Weatherstripping

Go to Soffseal.com/pdf/installation-guide-7.pdf. It provides lots of information on car weatherstripping.

Thanks Tom, This is a complete circular rubber piece that installs on the hatchback opening. I've read that Toyota seals come pre-glued and I can see adhesive in the groove at what looks like the location of the lock. I don't see a groove elsewhere on the seal Perhaps the rubber is so tight that it only opens when pushed onto metal seam. The dots are printed on the rubber. I imagine these serve to indicate where the seal goes on the hatch seams, but no instructions were provided. I will upload a photo. I want to do this right because troubleshooting the leak, drying/deodorizing the trunk carpet, cleaning and reinstalling the original seal, and obtaining a replacement seal has been about a two month process - with many moments of feeling crazy! Thanks for your time, SG

Thank you Guru, The softseal PDF contains a wealth of info, but not for my general application. I will upload photos. SG

BTW, the local stealer was no help with either obtaining part or installation - said the seals weren't made anymore. I ordered a OEM seal for my VIN from another Toyota Dealer online. I guess there was no profit and therefore no incentive to provide this service. Or perhaps this is a "known issue" on my model.

Excellent advice, thanks so much! Uploading photos as promised.

Photo of dots on new seal

Hi Gurus, Thanks for the awesome instructions; I replaced the rear hatch door seal according to Tom's instructions and it is holding tight. However, I STILL have water pooling in the rear cargo area. Can not figure out how it is getting in. Dry as a bone in the wheel well compartments, headliner, etc. The only thing suspicious is that the car is facing uphill and the area where the 3rd row seats attach is wet. Please ha e a look at my pictures and let me know if you ha e any leak detection thoughts. I pulled the gaskets in the cargo area so the water would pour out. Thanks!

Here is another pic of the cargo area. Thanks!

I have the same issue on 2014 Limited, other forums suggest cleaning sunroof drains, and A/C drains. Another says it is coming from somewhere in the front of the windshield and the fix is to drill holes into the frame. Let me know how it ends up, I am slowly trying to figure this out.

Hi GuruZ83WX, thanks for your note. My primary effort so far, which failed, was to replace the seal on the rear hatch door. There are no clues as to where water is coming in, except that when parked facing uphill the water ponds at the very rear of the cargo area, by the bumper, but there is moisture further forward where one of the third row seats bolts into the cargo area floor.This leads me to think that water is getting in somewhere forward of the third row and travelling by gravity into the cargo area. I'm going to remove the third row seats and keep peeling the carpet forward until I, hopefully, find where the water is coming in. Will post when more is revealed! I did note, on one of the youtube videos I watched about water testing, that areas of prior collision are highly suspect. If you have any dents in the body or frame check them out.

I have similar problem in 2006 Sienna. It seems to come from left corner of hatch door seal. Replaced the seal but water still pooled. Wondering if you were able to fix it

Water leaking between small gap in seam on right side. Had to remove everything from well and hose down the car. Pulled weather stripping and found small hole were water was coming in and draining down. Not easy to find hope it helps others with similar issues.

I have an 06 sienna also with water gettin in my rear cargo area, been dealing with it for sometime now. From what I've read it's a VERY VERY common issue with sienna owners. And that means it would be a common defect from Toyota and they don't want to admit it because then they would have to fix it because technically the mold that grows from the water leaking in your carpet can be a health issue & hazard and they are liable to fix that especially in a minivan where most people are carrying their children ugh.... makes me angry just thinking about it. After doing tons of research online I found where people said it was the a/c drains clogged & the other common issues. But I checked all those things & didn't seem to be my issue. Someone said it was leaking in their rear third brake light seal I checked there and pulled the plastic off and sure enough you could see where water had been getting in there so I got some gasket seal stuff and I sealed it. But it didn't seem like there was that much water getting in from there because it didn't seem like that minor leak could cause so much wet. My rear cargo area was really soaked sometimes and other times it would be just damp after it rained. But I was still hopeful. After a couple of days the next good rain soaking came. I checked the rear cargo well and it seemed a little damp but I thought maybe it was still drying out from the last time, & with all the rain we just got, it should have been wetter than that. so I thought it was fixed. After two or three weeks & some more rain, I noticed it was wet again and the smell of water, mildew&mold every time you get in your vehicle is horrible.....I also read somewhere that the weld underneath the carpet where they weld the bumper to the metal frame and there are seams there and they say water gets in through there. not sure if that's my issue but I always used to think it was coming up from the bottom somehow. There is a baby powder test somone posted online where they sprinkled baby powder on there and then sprayed from underneath to see if water is getting in. That was also another issue mine could possibly be. Prior to me changing the third brake light gasket I water tested and there was no water coming from my seal but now I have noticed yesterday that there is water dripping in from my hatch seal. I have also heard stories where someone has went to Toyota multiple times and striped it down & they sealed the entire body frame with a sealant & replaced the carpet @($1200 for just the carpet) it's still leaked so not getting my hopes up. We are a Toyota family & always have been my husband drives a Tundra & we also have a Camry. His previous car was a Corolla we sold to a family member at 280,000 miles on it & it is still going good @well over 300,000 miles now. may just have to switch out for a different model van.

