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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

comdensation in headlights - I am not happy


TrickTT

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Spent the weekend stripping and cleaning my J-spec headlights to get rid of condensation and yellowing, using the instructions off mkiv.com. Carefully sealed them up using black silicon. Washed the car today, and the nearside light was full of condensation again. My dad suggests putting some bags of silica in to absorb the moisture. Anyone know if this will work, or have any other suggestions to stop this happening again. Dont really want to split them again if possible.

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Spent the weekend stripping and cleaning my J-spec headlights to get rid of condensation and yellowing, using the instructions off mkiv.com. Carefully sealed them up using black silicon. Washed the car today, and the nearside light was full of condensation again. My dad suggests putting some bags of silica in to absorb the moisture. Anyone know if this will work, or have any other suggestions to stop this happening again. Dont really want to split them again if possible.

 

God no! dont put silica gel in the lights, it is quite aggresive and can form silicon hydroxide, which is quite a nasty chemical.

 

My suggestion is to take them apart again, remove as much of the sealer as you can and then reseal them by running a bead around the edge, heating them up gently to place the plastic as close together as before (remember how they used to be) and run extra sealant into the gap.

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Or how about this. Remove the headlight bulb. Wedge a sachet of silica gel in the bulb apeture. Put a halogen lamp as close to the light as possible, and leave on overnight. Couple of sessions like that gets rid of the built-up moisture. You may have to repeat it if it ever condenses up again but it beats £250 or Xtreme Cookery :)

 

-Ian

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Or how about this. Remove the headlight bulb. Wedge a sachet of silica gel in the bulb apeture. Put a halogen lamp as close to the light as possible, and leave on overnight. Couple of sessions like that gets rid of the built-up moisture. You may have to repeat it if it ever condenses up again but it beats £250 or Xtreme Cookery :)

 

-Ian

Am trying this now, the car is sitting in the sun with little packs of silica attached to pieces of wire. I also noticed the little tubes on the back of the lights ( the ones with the little filter things on the end) look like they are supposed to have a bit of foam in them. Mine were all decayed so i've replaced them with new bits of foam from an old sponge. Might help absorb some moisture!

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