My 97 2500 van roof brake light is leaking. I think the gasket is bad. There may have been a bad repair done.

Best fix?

Thanks, Lynx06

 

Umm...a new gasket?

 

I do not know if a new gasket is easily obtainable.

I have run a nice even bead of silicone caulk around the plastic, and let it completely dry, then installed it.

If somebody else tried to seal it in place, you might break the plastic trying to remove it.

Nothing really likes to bond to silicone, so make sure all mating surfaces are pristine.

 

You can get sheets of gasket material at most any auto parts store and cut it to shape. The downside to using a sealer like RTV or silicone is whenever a bulb blows you have to break the seal and do it all over each time.

 

Read my post again. I recommended running the bead of RTV or silicone on one mating surface, and letting it dry completely, then installing it.

 

No!

I know this that's why I didn't quote that part of it. I was just throwing a warning out against the temptation to just seal it up with RTV/silicone.

 

Perhaps you should just find a direct replacement gasket for the guy

 

Thanks, The gasket is a dealier part I think. I will check with them and see what they have. They may also have something else to seal it that can be easily removed. With the gasket I can then silicone the roof side. I will need to get UV rated silicone or marine rated.

 

Personally, I would never use anything silicone near electrical in a vehicle. The contacts between the bulb and the connector will fail in time. It may fail sooner since heat on the roof with cause the reaction to be faster due to the out-gassing.

Silicone contamination of electrical contacts can lead to failures by causing an increase in contact resistance, often late in the life of the contact, well after any testing is completed or sooner if heat allows for volatile out-gassing. Use of silicone-based spray products in electronic devices during maintenance or repairs can cause later or sooner failures. - Dow Corning Chemical

At this time, Ford is banning many silicone types in current and newer vehicles. Other vehicle manufactures have done this for safety related systems of a vehicle too.

 

Thanks, I went to Dodge and thay wanted to sell me the entire brake light kit for $ 70+ and NOT JUST the gasket.

Interesting about silicone. The main reason that I do not want to use it is when you have to re-aply nothing will stick to it. It gets into the pores of everything and it has to be gotton out if you want anything to seal. I am going to use a lot of the marine 3M product 5200 or the slower drying 4200.

No wonder Dodge does not make the cargo van anymore.