Literal Hole In The Spare Tirew Well. What A Mess!

[ED.]

Hey guys. I apologize for not checking in more often! I dont know a whole lot about these cars but even posting something would be nice! Driving the 96 we have makes me want a Lexus for myself more and more.

On that-I do not drive this car a lot. Mostly it is my younger sister who does since our other BMW is a bit tougher to drive so my father tends to and I take my 740. My 740 though is in a for a tranny service so I am driving this one since my sister didnt need it. Went to a BMW buddies today and he helped me clean it up and believe me it was a mess. My sister is not tidy at all and I am very strict and anal about that so I have spent the last few days really cleaning it up. Then I got to the trunk.

I noticed there was something up with something back there. Didnt feel right and it was a mess so I took everything out to clean it and noticed how much water was back there. I thought something had leaked or spilled and my lazy family didnt clean it up. What I ended up find though was a 2" long crack in the bottom of the tire wheel and had me drawn back. 'No way' I was thinking. I guess that explained all the water. I mean when I took that piece of fabric that the tire fits into out it was literally dripping water. Luckily today it was 60 so I had it in the sun and its mostly dry. Tomorrow I finish it off but man it was weird. I will take pictures tomorrow but I am guessing that water from the road worked its way into that area and actually rusted the spare. Its insane. Has this happened to anyone else before?

I dont know what to do besides take a hammer and try to close up the crack and put caulk in it. It was just dripping wet in there and disgusting. Poor car! Plus the radi is giong nuts. I am watching a Nakamichi headunit on eBay and going to email the seller to see if it will work. Is there a way to have the old one fixed if that one doesnt work?

TIA,

[SRK]

My 92 had a gallon of water in the spare tire well when I looked last. Obviously the trunk seal - water doesn't come up through the holes, it goes down. So I drilled a few small holes in the bottom to allow it to run out. I also cut a wedge out of the one of the rubber plugs in the well under the power antenna, because that area had previously accumulated some water. Not a big deal.

[ED.]

You know we washed it after that and I still hadn't put that big piece back in and when I opened it I saw some water in there and cleaned it out. Is drilling holes the fix for this then? I imagine that if it is indeed the seal like you said then it must of leaked in from the snow we had here. Im not sure how often the car is driven by her but it is out in the street so it may of been sitting there in it. Man that stinks. At first I thought something had leaked out because the main area was wet. I need to look into a permanent fix. Perhaps that crack actually helped the situation.