_snowbird_

Hi Mike - unfortunately this is not a great pic of the gap, but in this photo you can see where the sealant oozes through the backing at a connection point. So the sealant/caulking does exist and was used to mount the red plastic to the black backing. But if you inspect along the seam between the red reflector plastic and the black backing, you should NOT be able to see into behind the reflector.

For example, I am easily able to slide a piece of paper through this seam into the reflector unit. There should be the black caulking/sealant along this entire seam that prevents you from doing that (and prevents water from getting in).

_snowbird_

Ah - this stuff is aka "gorilla snot" and is used to seal vapour barriers behind door cards etc. It could work, but would be a pretty fiddly exercise vs running a thin bead of sealant/caulk along the seam.

mike cap

Thank you for the photo. I am going to pull my new one off and take a look.

_snowbird_

I picked up a tube, and this is not an appropriate product to fill any type of gap.

The 3M black weatherstripping adhesive dries very flat. It almost looks like black paint once dry.

I made this comparison of the 3M adhesive vs an RTV silicone gasket product. I laid a thick line of the 3M to see if it would maintain its shape and volume (to fill a gap), but it quickly flattened out. The bumps you see are because I tried to run a bead of the product, but if used as directed it would lay very flat.

HalfGerman

I would second deutschnine's suggestion and suggest butyl rubber, like 3M window weld ribbon sealer.

Should be available wherever body shop supplies are sold. For my old '96 Audi S6, butyl rubber was factory for the tail light gasket. I have also used it to seal a door panel leak on my '04 Passat. For the door panel, the stuff I got was too big in diameter so I just stretched it to the desired diameter.

deutschnine

Thanks and yes, stretch or trim in half with a craft or scalpel knife does the trick

_snowbird_

I thought I concluded my story, but apparently not

I masked off the reflector plastic and back plastic to create a clean, straight line for the RTV sealant to go into. I squeezed a bead of the sealant into the gap, and wiped it with a gloved finger - like you do with caulking. Then immediately pull off the masking tape to reveal a clean, sealed line. Do NOT leave the tape on while the RTV dries. You will not be able to get it off once the RTV cures, and you'll be in for a challenge to trim off the tape.

Worked perfectly. I have not had any water intrusion issues since doing this.

AOW162435

^ Nice clean solution.



Andreas

NLScooby

Wow - nice work! I just ordered a new rear center section as well and will be unboxing it this weekend....and will certainly be looking for this issue. Thanks for following up with your successful solution!