A few months back I blacked out my headlight housing and got condensation a few days afterwards... however the funny thing is... my car is garaged and even after sitting for months in the sun the condensation has STAYED... I have no idea what to do at this point....

My friend who has an S2k had condensation and he said he didn't reopen the housing, he just added more sealant and the condensation eventually went away....

Any advice? I mean it's been a few months now and throughout all the cali sun and probably 2 week intervals of car washes the condensation sticks...

 

You could just apply more sealant and hope it'll do the trick, but to get the best results, I'd reopen and seal it again. Just depends on how much time you have on your hands.

 

You answered your own question of why it hasn't gone away with the every 2 week car washes.

Don't do anymore car washes until you reseal the light. You're running the risk of shorting out your ballast.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm pretty much asking to see if anybody has tried just additional sealant vs. rebaking and then resealing and gotten great results

 

Bump?

 

As the headlight-condensation TSB states (to the best of my recollection):

Some condensation is normal. The headlights are not completely sealed and do, in fact, vent to atmosphere. It's only when the condensation is enough to form droplets, that may or may not run and collect in the corner, that it's considered abnormal or a problem. IF that's the case, there is likely a water path along components/wires/body/etc. leading to the housing. Looking for such is the recommended fix prior to headlight-replacement.

Some fogging in the lower/inside corners is normal and should dissipate after some driving (provided it's not really humid or raining outside).

 

I doubt it is a seal problem as much as a seal lip problem. If you had to pry at the headlight to get the lens off you damaged the lip of the seal (the actual plastic part).

Basically the headlight should be hot enough in the first place that you do not need to pry at all. To get this you need to remove all the screws before it goes in the oven to allow the heating glue to loosen and expand. Put in for about 20min on 200 so the glue is heated evenly. Now when you remove it you should be able to pull the lens from the assembly (using gloves) using a screw drive ONLY to help the tabs out of the locked position DO NOT jab at the glue and pry the lens out like you are opening a can of paint you will damage the lip.

Now if you have already done the damage it is repairable. You need to squeeze the lip back into place while it is still hot and pliable. You can use a clamp or vise grips to keep it tight. While the housing is still pliable this is a good time to go around and squeeze the lips together all around the housing.

Now when you are ready to reassemble the lights heat them at about 190 for 20 min this time and press the housing to the lensas tight as you can. NOW go around with vise grips and lock them around the light. The lights are sealed from the factory with a press that does basically the same thig you are doing now. You will hear little rice crispies pops as you do this. That is air bubbles being pushed out of the glue this is GOOD! If there are no air bubbles there can be no way for moisture to get in... keep doing this and use a clamp if necessary.

Leave it that way until it cools down.



I have done a few hundred lights from a variety of cars using that method and they never leak or fog up.

Hope that helps Good Luck!

 

Thanks so much LCA... now should I just do this right away, like just clamp it down some more after heating up my headlights? And the condensation will slowly go away after this? Or should I remove the housing, wipe off the condensation and close it up?

 

Take out all the bulbs and put a hairdryer near it so it circulates hot air through the housing. That should dissipate all the existing moisture in the headlight.

 

Dennis, If a headlight is leaking water in, like you actually see more water then just fogging, then it's a sealing issue along the edge of the headlight.

However if it's fogging and condensation, then that has something to do with the air flow in and out of the headlight. The headlights need to be able to breath and equalize the air temp inside and outside the headlight as much as it can. If the air temp inside and outside the healdight is too great of a difference, you'll get condensation or fogging, just like the weather.

The fix or the point of the porblem is the air vents; the air vents serve a few purposes. The first is to allow air to travel in and out to prevent fogging or condensation issue. Second there needs to be enough air vents to allow air to go in and out quick enough depending on the size of the headlight (the volume of air inside and the weather conditions). Third, the vents need to only allow air in and out but have to keep the elements (dust, dirt, water) from getting in the headlight as well.

Most OEM headlights have 2 vents, one on top and bottom to allow air to flow in and out. However soemtimes when you do a HID conversion, it gets hotter quicker inside the headlight and the stock vents isn't enough to handle it and soemtime syou'll get fogging and condensation issue. Sometimes it's normal such as if it's super cold outside or something, but the p oint is... if the vents are large enough and can keep the junk from getting in, you wont have any fogging or condensation issue.

I do a general anaylist of every headlight conversion I do and I use my judgement to deem if the headlight needs addtional vents or if what it has is fine. If it needs more vents I have the parts and pieces to make new vents on the headlight.

