Hi All,

I had a problem with my Gen2 2006 Prius, water getting into the spare tyre well, and more alarmingly, into the Aux battery (12v) well - about halfway up in both instances.

I wanted to post this in case this could help anyone else in a similar situation - it’s well worth taking the time to check the spare wheel well for water. By chance I needed to use the spare so I came across it, you’ll usually hear a sloshing sound when it gets bad. Also, I had a lot of condensation on the inside of the windscreen.

I really rate my Prius, it’s served me well, but I was pretty worried by water coming in, especially when you’ve got a hybrid battery under the rear bench.

In my case, the roof seam weld seems to be the problem. I checked mine, and they’re not great, turns out mine were letting water in. Slight rust evident on the seam. Some Googling told me I’m not alone with this, other owners reported water ingress down the left-hand side of the boot, flowing into the boot light fitting.

My solution was:

• pop out one of the plugs from the spare wheel well and drain

• wet vac out the battery well (you’ll need a crevice nozzle as space around the battery is fairly tight)

• with the hatch still open, pop off the plastic roof trim at the back on both sides of the car (slight upward pressure should pop it off easily)

• clean the areas around the seams thoroughly and dry

• use a decent waterproof sealant and seal over the seam welds

• once the sealant has gone off, clip the roof trim strip back in

I’ve not had any water ingress since, I’ll be checking the spare wheel well periodically.

I hope this is helpful to another Prius owner out there.

Pootle