Permission to post this 'How-To' was given by Katoh Masatake of Japan. (It was translated from Japanese into English, and any changes made in and to the text were made for clarification only - Geo)
DISCLAIMER : TeamSol of Washington or persons submitting the information here will not assume responsibility, nor be held liable for damage resulting from the use or misuse of any information contained on this page. In other words, any information you find here is used at your own risk.
Deterioration around the opening and seal from which the leak in the trunk occurs.
As you all know by this time about the famous trunk leak from the rear sail clips, see 'Trunk Leak Fix' . The majority of the trunk leaks were thought to come from this problem, but recently there was found a new source for the leaks that is not verified before. This one comes from the rear air outlets that let air escape from the flow through ventilation system on our cars. It is caused by deterioration/cracking of the sealer due to the flexing of the body and under body air flow letting sand and stilt build up holding the flap open to let moisture in to promote condensation in the trunk area. The moisture will be most visible in the taillights area. This can lead to the board covering the spare tire to warp. (See above pictures) It will start small and then steadily increase with water visible in the area in and around the taillight, see the picture below.
This 'How-to' will include the instructions needed to remove the rear bumper, rear bumper beam and how to fix this problem.
Problem area shown here
First remove anything in the trunk, including the emergency tire, it's not necessary
but makes working in the area easier.
Next remove the four clips at the top of the rear carpet panel, lift them with a small screwdriver and then turn them 90 degrees and remove, please take care as you can break the tabs off the bottom of them very easily. Remove the four plastic screws holding the panel at the side of the trunk.
Now you may want an assistant to help with removing the bumper so you won't damage or scratch it. Start by removing the nuts, 5 of them along the lower edge of the trunk.
If you have the factory mud flaps on your car you will have to remove them first, then with a short screwdriver (Phillips) remove the two screws through the opening on at the wheel wells. You may have to jack up the car to provide you with enough room to get at them. When done with that, remove the two screws holding the rear splash on under the bumper. The bumper is now ready to come off, pull out on it and it should come off, if not check and see if you removed all 5 of the nuts and the 4 screws/bolts and try again.
Now there are four more bolts to remove before the rear bumper beam will come off, by looking inside the trunk again you will see two bolts on the bottom edge remove them and them remove the plastic cap that hide the two others and remove them. You can now remove the bumper beam and absorber.
Now you will be able to see the rear air outlets on both side and check to see if the flap is blocked open with sand or stilt and also if there is any cracking around the air outlet in the sealer from the outside.
Now you can checking to make sure of where the leak is at by pouring water from above the air outlet and seeing where it's leaking into the trunk area.
The water may take a while before you will see from where it's leaking on the inside so please be patient.
Here you can see the opening after the air outlet is removed and all cleaned up, the flap was blocked open by sand and the seal had cracked on the one side, very difficult to see in the picture above this one.
Here the vent has been put back in and they are putting a bead of sealer to ensure it won't be leaking again. Also if when you removed the air outlet if you peeled the sealer away and have bare metal showing you will have to paint it so it won't rust before putting the vent in and before any sealer is put on.
Make sure to add sealer to both sides, inside as well as the outside to keep the problem from recurring.
All that's left to do at this point is to reinstall the rear bumper beam and then the rear bumper and mud flaps if you had them and your done.
For more 'How-To's" from the Japanese CRX site use the translator program
here: http//babefish.altavista.com/translate.dyn and then type in or copy their
url: http://www.george24.com/~m_katoh/trouble.html. They have some very informative
information that is not posted anywhere else. Thanks again to Katoh Masatake
for giving Team Sol of Washington permission on using this 'How-To'.