Is It Harmful to Have a Small Gap at the Bottom of Trunk Weatherstrip?

Question

I just replaced the trunk weatherstrip on my 1999 Civic coupe because the old one was rotting, rain was getting into the trunk, and I'm pretty sure that was the culprit. The replacement weatherstrip is a Metro brand, and instead of one continuous closed loop, it is an open "length" of strip.

Link provided: http://www.partstrain.com/store/?N=0&src=search&Ntt=M71TK70

I must not have been tugging enough while fitting the thing onto the metal lip of the trunk, because when I finished the job, there was about half an inch gap between the two ends of the weatherstrip. The gap is at the bottom center of the trunk, near the latch.

Is it harmful to have such a gap?

I don't imagine much water will get up through the gap, but since my goal in doing this was to stop water getting in the trunk, it would be silly to leave it as-is if this won't fix the problem.

Answer 1

While it is not imperative that it is completely flush together, it will make a difference. You will have a leak possibility there. This is the reason you replaced the weather stripping in the first place.

What you need to do is stretch the weather stripping down on both sides so it will come together in the middle. If you start at dead center on the top and work outwards on both sides, you should be able to stretch it just a little bit around until it comes together at the bottom. When you get to the bottom, use some weather strip adhesive and glue the two ends together so everything is even and sealed.

If there is absolutely no way for you to stretch the seal even that little bit, what you may be able to do is find a good spot in the old seal, cut out what you need, and fill the gap. Again using weather strip adhesive to glue the ends together to seal it completely.