Hi all, this is my first post on the forum here – but far from the first I've read. Huge thanks to everyone who's contributed super valuable knowledge here. Really helpful.

I bought a 2012 Fit Sport with 65k miles in July (sorry to not use the lingo) and have doing various small projects improving it.

Yesterday, I went to inflate the spare tire (I assumed it got done when serviced at least, guess not) and found that 1) kind of muddy in there, tire had been used at least once, 2) some rust (?) going, particularly at this one spot. But weirder thing, someone has put in silicon caulking or something? The yellow stuff in the Image below.

So my questions:

1. What is going on here?
2. What is this supposed to look like?
3. What should I do?

My default (based on Googling) would be some and but I'm confused by the caulking.

Thanks so much, all!





Rust spot in spare tire well, FS '12



I'm not that worried about a leak. It hardly rains in California and I park undercover. I might silicon lube the hatch jams and test for a leak, but it's not my major concern right now.