SiennaGirl, i feel your pain on this. same issue, inches and inches of water coming in. i have buckets back there while i research this forever it seems. Right now i am thinking that the issue is the connection between the hood and the hatch, behind/above the spoiler, which is separating a bit from the car and has no seal, so.... THIS i do know: there is no seal or weatherproofing strip between the roof and the hatch, and i can see right into the car through it when open. there is nothing on the DOOR, just the car. i feel like there should be a matching seal on the door to seal up the area above the brake light. all my window seals are going, and their respect door weatherproof strips (if it's on the doors, why not the hatch?) are all peeling away as if never attached/glued ever. leaking from everywhere so that after i drive my hands are wrinkly like i juist took a bath, but its from all the moisture in the car... theres something called DampRid i'm literally about to epoxy the current seals back down and use a generic weatherstrip on the door and sell/trade the damn thing. this is simply NOT worth the aggravation. toyota seriously should be re-gluing these for free, forever, upon request. this vehicle is new to me and i am watching the value of the car heading to $0 in worlds fastest downhill spiral. Someone else unloaded this for the same reason. Report on car was clean, but this thing reminds me of the phrase "lipstick on a pig" and i fell for it.

I had an '06 Sienna and now have an '07. The latter has been leaking, but the former did, too, including water in the tail light. Right now, because of the lockdown, the van sat and now reeks. My daughter had borrowed it for several months and didn't realize what was happening. I need to clean the damn thing, but need to find the problem first. I am dismayed that it is so common yet no one really has an answer. Still, it is good to know, and I REALLY appreciate y'all's efforts.

I too have an '07 Sienna with water leaking in the left rear corner of the cargo well. Our car also has been sitting for a while during the lockdown, and now I'm trying to locate the problem and fix it. Here are a couple of pictures of where water is coming in. The area beneath the third row seats is also very wet. I suspect the gasket needs to be replaced but am discouraged by SiennaGirl's experience. Any advice would be appreciated.

Here's another photo of the corner where water is coming in.

Did anyone get the water leak in the cargo area fixed? I have a 2008 we have taken if all apart, no leak until weather stripping is back. My dad and I are at a loss? Please help if you have suggestions

Hmmmm........ this is all sounding very discouraging :( I have a 2007 Limited and rear cargo has been leaking since 2017 (4 years now). Majority of water is on right side (passenger side of trunk). I checked the a/c drain in cubby where jack is and a/c is draining fine. When water is in cargo area, sometimes some water is sitting in bottom of jack cubby area and other times this area will be completely dry so no consistency here. I put a driveway cover up and have been parking the van there so that has helped with the problem!!!! Two years ago I purchased a 2003 Matrix which has way better gas mileage and doesn't leak so I find myself driving Matrix most of the time leaving van under driveway carport and only driving after checking weather radar - yes, crazy!!!!! I am so tired of having to sop up the water, scrub in baking soda, vinegar, Odorban, and anything else I can find to disinfect and get rid of the moldy/musty smell. I have spent hours and hours (and hours and hours....) reading these forums to help try and diagnose the problem. As so many other's have mentioned, this is a common problem with Toyota's and it's very disappointing that Toyota doesn't help their owners better. It's hard to stay "Toyota Loyal" when Toyota isn't loyal back and doesn't seem to value us as their consumer. I am driving this fall from Florida to Illinois staying for a month before driving back where I won't be driving the Matrix as it's too small (bringing lots of stuff) and not a comfy long distance road trip vehicle (it's the bare stripped down model - 5 speed, manual window cranks, manual locks, etc). I'm hoping to get the Sienna leaks figured out before this trip as I would hate to think I would need to "rent" another vehicle for a road trip when I already own two Toyota vehicles :( I will be trying some of the different suggestions I've seen on the forums, will continue to read and will post if I have any success. I just purchase trimmer line to snake out the front sunroof drain lines and will go from there. GOOD LUCK to all you fellow Toyota owners as I f-e-e-l your pain. I too am tired of looking at a vehicle just sitting under a carport, tired of cleaning up water/carpets and tired of planing my Sienna use around the weather channel :(((((

