HELP: Battery leak from bed light?

[fatherofwood165]

Hi all,

Just picked up my Lariat hybrid a week ago (!!!) and I'm absolutely loving it so far. It's been my dream car since this summer and I got insanely lucky at the dealer.

However, I was loading up some junk in the bed today when I noticed some weird grey gunk around the bed light on the driver's side next to the tailgate. It was difficult to notice at first because I live in New England and the whole truck is coated in salt right now. It's only around the rubber button and under the light, as well as in a line along the bottom edge of the bed liner. It looks exactly like a leak from a corroded battery, but I didn't know there was a battery back there that could be corroded.

Pictures attached. Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone know what could be going on with it? Is it something I can fix, or should I take it to the dealer?

Help appreciated!

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[Johnkn]

No battery, it’s salt from the open floor beneath.

Look up under the truck on that side behind the rear drivers side tire.

I would pull the panel and light out, insure everything is clean, and reinstall with the thinest bead of silicone (in order to allow removal in the future) to insure a seal against the spray-in bed liner.

Good luck.



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[Builder]

Looks like some of that New England road salt solution that kicked up into the empty cavity behind the driver side rear wheel and leaked out of the bed light housing. With the bed light and socket installed, there is no cubby on the driver side to partially block the road salt/ debris kick up especially if you don’t have mud flaps to help minimize the issue. Some folks have even seen similar leakage from the driver side tail light. If you look underneath and behind the driver side rear wheel, you can see clear up to the tail light. Lots of posts on the empty cavity issue.

 

[fatherofwood165]

Looks like some of that New England road salt solution that kicked up into the empty cavity behind the driver side rear wheel and leaked out of the bed light housing. With the bed light and socket installed, there is no cubby on the driver side to partially block the road salt/ debris kick up especially if you don’t have mud flaps to help minimize the issue. Some folks have even seen similar leakage from the driver side tail light. If you look underneath and behind the driver side rear wheel, you can see clear up to the tail light. Lots of posts on the empty cavity issue.

Interesting. It's a shocking amount of salt solution we have going on up here, so that makes sense.

On the topic of salt, is there anything else I should do to protect the empty cavity from corrosion from the salt?

I appreciate your help on this.

 

[Builder]

I’m a New Englander as well so I live and hate the salt issue. After rinsing/cleaning the cavity surface to remove the salt and addressing the housing seal as Johnkn suggested above, an application of Fluid Film would be an easy solution to the corrosion potential with annual respray in the cavity prior to each winter season. I absolutely love Fluid Film.

 

[OleFordGuy]

Making one of these would pretty much cure the issue going forward
https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/f...underbody-cavity-behind-left-rear-tire.43408/

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