Jaded41

Well I cleared my headlight reflectors out back in late July. It all seemed to go pretty smoothly and as you know, there's really only one major problem with clearing your corners out. And that's making sure the headlight housings are sealed properly so that condensation doesn't form inside the housing.

I thought I'd done a good job because I haven't had any condensation since I did the conversion and I've even driven in rain. I guess something cracked or I just hadn't driven the car in heavy enough rain because we had quite a storm early last week and the whole passenger side housing was teared up with moisture.

Here's where I kind of screwed myself. the leak occurred on a monday and I didn't have the time to open it up and clean it until this weekend. Well I guess the exposure of the water in the housing to sunlight and the headlight beam over the 5 days I left it like that baked the water into the plastic and now when the headlights are on, it looks like it has cataracts in comparison to the clarity on the drivers side light. So it looks like I'll be getting some new headlight housings. I'll probably wait until the spring, and drive my new beater truck all winter. But man, this pisses me off.

Anybody got any spare headlight housings they're willing to sell. I only need one. I'd pay as much as $250 for one, since I'm going to have to open it up and clear it out like my other light anyway.

Here's some pics to illustrate what happenned. It doesn't appear as bad as it really is. My camera didn't pic up the "true" picture but it did good enough.

Here is a comparison of the passengers side light and drivers side light from a little distance.



Now here they are up close.



As you can tell, the passenger side light I had the moisture in is very cloudy now when the beam is on. All those little dots are like burnt inside of the plastic and I can't get them off. So I guess I need a new housing.

Wesmaster

DSF_S2K has one he can sell, not sure what side though.

Jaded41

I'll give him a PM, thanks.

pottzS2000

jaded41, if you can get it back apart you can use plastic polish on it, it works on the rear windows and it is designed to work on hard plastics, can't hurt to try, beats $250..

Jaded41

I tried using "Scratch-Out" which is for metals and plastics and it works great on my plastic window. I think it may have made the headlight worst. I'm going to take a pic tonight and post it to show you what I'm talking about. It's almost like little tiny bubbles inside of the plastic. You can't feel them and you can really only see them when the headlight beam is on so I don't think you can get to them. I used the compound on both sides and it didn't really help.

RWIRSING371

I would take the lens out use plastic polish and if that doesn't help; place the amber lens back in, ask a different dealer what kind of sealant is used and reassemble and try to claim on warranty. Worse case scenario is they will say no. Unless you have taken your car there for service w/out the lenses in. Then take it to another dealer.

Jaded41

Well the problem is not the lenses. These are fine. The issue is the clear plastic front of the actual headlight housing that the light passes through lastly. When the condensation resided on the inside part of that housing, the exposure to the sun and the headlight beam must have burned little bubbles into that clear housing. And I couldn't get warranty to cover it because I've really kind of made a mess of the housings when I removed the orange reflectors. They'd laugh at me if I brought the housings to them now. And the other bad part is that even if they did give me a new housing, I'd have to open it up like the driver's side one and remove the orange reflector from that one as well.

I think I will just buy new JDM housings with the clear reflectors for $850 for the pair.

MarkS2K

Those pictures look like the headlights are cracked, and not spotted. They actually remind me of another set of pictures that were posted a while back from an owner that had cracked headlights.

Jaded41

No, they're not cracked. That is just one of those seam lines that runs up and down. After resealing the headlight it hasn't taken in any moisture since, so I know the problem was the sealent around the housing. The drying moisture was what created those little spots.