the rain. My car is a 2019 and it rests in a garage. I would see moisture/water drops from right above the driver's side wheel well in my case.

Oh man; that's not good. But can you clarify where exactly you found moisture in the wheel well, just to know? And you found moisture/water in BOTH places (trunk and wheel well)? Thanks man.

Went to the garage again, and for some weird reason, the gap on my 2019 Bullitt is maybe 3mm max. No way I can see inside like the photos posted here. Does Ford have that bad of a QC consistency??? Or maybe they enlarged the rear window later on? My 2019 was build in August 2019. I can't see squat beyond the super thin gap, and at least there I don't see any white, so guess I'm good for now. Ha ha.

Finally, no way in hell I'd let a dealer mess with my rear window, especially with that small gap. I know they'd mess up the paint around, and then would have to deal with a freaking bodyshop. I'd just fill the gap with silicon, and call it a day. Probably the clear one. Or maybe black, so it looks like a proper rubber gasket. But hope I don't develop one. Need to wash the car soon, since it's full of bugs from my mountain trip earlier in the week. Won't mess with the headliner; instead, will look into the trunk, and wheel well, after our brother Melty tells us exactly where to look .

 

[JasonGiudici]

To clarify, my car has not been garaged. It is my daily driver in sunny south florida. No snow, but plenty of heat...especially on a black car. Still waiting to hear back from ford (foMoCo, not the dealer). If ford covers it, the dealer will perform the repair.

 

[Elp_jc]

Thank you for that clarification. So guess all of us who garage the car shouldn't worry then. But it still sucks that it happens in less than 6 years under the sun. You never hear that kind of thing on any other car. Good luck OP, and keep us posted. Hopefully they won't damage your paint, forcing you to take it to a body shop.

 

[JasonGiudici]

And as far as the best test, you would want to pull the trunk panels to look in the sides, just behind the wheel wells. This means pulling off the rearmost plastic panel, followed by the carpeted side panels. The side dont have to be fully removed, just pull two of the plastic clips and swing the panels inward a bit to peek inside

 

[StangTime]

Thank you for that clarification. So guess all of us who garage the car shouldn't worry then. But it still sucks that it happens in less than 6 years under the sun. You never hear that kind of thing on any other car. Good luck OP, and keep us posted. Hopefully they won't damage your paint, forcing you to take it to a body shop.

I guess you didn't read my post then. My car is garaged all the damn time and the sealer is still splitting.

 

[NoVaGT]

Why don't these cars have proper rubber moldings around the perimeter of the glass, to cover the gap? Some designer thought this looks sleeker?

Most cars don't these days. I don't even know of any cars in the last several years that still use a rubber molding around the front & rear glass.

However, what is cracking/separating isn't the seal for/to the glass, but the seam sealant for the body seam. Water is getting in through a seam in the body structure, not between the body & the glass.

 

[Bikeman315]

You never hear that kind of thing on any other car.

Body seams are the second major cause of water leaking in your car.
https://axleaddict.com/auto-repair/Water-leaking-in-car

 

[JasonGiudici]

This is the white 2017 ecoboost I mentioned earlier. Has split seams like mine and cracking on the painted body surface, outside of the seam sealer. Will get more pics once its cleaned up. Ive seen a gt350 that had this continue up into the drip rail 1/4-1/2 inch on each side on the actual exterior roof surface...well beyond the window gap, actually splitting on the roof of the car.

 

[JasonGiudici]

Im starting to wonder if they even weld these panels together or if it is all just panel adhesive....letting everything move around and split apart.

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