For the condensation to go away, the evaporated air has to leave the housing. Sometimes the housings will be fine. If youd on't want to open up your housings, I suggest you to take your housings and take off the rear covers and bulbs and anything that's covering up the headlight. Stick it in the oven faced down and heat it at the lowest temp your oven can do down to. Approx 170 degrees and just let it evaporate. Then at the end, heat the oven up to 250 and once it reaches it, leave it there for about 5 mins so the sealant can fully set again and the build up of increased moisture due to the higher temp can excape from your housing.

Make sure your oven vents are not covered.. and if you want.. the first 5 and 10 mins, just open up the oven so the moisture form the air can leave and close it back up. Leave it in there as long as you need to, to get rid of all the moisture. Then afterwards, take it out of the oven and let it cool down to room temp and put everything back together.

Make sure your headlight is not touching any metal sides of your oven.. and that with the headlight upside down inside your oven, make sure the headlight lense is not touching the metal oven racks. You can put the oven mitten inside and put it on top of the mitten so it wont scratch it. But don't take the headlight out without another pair of mitten as well unless you want burnt hands...

Forgot to mention, DON'T use a heat gun or a hair dryer. The air blown into the headlight will also blow dust and other debris into the headlight unless you want a headlight slightly more dirty.

After you take it out of the oven, and before you let it sit there to cool down. Get some clamps and clamp all the way along the edge of the headlight to make sure you at lesat got the seal done well.

Then address the issue of why moisture got in, in the first place. Apply a thin layer of clear silicone along the edge of the headlight for back up, and make sure it goes into the spaces between the headlgiht lense and headlight cover. Then make sure you cover up the rear nicely.

Don't use silicone to an extreme when covering up big areas; like if you have a hole in the rear of the housing your trying to cover up. The acidic acid fume that releases from the curing of conventional silicone will fume up your headlight and the only way to clean that, is via paint thinner or alochol, both of which will destory your clear headlight lense.

Use polyurethane that you find at the local hardware store or arylic clauk or something.

Good luck and if you need any more help or suggestents just ask away. I'll be more then happy to answer any questions that you may have to the best of my abilities.

Best Regards,
Larry
LittoDeviL Performance

 

Using a HEATGUN is FAR FAR FAR less risky than baking them in the oven. If you work in a clean environment dirt/dust won't be a problem.

Baking = warping, hazing, and is toxic to you and anything you cook in your oven.

 

The plastic resin material used in the OEM headlights are designed to cope up to 240 degrees in C*.

In his situation, the oven is not anymore riskier then using a heat gun but it fits his problem better.

There is also no problem with warping with the headlight with it in the oven as I stated.

Hazing only comes if you don't pre burn the paint that you used to paint your housings with or if you used excessive silicone on the inside of it. Has nothing to do with the heat gun.

Last but not least, but very important to Dennis the fact that the heat gun doesn't give you a consistant surface temp of the headlight all around. If you use a heat gun, you might warp it due to the fact that some part of the headlight is hotter then other parts. With the oven, it's a very uniform temp all around. Not to mention he can seal the edge of it better then trying to heat the edges. With the headlight casing being warm or hot at 250, it'll also soften it just a tad which is good for creating a good seal. It's kind of like stress relieve when working with metals.

Also there is nothing toxic about the oem headlights inside an oven, the bruty rubber used on the sealant is just like bubble gum. Now unless you used some toxic material to make the headlight conversion in the first place or etc or decide to breath in all the paint fume or etc then that's just the lack of common sense.

If the paint fume doesn't get out via the oven, then it sure will when it's already on the car, sealed and under the sun. THEN you'll get hazing. I don't know about you, but I rather have everything fully cured and sealed before the headlight is on my car.

Larry

 

Hey LittoDeviL, PM sent

 

hey guys,

i just recently encountered some condensation in my headlights. i think it's because everytime I open the headlights, I'm removing bits and pieces of the OEM black sealant compound.

1.) Are there any replacement sealants like the OEM one that I can buy at a hardware store?

2.) If I cut a hole in the plastic housing from the rear to run wires from inside the headlights, what's the safest way to seal up that hole? I tried using General Electric (GE) RTV clear silcone gel to seal it up. Are there any better products out there or is GE RTV silicone good enough to seal those holes up to prevent anything getting into the headlight?

 

Not at a hardware store, but nissan sells replacement butyl rubber strips that you can use to add to the seals. To fill holes in the headlight housing, alot of people who do retrofits use jbweld to seal