12V Auxiliary Battery Leaked Acid!

Bikeman · Feb 19, 2012

Shippj: I just got pointed to your post. I found water in both wells on my 06 Prius and cracks in exactly the same place as yours. I cleaned the area thoroughly, scuffed it up with a ScotchBrite pad, and put in a bead of clear silicone. I don't know if I'd depend on paint to seal something that is flexing as it is quite brittle.

GasSippr · Mar 18, 2013

shippj said: ↑

I found my leak! It was in a place I hadn't seen anybody else post a picture of. The crack was so small it was invisible. It had to be only a few molecules wide (haha). I narrowed it down to an area of 1 square inch by process of elimination with a water hose, and still couldn't see the crack! i have perfect eyesight. i painted over it with touchup paint (3 coats) and hosed it down, and it will not leak anymore. In the picture, it looks like the crack is easily visible, but it's really not. the dark line you see is just a fold of factory silicon or something. the crack is next to it. after i took that pic, i scraped off the silicon and also the bracket that holds the strip down and scrapped lots of factory silicon off because i wanted to see the actual crack but i never did. I can tell you it doesn't leak a drop now, and that's the only place i painted. before painting, water was coming through at at least 1 drop per second. If I hadn't seen this for my own eyes, I would never believe that an invisible crack could leak so much water. It's like there was a space-time wormhole outside that was transporting water to the inside!
Click to expand...

What kind of touch up paint did you use? Is it still holding? Currently having the same problem but haven't found the leak yet.

dorunron · Mar 18, 2013

shippj said: ↑

I found my leak! It was in a place I hadn't seen anybody else post a picture of. The crack was so small it was invisible. It had to be only a few molecules wide (haha). I narrowed it down to an area of 1 square inch by process of elimination with a water hose, and still couldn't see the crack! i have perfect eyesight. i painted over it with touchup paint (3 coats) and hosed it down, and it will not leak anymore. In the picture, it looks like the crack is easily visible, but it's really not. the dark line you see is just a fold of factory silicon or something. the crack is next to it. after i took that pic, i scraped off the silicon and also the bracket that holds the strip down and scrapped lots of factory silicon off because i wanted to see the actual crack but i never did. I can tell you it doesn't leak a drop now, and that's the only place i painted. before painting, water was coming through at at least 1 drop per second. If I hadn't seen this for my own eyes, I would never believe that an invisible crack could leak so much water. It's like there was a space-time wormhole outside that was transporting water to the inside!
Click to expand...

I seem to recall cyberprius posting about this same area leaking on her prius. Glad to see the post's you put up and also glad to see and hear you found the problems and were able to solve it.

You might want to get a can of this stuff and use it instead of the paint or along with it.

Auto Body Shop Paint Supplies 3M 08656 Brushable Seam Sealer for Joined Seams | eBay

Merkey · Mar 23, 2013

shippj said: ↑

I found my leak! It was in a place I hadn't seen anybody else post a picture of. The crack was so small it was invisible. It had to be only a few molecules wide (haha). I narrowed it down to an area of 1 square inch by process of elimination with a water hose, and still couldn't see the crack! i have perfect eyesight. i painted over it with touchup paint (3 coats) and hosed it down, and it will not leak anymore. In the picture, it looks like the crack is easily visible, but it's really not. the dark line you see is just a fold of factory silicon or something. the crack is next to it. after i took that pic, i scraped off the silicon and also the bracket that holds the strip down and scrapped lots of factory silicon off because i wanted to see the actual crack but i never did. I can tell you it doesn't leak a drop now, and that's the only place i painted. before painting, water was coming through at at least 1 drop per second. If I hadn't seen this for my own eyes, I would never believe that an invisible crack could leak so much water. It's like there was a space-time wormhole outside that was transporting water to the inside!
Click to expand...

Merkey · Mar 23, 2013

I never would have guessed this was the source for water entry. I used 3 coats of Toyota touch-up paint and after 2 washes there is no water in trunk areas. I hope this holds. Thanks for the great tip.

frodoz737 · Mar 23, 2013

If your paint seal fails, use RTV next time.

12V Auxiliary Battery Leaked Acid!

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12V Auxiliary Battery Leaked Acid!

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