08 Corolla Hatch Water Leak (not AC)

[08Corollahatch]

Hi guys, am new to the forum so first of all, nice to be part of the family.

Secondly, apologies if this has been covered elsewhere - but i searched and couldn't see it.

The issue - i recently bought an 08 Corolla 5 door hatch as a cheap car - its got 140,000km on it and generally appears to be in reasonable mechanical condition (the clear coat is atrocious, but that's another story - i'll do a search on home made re clear coating once i resolve the current issue). the body has had some parking bumps, but nothing outrageous (that i can tell!).

Anyway, i was servicing it yesterday and noticed the rear passenger footwell was wet, like, press your hand into is and it comes out obviously wet. the front passenger footwell is dry as far as i can tell.

Now i have looked on the net re this issue and a lot of Toyotas appear to have an issue with a clogged AC drain - i checked this and the drain is clear - the other issue appears to be a bad heater coil - but i understand that would leak coolant and would smell - it seemed to only be water.

The circumstances - there was some rain the night before - so that seems to indicate to me that it might be an exterior leak. i have looked for obvious signs of a gap which would let water in, but to no avail. The car was parked on the street, and would have been angled to the LH side leaning slightly towards the front (facing the lower part of the street).

The Question - does anyone have any recommendations for obvious areas to check on the Corolla for water leakage - and at the same time any tips on how to check if that spot is in fact the culprit? is there anything else that this could be?

Any help much appreciated.

 

Cheers all.

[08Corollahatch]

So, it turns out the rear tail lights were definitely leaking - the gaskets were completely worn, so have been replaced.

Unfortunately there is still a leak at the back - looks to be under the bumper, so that's next to come off. I wonder if there is also potentially a leak in the roof gutters also as there are some small cracks in that  under the weather strip. this might lead to water getting between the seams as this appears to be a leak also (see Leak 1 in the below
photos).

I had focussed on this because it was the most obvious sign of water getting in - but would that make its way the passenger rear foot well? or is it simply one of the many leaks i have found. The previous owner had removed the grommets in the floor of the spare wheel well also (which was pooling water) so was obviously well aware of the issue... nice one.

Anyway, here are some pics showing my lunch time explorations today (this is in the driver's side of the boot of the car).

This has been going on for a while obviously, wheel well is wet, and mouldy goop on the floor and sealer -  but anyone got any comment on the pink sealer? is that factory?

Cheers