1st Gen Headlight Condensation... how to fix?

G

guslackerdas

Member
Location
san diego ca
Car
2003 FX45
Wel..... Winter has officially hit Southern California and my drivers side headlight is not liking it. There is a lot of condensation in the light.
Anyone have a quick and easy way to dry that out?
Is removing the light the only option? At which point I might as well re-seal the entire light...

I don't like the way it looks, but my biggest worry is the water effecting the HID bulb

Thanks in advance.
 
you must clear the condensation before re-sealing. Some use a dryer, I have used a compressor and just shot air in it, took like 20 minutes to dry out. Then you can silicone it up, usually leak where lens meets back housing.
 
Is this possible with the light on the car? I was able to easily access the upper plug that connects to the turn signal blinker (I believe)... however this portion of the light is blocked off from others. I shot hot air into that plug for a while and nothing dried out, the air couldn't get into the rest of the light.
I have not opened the lights up since I have owned the car... and it is just the drivers side light. Odd.
I am just trying to avoid either taking it to a body shop, or removing the whole light.
 
Turn signal has a clear lens over the housing so it would block the air. I believe the projector is sealed as well, can't remember if there is a gap between the bulb area and the lens.

You could also just unplug the bulbs from the back and let the car sit in the sun or use a hairdryer from the front. As long as you can get the air inside warmed up and give it somewhere to escape, most of the moisture will leave. Most headlights have a vent to allow moisture to escape, I don't remember where ours is.

But the condensation isn't going to do much to the HID bulb. It's inside the projector which is pretty shielded from the rest of the light. Short of the light flooding, it should be fine. I am curious as to where the leak may be if you never opened the lights up.
 
Just curious if anyone was able to fix the condensation issue without taking the headlight off the car. My passenger side is getting condensation and i have never opened them up.
 
^ I have the same thing happen to me, and only in the spring for some reason. I also never took them of the car, but this summer I will and i will put in more of those moisture packs and see if that helps. I know guys from TL forums who have put small bags of rice in the headlights and that fixed it too. but you would have to take the headlight off and open it up
 
I was curious if the method below works for our vehicle.

[video=youtube;FRSaHe78g4g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRSaHe78g4g&index=2&list=FL3JoMAljNniQQb_M lpj-hbA[/video]
 
I don't believe so. I'm pretty sure that the headlamp is a closed system. Ultimately if you're having moisture problems, you either have trapped moisture, where flushing the headlight out with warm dry air should resolve, or you have a seal problem, where moisture is making it's way into the housing through some gap and the only way to remedy is to fix the seal issue.
 
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