P38A Tailgate rubber seal

Thought i'd change my tailgate seal after catching up on a few other jobs. Mighty surprised to see prices well over £100 for this length of rubber!! Cheapest I found was £80 from Britpart.
Just wondered if anyone had bought off the shelf/by the meter rubber seal as you can find on the bay and amazon; and if they had any success/happy with what they bought.
I'm getting on in years, and it's been some time since I asked for advice on buying rubbers!

Best I can find are the £80/£100 options
A lot for a rubber even a really long one

@Dopey type of question, possibly @DanClarke ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alfa-Rom...uarnizioni-cofano-posteriore-new/223471321772
Wondered if this might do the job?

Pull a bit off and compare. At that price you could buy a metre and test it matches.

RangeRoller dt said:

Best I can find are the £80/£100 options
A lot for a rubber even a really long one

@Dopey type of question, possibly @DanClarke ?

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I did not change mine in the end and the swimming pool in the boot has not returned as far as I know.

Grrrrrr said:

Pull a bit off and compare. At that price you could buy a metre and test it matches.

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Yep, I think that's what I'll do. I'll report back when it arrives.

DanClarke said:

I did not change mine in the end and the swimming pool in the boot has not returned as far as I know.

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Hi Dan. What did you do to fix yours?
I'm getting a small leak on the top right side - only when it rains really hard. Can see a few water splatters on the top parcel shelf. I'm going to bend the corner flange out a few mil (as I think Land Rover once advised) and see if that makes a difference.

kevwill said:

Hi Dan. What did you do to fix yours?
I'm getting a small leak on the top right side - only when it rains really hard. Can see a few water splatters on the top parcel shelf. I'm going to bend the corner flange out a few mil (as I think Land Rover once advised) and see if that makes a difference.

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I don't know what/If i did anything at all, to be honest.
Finding the spare wheel well 1/2 full surprised me no end, and I still do not know how/why the water got in there. But I managed top remove it and it has never re-appeared. As you say, there was a bulletin about bending the metal to improve the sealing, but I did nothing and it has never re-occurred.

Update time. Bent the corner flange (just the right side) out just a couple of mm with me big pliers (I think the recommended was 5mm but didn't go that far). Refitted the old seal and washed the car with the hose pipe from all angles. Hoorah! No leak/dripping water.
Once again I've missed the opportunity of buying extra long rubbers

kevwill said:

Update time. Bent the corner flange (just the right side) out just a couple of mm with me big pliers (I think the recommended was 5mm but didn't go that far). Refitted the old seal and washed the car with the hose pipe from all angles. Hoorah! No leak/dripping water.
Once again I've missed the opportunity of buying extra long rubbers

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A smear of silicone grease on the rubber also helps

Funnily enough I used my trusty pot of vaseline around the whole seal, which made a difference.
'Rubber', 'Vaseline' - feel like this belongs on a different forum.

Datatek said:

A smear of silicone grease on the rubber also helps

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Doesn't petroleum jelly cause the rubber to deteriorate and loosen? Wouldn't silicone grease be a better option?

Now we are talking the pros and cons of different types of lubricant @kevwill!

EntropyUK said:

Doesn't petroleum jelly cause the rubber to deteriorate and loosen? Wouldn't silicone grease be a better option?

Now we are talking the pros and cons of different types of lubricant @kevwill!

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Personally I would not use petroleum jelly, I'm pretty sure the seal is not real rubber but synthetic. I know for sure that silicone has no adverse effect.

Petroleum jelly only degrades real rubber (made from rubber tree). Modern 'rubber' seals and 'o' rings are made from polymers i.e. neoprene etc - so vaseline is fine to use. Suppliers often recommend using it when fitting new 'o' rings for example.