To all of you thus far, here’s one more person with his pervasive problem. Bought the 2006 sienna at the beginning of COVID with prior plans to start our little family. One year later, I’ve been dealing with leaks in the rear cargo area, as well as the front drivers side(near the door, not center console) floor, then water pooling into and leaking out as I drive, the temperature gauge and behind the front of the headliner. The water leaking from the temperature gauge is enough to soak a partial amount of the passenger side carpet/floor. After tons of research on this issue from other people, I gave in to cutting out the rear cargo area carpet completely, as well as the drivers side carpet. I don’t have any signs what-so-ever of water going through the headliner from the rear hatch to the front, or vice versa, as well as from the floor. The rest of the vans carpet and headliner are completely dry and not water stained. The rear issue got to be so bad from the previous owner of the van, that the seat bolts almost completely rusted out. I’m about to change the weather stripping in both front doors, rear hatch/lift gate, as well as flex seal the windshield for a third time. I will repost back as soon as I can. While this summer has been pretty wet and it’s great for my plants, I now can’t help but get anxiety about the amount of water I’ll end up finding in the van instead.

Update from 3 months ago on Sienna 2007 Limited which has been leaking water into rear right cargo carpet area 4 plus years. To the right of this area on side trim panel is jack cubby area that holds jack equipment and a/c drain hose. A/C hose is in drain properly. When reaching down and towards bumper in this jack cubby, there is a much smaller cubby area that will have water sitting in it when carpet is wet. This small cubby area is near/below rear brake light assembly. From past assessments, water can be in only this small cubby and carpet not wet or water in cubby and carpet wet. It seems that water is filling into this smaller cubby first and when water continues to come in, then gravity forces it to flow (or possibly seep) down and to the left soaking into the cargo carpet. I have done following: 1) sunroof drain lines: was able to snake out front from top to bottom using weed wacker trim line. They were fine. The rear can't be accessed (on this model) from top nor bottom but by taking off side trim panels. Instead of going that route, I drove van up car ramps and poured water and a/c drain line cleaner down top sunroof channels and saw they were draining well. These were fine so continued trying to find what the problem was. 2) rear brake/turn signal assembly: slight gap on these and wondered if seal was compromised causing water to come in. Pulled out assembly and lots of 'gunk' on them and vehicle so cleaned these areas well. Though bulbs were fine, I replaced with LED as once assembly put back in with silicone, didn't want to have to take off anytime soon for changing a burnt out light bulb! Used small piece if weatherstripping in small gap and then RTV silicone used around edges of assembly when re-attaching. Rain tested weeks later and still leaking so..... 3) took off roof rack: feet of these and top of van cleaned well. Put back together using RTV silicone when screwing screws back in and when re-attaching snap on feet covers to include putting RTV silicone on outside of feet. For about a week of mild to moderate rain, no leak!!! Then with much rain in 36 hours from Tropical Storm Elsa, water was sitting in small cubby area but carpet not wet. A small victory for sure but still a leak :( So apparently I had multiple places leaking and roof rack was one but now to figure out the second! This particular model has rear side electric vent windows and thought perhaps water is coming in from here. This past week I taped up the top, rear curve and a bit of the bottom of the window and it has rained twice and so far nothing has come into small cubby. Too early to know for sure as need more days of rain for further testing but this may be the second culprit and more time will tell. Some days I wish I could put a coat of silicone over entire van...... that's when I'm not thinking of gasoline and a match!