Jewcano

iTrader: (4)

Has this happened to you. YOu clean your headlights after they leak, so you take it apart, put it back together, and seal it as good as you can. Walla, they are beautiful. Few days later, theres buildup inside it. Damn your kinda mad. You pull it apart again, fix again, and seal even better than before. Theres no way water can get through. Few weeks later. Water buildup.....Damnit this time you clean every inch, seal every crevice, and still a few days later theres water. Actually i was washing my car and boom out of nowhere water showed up inside the damn thing. The thing is, you sealed where the lense meets the black plastic part with silicone very well, and then to make extra sure no water gets in, you sealed the places where the lightbulbs go in with some vasoline around the pre-existing seal. and you also plug up the two breather holes. Anyone have any clue where the water could be getting in from???

BTW I HAVE SEARCHED, AND HAVE USED OTHER THREADS, BUT AS YOU CAN SEE NO AVAIL......

RobSoVIP

there is a really easy fix to this...

buy new headlights.

np20412

I have the same problem as you do Jewtheist....I don't worry about it so much. The lens is clear so long as the car isn't exposed to any moisture. Even when it does, I just run the headlights while I drive and the heat dries them up. I can't afford new headlights right now.

aliga

iTrader: (147)

seal them up with windshield glue, will never leak again.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

It's not the seal (unless you happen to suck at sealing headlights ) Check the tubes on the back of the headlight housing and make sure they have a filter in them, also....... make sure they are there! They must also be facing down.

Last resort, also make sure to seal the area around the leveler window.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

Sorry for you that water does not magically permeate plastic. The difference between an old headlight and a new one is that one has a leak from a hole and the other doesn't. A new headlight doesn't have magic plastic, it just doesn't have a hole in it. Leaks after rebuilding are from oversights. Be it from using the wrong silicone that actually sweats moisture, or by missing a hole somewhere.

I can't count the number of times I sealed my headlights and condensation came back before I broke it ALL the way down for that cleaning DIY and sealed it back up before it finally quit doing it.

Cotton makes a good filter for the tube, make sure to use the silicone pictured in the DIY because a lot of the silicones used are WATER BASED and they actually PRODUCE moisture!

933005spd

I concur OLT.

Depends on what your time is worth.


Is it worth your time to follow the cleaning DIY or is it worth just springing for new ones?

You can get them to seal right and exclude water. For enough moisture to permeate a well sealed light to cause condensation would take a long time at a very humid area.

You gotta spend either the time or the bucks. Not an attack on your work, I have found this out first hand also. Redid the seal 3xs, could not find where it may have leaked but after a total clean up - TOTAL - it worked fine.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

How come my headlights do not leak and yours do? Both leaked before hand, now only your old ones do. It's all in the technique my friend. Water has not evolved enough yet to walk through a wall of plastic. It's gotta find a hole.

You CAN polish a turd, I've seen me do it

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

Mines worth about $50 an hour, but I still don't make that watching TV, so time is always available ....sometime

933005spd

LOL great minds think alike OLT.

There is always more time - to make more cash. Especially when you do it on your terms, having your own business - even a hobby business - rocks.


Gosh I love cash. Talking about cash, I'll be sending some your way next week OLT along with a box. Cause well, gotta make more cash and I won't be making that plunking around with the cluster.

Jewcano

iTrader: (4)

Well i pulled them out again, seems that today before i washed my car they were pristine, perfect, the second i got done washing the car, the headlights were condensed on the inside

Well like i said i pulled them out, again.... and now they are sitting in the oven, and gonna stay there for a while, till every last drop leaves the housing. After that im gonna try to seal above the old silicone with some non-water based silicone. Plus anyone know of any type of grease that can withstand engine bay temp? We used vasoline to seal around the existing seals where the bulbs go in, cause i did have some leaking there, but the heat from the engine just made the silicone slide right off..... Any type of grease that can handle that kind of temp??

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

Have you opened them completely up before? If so, you will have to remove the other aftermarket silicone completely. Use the silicone I am using in the IY for everything. It can be removed if needed.

Jewcano

iTrader: (4)

Yeah i have completely broken it down to every single part, and cleaned it out. By original silicone do you mean, the gray stuff that is heat activated??? And by fully removing this, do you have to heat it and scrape it out, or is there a solution to apply to that old glue to remove it out easy?

SCSpeed

If you believe every corner is sealed but the moisture still found its way inside, then you have used the wrong type of sealing material. Did you notice when you heated up the original seal, the seal melted but got hard in a few minutes? That's the gasket maker type, not the regular silicone. You have to use gasket maker that gets hardened and becomes like hard plastic. Black, blue, or silver color doesn't matter. Also, try to seal the bulb area but make sure you can take out the bulb in the future. I actually didn't seal the bulb area. I never had any problems through last rain season. The light housing still looks exactly like new.

Blk97SC300

iTrader: (4)

what exactly is the correct silicon to use to properly seal the headlight?

-Allen