Leaky Brake Light Fixed

[Lin19687]

Anyone ever use this to seal other things on the Ram ?

 

[T_Unit114]

Just a heads up y'all, I got this stuff off the shelf at home Depot and Lowe's website also shows in store stock. In case you need it same day (my case)

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[brad_12]

Well finally had the famous 3rd brake light leak!

Had a couple of water lines over time, but nothing excessive until I went through the car wash the other day. Had about a 2 inch circle wet spot, but no dripping and then turned into a pretty large water stain. I know still not as bad as some of you have had.

Bought this gasket on amazon and did it exactly like Burla and after 2 days of rain no water spots or lines!

 

[JB1]

I changed the gasket on mine before it leaked

 

[Hemi395]

I changed the gasket on mine before it leaked

Same here, I replaced mine before it leaked. I recently had water in the storage compartments under the back seat. Turned out to be the drain holes in the rear slider were clogged, but I checked the 3rd brake light that I sealed with MD 3 years ago and it was perfectly dry inside.

So his definitely is a permanent fix that allows easy removal of the third brake light to change bulbs.

 

[bfill_rebel]

I used this:

https://www.detroitmuscletechnologi...ght-gasket-chmsl-leak-repair-adhesive-backed/

Worked great. Replaced mine before any issues occcured


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[Hemi832]

Hadn't delt with this leaking but went ahead and replaced the gasket.
Redo

 

[chrisbh17]

When replacing the gasket, have the lower piece "inboard" of the upper piece that goes around the corners and down to the bottom.

That way any water that runs down around the top piece has no chance to get caught by edges of the bottom piece and possibly find its way into the cab.

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[Hemi832]

I noticed that, have to redo it in the am.

 

[brad_12]

Love how it's nice and snug sealed. Such a great improvement and still removeable like you said.

 

[T_Unit114]

When replacing the gasket, have the lower piece "inboard" of the upper piece that goes around the corners and down to the bottom.

That way any water that runs down around the top piece has no chance to get caught by edges of the bottom piece and possibly find its way into the cab.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I'll second this. You want water to shed off the outside edges. If there's a gap, there's a possibility of having water intrusion along that horizontal seam. Of course I thought of this after doing it the wrong way so I peeled it all off and did it over [emoji1787][emoji1787]

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[Burla]

Yeah, I see the first pic is a little misleading, imo it was done right, but the pic is upside down. Hasn't leaked at all, now going on 5 years.

 

[Hemi395]

I think you'll be good either way as long as the seams where the 2 pieces come together are tight. When you tighten the third brake light down they should compress together forming a leak proof seal....

 

[NETim]

MD 01033 Member #74

 

[Bigpaul13]

Thanks for the write up, my 2017 started leaking this week. The one thing I did notice on my truck is that the gap between the light and the truck is slightly larger on the left (drivers) side. Is anyone's else's like this?

 

[RamCares]

Thanks for the write up, my 2017 started leaking this week. The one thing I did notice on my truck is that the gap between the light and the truck is slightly larger on the left (drivers) side. Is anyone's else's like this?

Sorry for the trouble, @Bigpaul13. If you decide to address this with your dealer and you are in need of any support for that process, please do not hesitate to reach out to us via private message!

Mark
RamCares

 

[BassMasterK]

TLDR: Even if you don't see water stains on your cab roof fabric, you can still have the 3rd brake light leak. If I had to do it over again, I would go with the Home D/Lowes homemade rubber gasket fix over the detroit replacement gasket.

Figured I would post if this helps others. I had water under the passanger back seat like others here. I had no stains on my roof fabric so I thought it must be the cabin air exhaust vents behind the seats. Took the seats out and sure enough, there were many of the vents missing and when I ran the hose between the bed and the cabin, some water came in. Not a lot, but some. Since I didn't see any water damage on my roof fabric I figured this had to be the problem. Got new vents, put them in, super easy. Tested with the hose again, dry as could be. Reassembled everything and was happy to have the problem behind me.

