Leak through trunk handle

Not too many places for water to seep in there, rubber wire protectors in upper corners and window seal are about it.

 

I had this issue too. Just once; I couldn't reproduce the leak on my driveway. I used my hose and sprayed my entire trunk area, all the seams, at every angle, and couldn't get it to leak again. I chalked it up to condensation, trunk was dry and charging cable storage area was dry. I back into my driveway on about an 8 degree slope, so water does collect on my bumper/tailgate sill when it rains.

There may be a solution to this. I just received my new registration tags and had to remove my license plate to install the tags. There are several large holes back there and no sealant of any kind back there to keep water out. Could this be the location of our mystery leak? I'm going to tape it up with HVAC aluminum tape and some duct tape over the license plate screw holes, so I can punch through with my license plate screws and still get a decent seal.

Can someone check the assembly diagrams to see if license plate area is sealed-off from the interior trunk space?

 

I doubt it’d be the holes the license plate bolts screw into. Just for the heck of it put a drop of oil on the threads of those bolts though.

 

That plastic handle in your video is a snap in fit. You can remove it by hand. Same as all the other plastic moldings around the inside boot window. If you start with the handle and remove it (it snaps back in easily) the other moldings can be pulled off so you can try to find the leak, (the upper moldings may need to be removed before the lower moldings, I can't recall exactly which order, so keep that in mind if you do pull them).

Beware, leaks back there can be bewildering to find. I had a trunk leak with a Dodge Intrepid, had it fixed at a body shop for a couple hundred $$, but the shop couldn't find the leak after 4 return visits and actually gave up. I found it eventually by chance one day noticing the trickle snake around the tail light assembly. It was an easy fix once I found the source.

 

sure, anytime. One thing I forgot to mention, it;s 100 times easier to pull the plastic panels in warm weather. I just mentioned that last week in another thread and completely forgot about how plastic in cold weather has an innate tendency to crack and split when it's cold and brittle, like on snowy days. And I just cracked two plastic snow shovels in as many days by leaving them outside in single digit F / -15 C nights.
I'll keep my fingers crossed the boot stays dry at very least as long as the cold weather persists.

 

Prime/plug-in

It's more than likely simple condensation. I washed the car last week and cleaned the lift gate glass. There were white spots on the inside glass along the lower defroster heat grids, when boot is closed - upper grids when boot is open. They appear to be calcium deposits, from hard water - I didn't test it but it came off easily with windscreen washer.
I also noticed a weep hole in the center carbon fiber lower hatch deck. Any water incursion behind the license plate would end up draining out there; outside the boot gasket sealing off the trunk area onto the bumper deck lip.
The grab handle are slightly higher than the weep hole area and I believe any moisture is channeled toward this center weep hole. If one side of the car is higher that the other, right to left or left to right, the water channel is disrupted and we get water leaking out of the grab handle on the lower side of the car. That's my guess. The water coming out around the grab handle could only be measured in drops. That's why I speculating that it's condensation. We haven't had any major rain storms or high humidity days since the last time my handle leaked; but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

 

Thanks; Keep us informed on where that leak may be coming from.