Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

I seem to be getting what looks like condensation within my headlights. It got a lot worse after the last wash I did, because now there is whitish stuff in there which I think might be from the high pressure soap spray I used. I polished up the outside of the headlights a few weeks ago, but the condensation inside is really pissing me off!

I have read on us forums that you can open the headlights by baking them - and I was going to do this to clean the inside lens and spray the insides black, but apparently if I so much as even look at the inside of the lens it will get scratched up beyond repair and look crap!

Just wanted to see if anyone on here has ever opened up the headlights, and if so did you attempt to clean up any condensation on the inside of the lens? what and how did you do it?

I was wondering could I use one of those headlight resto kits but on the inside of the lens? maybe some light sanding?

Any help would be much appreciated - also if anyone has a spare drivers side headlight hit me up :D

Cheers

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/397446-condensation-inside-headlight/
Share on other sites

U can bake them then pry them open.. Have done this on my old s2000.. Just needs a good wipe.. Cos there really isn't anything in there to get if dirty enough to need a buff.. Just a good clean rag and give it a good clean..

Then put them back together..

so its ok to wipe the inside lens? I've read some thread from the us where they say the inside will scratch up because of the uv layer and it will look much worse? Will a simple wipe down with a clean rag and water/glass cleaner scratch up the inside of the lens?

the other thing you can do is get hold of some silica gel (the sachets you find in shoe boxes) and securely mount some inside the rear main holes of the headlight assembly. the gel will absorb moisture and reduce future fogging.

worked in my bmw ;)

My RHS Headlight is stuffed, oxidation inside and outside. I followed a DIY thread and it worked as mention by baking and prying, but my headlight was too far gone to restore. So I put it back together and it's working as per usual, now I'm on a group buy for new headlights. So really it depends on how bad it is damaged, I tried it cause there's nothing to lose.

yeah I would love new headlights :( but I'm a bit poor to afford them atm. I might give this a shot on the weekend, hopefully i can make them look better - I'll take pics regardless and post up a diy. If they turn out good I'll be blacking out the insides also.

As for putting them together again, are there any good products I can use that will last a long time? I'm thinking silicon rubber or marine silicon sealant?

Cheers mate - I'm going to give opening up the headlight a crack and see if it will work.

According to the US boys the lens from the inside is VERY easy to scratch because of a very thin UV coating on the inside - would this be the same for the jap cars?

I'm thinking I'll open it up and first just run some water through it, if it gets rid of those white marks from the wash then I'll dry to get rid of the condensation and then reseal, However if I can't seem to get rid of the white marks just with water (and depending on how brave I'm feeling) then I might try some alcohol, if that doesn't work I might try wet light sanding to remove the thin coat, polish it up - then I'll seal it using a UV sealant so that it doesn't go hazy (any recommendations?)

Edit: there is a headlight resto kit they sell at autobarn (not like most of the pos brands) which has everything including a clear coat/sealer which you need to allow to dry off for 1 hr, Might buy this and give it a shot on the inside of the lens.. Looks like I'll be the pioneer for this as I can't seem to find anyone else who has every attempted this before which is kinda weird as our headlights are notorious for going all hazy.

Edit edit: I'm doing this tonight! From what I've read the best way to clear up any haze would be to wet sand - with the use of 1200 grit as your final, then polish and then apply a couple coats of a good clear coat instead of a headlight sealer (I'm going to be using high temp engine/caliper enamel). A guy who did it this way has said his headlights still look new 2 years later!

Edited by itpesaf

Ok well it didn't turn out as bad as I thought -

This is what the headlights looked like before -

2w4bbyv.jpg

I don't know what all the white stuff was (definitely on the inside as I had done a proper headlight restore a week prior) but it was stuck to the lens, only way to remove was to sand..

Another shot -

3476tc7.jpg

So I decided to bake them! Trust me, this is not for the feint of heart, it took a lot of courage so I'm proud of that :D I baked them for around 7-10 mins at 100 degrees.

After baking I opened up the lens (It is stuck on with some silicon/rubber adherent) and proceeded to pull it all apart. After doing so I cleaned the insides of the headlight with glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth and then tackled the inside of the lens.

After a few wipes I started to smudge the clear coat on the inside :( so I had to sand. I wet sanded the inside lens first using 600 grit then gradually moving up and finishing with a light sand using 1500grit sand paper. After sanding the insides I cleaned the lens using glass cleaner and polished it up. After wiping away all the polish I clear coated it using a high temp enamel spray. I coated the inside lens with 4-5 light coats.

