chaseincats

I'll just use my nose. If I still smell it I'll seal it with tape and if that doesn't work I'll see if my friend can borrow the smoke machine again.

Update: The seal 'n peel arrived. I put an outline of it on the housing, let it sit for 10 min, plopped the gasket on top, then put an outline on the car body and popped the lights in. I set them in with the bolts finger tight, waited about 30 minutes, then cranked them in (but that part wasn't on the directions), and now we wait. I will probably use a bunch of duct tape to bridge the body to the housing from the inside of the car as well once everything is dry and in retrospect, this might be all you need to do haha. More to come.

Yep, that exact one will be here tomorrow

The taillight was the only area in the back that had leaks except for one strange spot - the 2 holes in the gas flap. I didn't know those had access to the body but I guess they do? The two spots are usually plugged with rubber bumpers for the gas flap to close on if memory serves.

After a fun night with the gasket scraper, the yellow adhesive is now off the taillight housings and I am right back to where I started before my impatient/hasty decision. Seal 'n peel is arriving on Wednesday, that is all.

Isn't that porous? Exhaust should be able to sneak its way through their, no?

that's actually a VERY good point and I didn't think about it that way - which is now frustrating me. I was able to pop the taillights off and like @Captain Obvious was saying, it's about volume not glue - some spots were solid but others had an air gap in there, not keeping it air tight. Looks like im going on the hunt for seal 'n peel which is what I should have done to begin with but I was impatient lol

I couldn't find it in any store around here and the people I spoke with said it wouldn't bond as well to the painted metal surface since it's meant more as something you place on top of a leak rather than this application which is effectively using it as a glue between the housing, rubber gasket, and metal body.

The adhesive is drying on the housing to gasket side since last night. I’ll put the adhesive on the gasket to car side tonight or tomorrow and report back

I ended up going with the yellow trim adhesive since that binds to plastic, rubber, and metal since we're gluing the plastic housing to the rubber gasket and the rubber gasket to the vehicle's metal body.

Looks like I need a calking gun and point for the peel 'n seal. Would windshield sealer work do you all think?

Sounds good, I'll grab some off Amazon

Won't that deform when I wash the car and it gets wet?

So, something more like this?

You didn't use the pre-made ones from a Z parts distributor?

Well gang, here's a topic that's been beat to death...but let's give it another swing shall we? I saw an old forum thread where a guy put a Halloween fog machine in his car and with all the windows up, turned it on which showed all the air leaks in the cabin. Specifically, he did it to find where exhaust was sneaking into the cabin when driving with the windows were down. I gave that a shot this evening and found that it is my taillight gaskets, but the strange thing is they are brand new from Motorsport. We even removed the black trim surrounds and bolted them back to the body and you can see the smoke sneaking around the gasket edges regardless of how tight we make the bolts holding the gasket to the body. The gaskets are reasonably squishy (I have no idea how gummy these are supposed to be but they are very pliable). I did notice that the plastic housing has raised bumps where the mounting bolts come through which would mean the gasket wouldn't be laying flush in the areas between these bolt bumps, right? Was I supposed to install these with gasket maker between the rubber gasket and housing?

Wish I still lived in CA - I'd be at his door at 8am tomorrow morning haha UPDATE: I bought some acorn-style lug nuts and noticed the wheel studs centering themselves as I tightened them. I then spun the wheels on jacks and the tred seemed to not wobble which is a good sign (although I never did this test before). I will take the car out this week and get a final answer if lugs are the solution.

Absolutely - glad it worked

How were you able to know the factory gear position? I didn’t think they were marked

Building on the above, did you ever try the acorn style lug nuts?

Well done! and let me also say that "percussive maintenance adjustments" is one of my new favorite phrases

Back when I lived in CA I took my car there too - great guys

I can do that and take a pic when I get home in an hour or so. What should I try/take a picture/video of @Zed Head

Mine would definitely hit the block of wood as they go around but I think it’s the wheels as some move not than others. I made my wobble better by finding which ones were more oblong than others and put them on the back. Maybe try his test and do the same?

Should I pop the top off the dist cap and spray some silicon lubricant in there and scoot the plate around a bit?