HELP mME PLEASE! Severe water leak/damage from tailgate.

[Monke]

Do I need to worry about damages to electrical modules and mold?

We did not have a lot of rain in town but I went to another city and there was some rain for several hours. The leaks seem to be very serious. Leaks were everywhere from inside tailgate. Water is dripping from switches, lights and trims. Water went below the trunk compartment. Felts are wet and you can see sitting water. This is crazy.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

All the high voltage wiring is designed to be watertight, so you don't need to worry about that. But the 12 V wiring isn't. I would suggest you dry everything that's wet as much as you can, and if you have a dehumidifier, you run it inside the car, ideally with the drain leading to outside the car. You'll obviously also need to figure out where the leak is coming from, but (assuming it's out of the rain now) the first order of business is to dry out the car. If you have trim removal tools, you should try to remove the trim from inside the tailgate to dry out in there too. Is it possible that the tailgate was slightly open in the rain?

 

[Monke]

All the high voltage wiring is designed to be watertight, so you don't need to worry about that. But the 12 V wiring isn't. I would suggest you dry everything that's wet as much as you can, and if you have a dehumidifier, you run it inside the car, ideally with the drain leading to outside the car. You'll obviously also need to figure out where the leak is coming from, but (assuming it's out of the rain now) the first order of business is to dry out the car. If you have trim removal tools, you should try to remove the trim from inside the tailgate to dry out in there too. Is it possible that the tailgate was slightly open in the rain?

Thank you for the advice. It is good to know that HV wires are safe. Tailgate was closed properly until I opened it under the roof. That was when I saw water pouring from the height adjust switch. I kept seeing water every time I opened the tailgate even after I wiped dry all water. After the rain stopped, I checked the trunk sure enough there were still dripping water and sitting water inside the tailgate.

The back of the car started to have musty smell. I am bringing the car to dealer in couple days for cracks above the door buttons. Hopefully, they can take car of the leaks. Last time when I brought the car in for a back camera replacement, the car came back with very strong WD-40 smell for weeks. I was wondering why WD-40 was used to replace back up camera. It could be that the technician saw water and tried to dry it with WD-40.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

If it were me I would order a dehumidifier from Amazon and run it 24/7 whenever the car isn't being used. I'd also keep the windows open (all this assumes you have a safe place to park it out of the elements). And I'd open up whatever can be opened in the tailgate to dry it out. The last thing you want is a musty smell. That will ruin your car and kill its resale value. I also recommend you get a few of these and keep them in the back until the problem is resolved. They help remove the musty smell, but obviously you'll need to back to be dry for it to not return!

 

[Monke]

If it were me I would order a dehumidifier from Amazon and run it 24/7 whenever the car isn't being used. I'd also keep the windows open (all this assumes you have a safe place to park it out of the elements). And I'd open up whatever can be opened in the tailgate to dry it out. The last thing you want is a musty smell. That will ruin your car and kill its resale value. I also recommend you get a few of these and keep them in the back until the problem is resolved. They help remove the musty smell, but obviously you'll need to back to be dry for it to not return!

Thank you. I have my MME in my garage when I am at home and use a portable fan to circulate the air inside the car. The air is quite dry here in West Texas. I can only hope this will help. I am lucky that I have an appointment with the dealer tomorrow. I was not planning to make an appointment for just cracks above the lock buttons but I had the feeling at that time that I must made an appointment. That was three weeks ago. I texted my contact at the dealership and sent pictures to service department. Hope they get the memo and ready for a leaky MME.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Thank you. I have my MME in my garage when I am at home and use a portable fan to circulate the air inside the car. The air is quite dry here in West Texas. I can only hope this will help. I am lucky that I have an appointment with the dealer tomorrow. I was not planning to make an appointment for just cracks above the lock buttons but I had the feeling at that time that I must made an appointment. That was three weeks ago. I texted my contact at the dealership and sent pictures to service department. Hope they get the memo and ready for a leaky MME.

Good luck! I hope it goes smoothly. Regarding the cracks above the door lock buttons, I'll be curious to hear what your dealer says about them. It's a pretty widespread issue - my GT didn't have them a few months ago, but it does now on all four doors. I've heard varying stories about whether or not dealerships/Ford will replace parts that exhibit the issue...

