Drilling Hole in tail light to drain water

Right; at the lowest point.

 

Oh lord, that you needed to say that.

sorry, sorry...

 

I'm not seeing a need to take it off the car first. Just leave it in place for drilling.

On my old Accord, I also added a duct tape bridge over the top of the lens assembly to the body, so that water flowing around the hatch rim would flow over the top and outside of the lens assembly, not go down the space between assembly and car body to find the little gap that had formed in the foam seal as it aged and dried and shrank a bit. Not having had this problem in a Prius, I haven't looked for a similar water intrusion point.

 

I drilled through the face on my Accord lens, just as your blue dot is placed. I think it was a 1/8" drill bit, or very similar.

But I offer that only as what I did, not what you should do. And nothing happened to make me regret it. But my case is just a single sample, let others chime in with any additional experience or observations.

My spouse's Integra later had a similar problem. For that, I ended up pulling the bulb out, placed a small tube in, and suctioned the water out. Left one bulb out for a week or two for better air drying (that car has 2 brake/tail light bulbs per side, so this left an active bulb on each side during this drying week). And duct taped over the suspected water path to prevent more coming in. If your 2012 'c' has replaceable incandescent bulbs, this might also work. But if it has non-replaceable LEDs, then there may be no similar access path to insert a suction tube.

 

Actually nobody said to "take it off" because that probably is NOT necessary.
You should be able to drill a tiny hole in the very bottom of the lens where the water is accumulating.
Then it might take a few days for it to all clear out. Sitting in the sun will help speed that process.

Note: No offense intended but given what you have already said, maybe you should find a friend who is good with a drill to do this FOR you.

 

Yes. Exactly.

 

Front ?
NO. Drill the hole right where your blue dot is; the lowest point that will access that cavity.
You are trying to make this MUCH harder than it really IS.

 

Let us know how this goes.

And how is water entering the assembly?
(Some epoxy may help as a seal)
In my experience if you drill a hole and leave the hole open, you will have a fogging/ moisture issue.

FWIW I would drill more inconspicuously and drill the housing not the lens.
From the bottom surface or at an angle from the side on the liftgate side.
Repeating, not drilling through the lens face.
Not sure if the asm. need to be removed to do this more stealthy or not.

Good luck.

 

And that would not be a good idea because trying to make it too "inconspicuous" might also make it ineffective.
And something might get broken in the process.
Likely that nobody in the WHOLE world will notice a tiny little hole in the lens except the person who put it there.

There already is an air leak somewhere from a faulty seal.
Trying to find and fix that is NOT worth the trouble.
Except maybe for hybrid owners with a bad case of OCD.

 

No accumulation. Maybe just a tad bit of "fog".
Under most conditions, you should see nothing at all once it dries out.

UNTIL there is a heavy rain again........which is likely where the water came from in the first place.

 

For what its worth:

I went with new lenses from a discounttoyotaparts website. $75-80 each.

I love the look of the brand new lens.

Also, removing them off the car to drain was quick and easy. I just didn't like pondwater residue left behind.

 

If you can find the right place to add some duct tape, then the water won't return.

 

AND.....in the process of doing that, did you find and fix the spot in the gasket where the water was coming IN ??
If not, it likely will happen again.

AND.....Duct tape is NOT a good way to fix that.
A new gasket or some proper gasket sealer is much better.