Hi:

I have a new 2015 Fit and it's been really good so far. I just have a question about it. When I got underneath to look around, I saw that the gas tank appears to covered in many places with some substance that reminds me of caulk. In one place, it looked like it was covering up a place where there could have been a drainage plug for the tank, as if the there was a plug there that had a leak and it was repaired clumsily by caulking it over.

Does anyone know if that's normal?

 

While I haven't gone under my Fit to verify, it's most likely seam sealer applied at the factory - you'll probably find it in other places underneath, too. I had to replace the floor pans in both early '60s Beetles I'm restoring and used seam sealer to ensure I wouldn't have rust developing in the seams where I welded the new pans in place.

es

 

yeah there is alot of seam sealer all around the under side and wheel well of the car.
it's normal

 

Thanks for the replies.

Why would there be seam sealer on a new gas tank that had never experienced a leak?

 

To prevent leaking in the future. They put that on all welded areas or seams it's not a total one piece unit it had to be built

 

What Mysticangel said, and because it's a rust preventative measure - since you can't weld through paint, the car and certain components are assembled (welded) then painted. The seam sealer seals up the seams so moisture can't wick back inside the seam and start rusting.

On some older cars you can sometimes see exactly where the weld lines are inside the fenders because they didn't seal the seams well (or at all) and they rust from the inside out along that line.

es

 

If you were looking behind the rear wheels that's just the trunk floor.

 

I was indeed looking underneath the rear of the car. Thanks for the correction.

(I should have realized it wasn't the gas tank I was looking at. It looked way too big)

 

Yeah no problem. Ihope ididn't come across as rude. I did the exact same thing. Ilooked under there and the first thing that came to my mind was gas eating through that silicone!