Washed car - water in headlight - help
- Thread starter m44rrt
- Start date
Well the new back cover arrived on Thursday via Sopers, quick isince it was only ordered Monday and received into them Wednesday +1 to Sopers cannot fault them in any way, so praise where its due!
Spent Today taking the old one off drying light out with hair dryer,left it a good while to cool down then took the belt and braces approach, ran a small bead of silicon on top of outside curve, this is the original breach point, ran silicon grease right around entire seal, I have duck taped a small Silica gel bag to inside of cover, on gully to side of bonnet I ran three small beads of silicon diagonally to deflect rain water prior to where it runs off normally (over light), I also put a small piece of polythene over gap where the water pours off over the light, so no water should get into the light unit, also undid the other side which had not re-misted,and was surprised to see ingress in same place, as I did not order a new cover for this side it was cleaned and the same process as the other side was undertaken, finished about 4pm
Hours of work but surely a cure (if not a little ott)
However......... imagine my surprise and horror when I opened the door a short while ago after coming back with the mrs, to find the drivers side (new cover side) misting up again .....
.ARGHHHHHHH!!
Not Happy to say the least, and unsure what to do next given its not rained since doing it so its purely condensation, could see on the problem side that the far left grommet was in place,couldnt see the other two as they are somewhere under the washer tank, thats the only thing I can come up with that may still be an issue!
Unless someone else can come up with a theory!!- any further suggestions to cure this are more than welcome!!! ??
Spent Today taking the old one off drying light out with hair dryer,left it a good while to cool down then took the belt and braces approach, ran a small bead of silicon on top of outside curve, this is the original breach point, ran silicon grease right around entire seal, I have duck taped a small Silica gel bag to inside of cover, on gully to side of bonnet I ran three small beads of silicon diagonally to deflect rain water prior to where it runs off normally (over light), I also put a small piece of polythene over gap where the water pours off over the light, so no water should get into the light unit, also undid the other side which had not re-misted,and was surprised to see ingress in same place, as I did not order a new cover for this side it was cleaned and the same process as the other side was undertaken, finished about 4pm
Hours of work but surely a cure (if not a little ott)
However......... imagine my surprise and horror when I opened the door a short while ago after coming back with the mrs, to find the drivers side (new cover side) misting up again .....
.ARGHHHHHHH!! Not Happy to say the least, and unsure what to do next given its not rained since doing it so its purely condensation, could see on the problem side that the far left grommet was in place,couldnt see the other two as they are somewhere under the washer tank, thats the only thing I can come up with that may still be an issue!
Unless someone else can come up with a theory!!- any further suggestions to cure this are more than welcome!!! ??
nightyard said:
Well as far as im aware it is sealed correctly, given this is now my third attempt - even had someone else push the clip over as being a new cover this time, when the retaining end was in it was quite springy on the right hand side so I provided the tension on it to push it home before my dad swang the clip (I checked it afterwards)
markeg said:
Just spotted on another thread someone dried it out with a dryer, then left the back off while going for a long drive, the theory pools of water are pushed into the back under acceleration / driving, which does appear to happen as the water is always sat in the back when I open it up,obv the weather is no good atm to try this approach.
Failing that your suggestion may be the only thing left to do, but im not mechanically minded in the slightest for one and secondly I run my own business so finding the time to actually do all that is almost impossible, save for the odd weekend
It seems a lot of us are going through this hell.
I'd suggest that it's the hot air with a little moisture in it that's meaning when you seal it up, it still condensates.
Either try to get the unit inside and dry it out thoroughly, (air cupboard or similar) and take it out, seal it all up in the house and away you go.
What happening here is like the reverse of a can of coke out the fridge.
That can isn't wet, but you take it out the fridge and within 5 minutes there's condensation all over it. So you heat the light up with the hair dyer, then let it cool rapidly outside due to the ambient temperature, water droplets form.
So maybe the answer is to dry it out with hot, then before sealing it all up, turn the heat on the hair dryer off and hit it with cold air for a while. When it's cooled right down, then seal it up.
I'd suggest that it's the hot air with a little moisture in it that's meaning when you seal it up, it still condensates.
Either try to get the unit inside and dry it out thoroughly, (air cupboard or similar) and take it out, seal it all up in the house and away you go.
What happening here is like the reverse of a can of coke out the fridge.
That can isn't wet, but you take it out the fridge and within 5 minutes there's condensation all over it. So you heat the light up with the hair dyer, then let it cool rapidly outside due to the ambient temperature, water droplets form.
So maybe the answer is to dry it out with hot, then before sealing it all up, turn the heat on the hair dryer off and hit it with cold air for a while. When it's cooled right down, then seal it up.
RJS-Z4 said:
I understand how its happening now to a large extent
One step ahead of you on heat / cooling idea, as this time I did blast it on cold for 5 mins to cool it, I also then went to the localcar shop to get the lube, leaving the back off, so it had a good hour before I re-sealed it and last Sat was dry but a chilly 3 degrees, so it was defo cold when I put back on again!
As another attempt to clear it before it got too bad later on that day (just after I took the pic, and posted here again) I took the hair dryer to the front of the light and dispersed the water totally from the lens area, without dismantling i, the theory being it would disperse via the vents as i'm told happens during summer with the sun and watched it misting again within 5 mins.... ARGHHHHHHHH
Think the only thing left is to drive when its dry with the back off for a few hrs to pull the water out under acceleration, hair dryer it for about 12 hrs
and maybe,just maybe it will go lol,think I will have to get someone to take bumper off and dry light out that way- time wise I will struggle myself and I have not got the knowledge tbh (even though its meant to be easy)