 

[Monke]

@JohnFoxeSheets
Dang. The tailgate button stop working this morning. It could be the update from yesterday evening or water intrusion from the weekend finally kills some electrical wires.

 

[Maquis]

@JohnFoxeSheets
Dang. The tailgate button stop working this morning. It could be the update from yesterday evening or water intrusion from the weekend finally kills some electrical wires.

Likely caused by the water. I don’t recall reports of the button function being affected by updates (Yet).

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Likely caused by the water. I don’t recall reports of the button function being affected by updates (Yet).

I agree. Luckily you can still manually close the tailgate, but obviously you'll want to get it fixed along with everything else! Good luck at the dealership today!

 

[DaMeatMan]

Do I need to worry about damages to electrical modules and mold?

We did not have a lot of rain in town but I went to another city and there was some rain for several hours. The leaks seem to be very serious. Leaks were everywhere from inside tailgate. Water is dripping from switches, lights and trims. Water went below the trunk compartment. Felts are wet and you can see sitting water. This is crazy.

Just out of curiosity, have you had your vehicle in for recall service on the glass roof and windshield?

I ask because that is some extremely serious leakage, and it appears to me like your glass roof is not properly sealed and my mind wonders if that is from the factory during manufacturing, or if you took it in for recall service and got one of those bone heads that did not read the recall instructions, and pulled off the entire roof and then tried to reseal it? For context roof glass should (NOT) be removed as part of that recall. If it was its extremely unlikely it would have been reinstalled and sealed correctly with the typical tools a regular glass installer has on hand.

 

[Monke]

I agree. Luckily you can still manually close the tailgate, but obviously you'll want to get it fixed along with everything else! Good luck at the dealership today!

The tailgate button is working again. When I was ready to leave the house, I tried to open the tailgate again but it still did not open. So I opened the car door and I tried the tailgate but it did not work. I switched on/off the accessories but the tailgate button still did not work. I had enough at that point so I took the key out and pressed lock/unlock many times then left it at unlock and viola-the tailgate button worked. The dealership has the car now. They were very nice. They offered high trim ices for me to pick as a loaner.

 

[Peaceowl]

Numerous posts below about leaks in tailgate.. good luck to you, and I hope you are in good hands.

 

[Monke]

Just out of curiosity, have you had your vehicle in for recall service on the glass roof and windshield?

I ask because that is some extremely serious leakage, and it appears to me like your glass roof is not properly sealed and my mind wonders if that is from the factory during manufacturing, or if you took it in for recall service and got one of those bone heads that did not read the recall instructions, and pulled off the entire roof and then tried to reseal it? For context roof glass should (NOT) be removed as part of that recall. If it was its extremely unlikely it would have been reinstalled and sealed correctly with the typical tools a regular glass installer has on hand.

I have a select. It was the only one to become available at the time. The dealership has the car. It looks like they are planning to run it through a car wash when a tech is looking from the inside. This is going to be interesting. Hope they will figure out the leaky spots. Even though I like MME a lot but it feels good not to have it in a garage and have to wake up and think what the next issue will be.

The first car that I bought by myself was an old SC2 with over 100k miles. I did not have to worry about reliability until a bone head used silicone glue to give an extra seal for the water pump. That was over a year after I bought it for less than $2k.

 

[mkhuffman]

If your car does develop a musty smell, you can probably get rid of it with an ozone machine. Ozone kills organic material - even bugs and small rodents if is strong enough. So obviously you don't want to breathe it into your lungs. First you need to stop the leak and dry out the car, of course. Then you can take care of the smell, if necessary.

 

[OON7]

Edit: I should say, maybe remove the taillights, not sure why I'm assuming they would have to haha, but I think the possibility still stands that it could be getting in through the lights.
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You mentioned they replaced your rear camera. That likely means they had to remove the trim and rear taillights. It's possible they did not properly reseal the lights when they put the car back together.

There was a TSB for water intrusion (if observed) for rear taillights on 2021s and the resolution was to add sealant when reinstalling. I personally replaced a taillight on my previous Mach-E, a 21 Select, and I saw first hand it would be very easy for water to leak into the tailgate from the rear taillights if not properly sealed and torqued.

I obviously have no idea if that's what happened, but I think it's definitely a possibility the water got in via the taillights.

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