im getting all new weatherstripping for my car and i remembered that seal was there and im curious to how often these go bad and need replaced? i havent noticed any water getting into my enginebay besides after it rains or i wash my car and i pop the hood then it runs into it because the seal is away from the body.

^^^Sorry, but I see this omission literally at least 5 times a day on this board and it drives me up a wall.

As for the seal, mine is 23 years old and still holding strong, with 23 northern freeze/thaw cycles and 150k miles of engine heat and cowl pressure. Once in a lifetime deal I suppose.

If mine did not break (tore by my rushing) when I did the repaint it would sill be on the car. I replaced all my weather striping due to a repaint, my doors and trunk were a bit worn but the rest was not bad. You should wipe the jambs out when washing your car and wipe the WS to keep it clean. Do not wipe it with Armoral or any type of product since that will surely dry it out.

That single piece of rubber is the ONLY piece of rubber NOT getting replaced on my car unless it gets damaged when I go to do the repaint...

Alright cool thats good to hear and know. Now if only I knew why the hatch or bottom door weatherstripping goes bad I'd be good

Well, I don't know about others, but my hatch strip had a 1" gap between the ends of it where water and such leaked (looked like it came apart at the ends), right in the middle above the tail lights, and my door strips (along with just about everything else) were dry-rotted...