A few weeks later I felt under the seat again, just so I could pat myself on the back for a job well done and my hand goes into about an inch of water. Out come the seats again. I thought it might be a window seal issue so I hosed very slowly around the window while my son was inside the cab and as soon as I got to the 3rd brake light he starts yelling there is a waterfall and he wasn't exaggerating. It was still going when I jumped out of the bed to look. I decided to go with the replacement gasket from the place in Detroit over the home made fix here. I don't know why but it made me feel better to have an improved part more closely resembling the original idea the manufacturer had. I ordered it from the detroit place online and I will say their service was great. I am not badmouthing their business here. It got here and I noted that it didn't really look any thicker than the original one still stuck to my light, but I figured I'd still go for it. it is supposed to be made out of better material. I also noted that the dealer must have done a "fix" on the original gasket when I had it in on a recall because there was black RTV like silicon stuck to the truck where the gasket sat. I got all that cleaned off, cleaned off the light, prepped it and stuck the new gasket on. On the first test, water was still coming through. Since I had it on already and I had black RTV, I decided to go ahead and just do the same fix the dealer did but this time as opposed to what it looked like the dealership did, I used the gasket as a mold and ran a pretty thick seam of the RTV not just on the top of the gasket, but also used a finger to create a seal on the outside rim of the gasket, all the way around so that any water that comes down there would only be contacting the silicon, not the gasket. Got that in place, let it dry 24 hours and tested it out with 5 minutes of heavy water and it is dry inside.

It didn't make me feel great though, that I basically did an improved job of what was already done, which failed. So I'll be checking under the seat in the rainy season once in a while. If/when this fails, I'll just be doing what others suggested here and getting the rubber seal at Home D and make my own. Just wanted to add my experience and let anyone looking know that just becuase you don't see water damage on the cab roof fabric, doesn't mean it isn't the 3rd brake light. I'll consider myself lucky there is no sign of water damage.

Thanks to everyone who posted on this forum and this thread. I read a lot of threads about this, and this one was the one that had the most and best info.

 

[mtofell]

Got my truck in March of 2014 and within a couple months it leaked and shorted out the bulb. I did a fix very similar to OP and it's help for 8 years. I think the most common people to have the problem are those that park outside facing uphill so the water runs across the light. Of course, driving in rain would elevate your chances too.

As a (funny) aside, I love to see "Ramcares" helping out with this. I went through two (well documented on here) tranny failures and never heard a word. I'm glad to see their ready to go to bat for someone with a leaking light cover.... LOL.

 

[danielmid]

My gasket from Detroit Muscle Tech started leaking yesterday (installed Jan 2023, so less than a year). So I went and picked up the recommended gasket from Home Depot, scraped all the old gasket and gunk off, installed the new gasket and reinstalled the light.

Supposed to rain more this weekend so we'll see how it works. Currently have a little heater fan keeping the truck at 72 to dry things out.

 

[ANGLICO]

It isn't a gasket, it is a roll. You can buy that MD anywhere, I do believe I got mine on Amazon or Ebay, I forget which one.

All of the stuff didn't bother me, but I had a Barry Bonds poster I got when I went to a playoff game, can't be replaced. I'm a big Giants fan, oh well.

Water tested, that totally fixes it. Super easy to remove the old gasket, even though it is glued it comes right off with a gentle touch. MD stuff self adhesive glues itself right over old spot, no cleaning even required. When you screw the light back in, go slow, it really grabs the seal well. The MD seals the void so much better then the thin gasket. Kinda stupid Dodge could have that fixed long ago. I used maybe 3 dollars worth of MD, so cheap fix.

Sucks about the OPs Barry Bonds poster being ruined by the water.

Lived about 400 yards from Barry Bonds when he lived at the top of Farm Hill in Redwood City. Use to wave to him in his black Porsche. Even though he did not know me from a pile of beans, he would always wave back.