After assembling everything back together (I did a proper clean of the outside of the lens as well) it turned out something like this -

2mpj62b.jpg

sdgwo5.jpg

No more yellow haze!

v4uy48.jpg

2evpzbb.jpg

All in all I reckon the result was pretty good - I will never do this mod again though, it wasn't easy and it took quite a long time.

Ohh and the epic fail I was talking about - well if your thinking of doing this PLEAASE PLEAAAAAASE don't do it if your not a very patient/meticulous worker lol, the actual technique I followed wasn't bad at all (results were good) however a major flaw in this diy was me! I rushed it a little at the beginning and accidentally dropped the inner headlight casing and viola -

mqvk.jpg

I put a clean snap through the plastic :( If I could have been f**ked, and if it wasn't so dark I probably could have fixed it as I was planning on painting the insides black anyway - however I really couldn't be stuffed opening the other headlight just to pain the insides so I left it. Its actually not that noticeable, especially from far away - but its there and for that reason I will probs just buy another headlight to replace it and just keep this one as a spare.

Still it looks a lot better than before when it was all murky and oxidised inside..

Edit: I reinforced the factory rubber seal with some marine silicon on the outside so hopefully I won't get any more water getting into my headlight :D

Edited by itpesaf

Great attempt, too bad my headlight was too far gone to repair... :( Would of saved $500 in purchasing new headlights, but oh well an excuse to mod... I'll give sanding a go after I get the new headlights in.

Edited by 81gSKy

Yeah they turned out good - but just bought a right hand side drivers headlight in good condition for 300 delivered - and thats just because of the bloody crack! I would have kept the headlight otherwise.

I might open her up again when I get the new headlight and see if I can repair the crack and cover it up well by spraying the inside of the headlight black.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • It would be well worth deciding where you want to go and what you care about. Reliability of everything in a 34 drops MASSIVELY above the 300kw mark. Keeping everything going great at beyond that value will cost ten times the $. Clutches become shit, gearboxes (and engines/bottom ends) become consumable, traction becomes crap. The good news is looking legalish/actually being legal is slighly under the 300kw mark. I would make the assumption you want to ditch the stock plenum too and want to go a front facing unit of some description due to the cross flow. Do the bends on a return flow hurt? Not really. A couple of bends do make a difference but not nearly as much in a forced induction situation. Add 1psi of boost to overcome it. Nobody has ever gone and done a track session monitoring IAT then done a different session on a different intercooler and monitored IAT to see the difference here. All of the benefits here are likely in the "My engine is a forged consumable that I drive once a year because it needs a rebuild every year which takes 9 months of the year to complete" territory. It would be well worth deciding where you want to go and what you care about with this car.
    • By "reverse flow", do you mean "return flow"? Being the IC having a return pipe back behind the bumper reo, or similar? If so... I am currently making ~250 rwkW on a Neo at ~17-18 psi. With a return flow. There's nothing to indicate that it is costing me a lot of power at this level, and I would be surprised if I could not push it harder. True, I have not measured pressure drop across it or IAT changes, but the car does not seem upset about it in any way. I won't be bothering to look into it unless it starts giving trouble or doesn't respond to boost increases when I next put it on the dyno. FWIW, it was tuned with the boost controller off, so achieving ~15-16 psi on the wastegate spring alone, and it is noticeably quicker with the boost controller on and yielding a couple of extra pounds. Hence why I think it is doing OK. So, no, I would not arbitrarily say that return flows are restrictive. Yes, they are certainly restrictive if you're aiming for higher power levels. But I also think that the happy place for a street car is <300 rwkW anyway, so I'm not going to be aiming for power levels that would require me to change the inlet pipework. My car looks very stock, even though everything is different. The turbo and inlet pipes all look stock and run in the stock locations, The airbox looks stock (apart from the inlet being opened up). The turbo looks stock, because it's in the stock location, is the stock housings and can't really be seen anyway. It makes enough power to be good to drive, but won't raise eyebrows if I ever f**k up enough for the cops to lift the bonnet.
    • There is a guy who said he can weld me piping without having to cut chassis, maybe I do that ? Or do I just go reverse flow but isn’t reverse flow very limited once again? 
    • I haven’t yet cut the chassis, maybe I switch to a reverse flow. I’ve got the Intercooler mounted as I already had it but not cut yet. Might have to speak to an engineer 
    • Yes that’s another issue, I always have a front mount, plus will be turbo plus intake will big hasstle. I’ve been told if it looks stock they’re fine with it by a couple others who have done it ahahaha.    I know @Kinkstaah said the stock gtt airbox is limiting but I might just have to do that to avoid a defect so it atleast looks legit. Or an enclosed pod so it’s hidden away and feed air from the snorkel and below Intercooler holes like kinstaah mentioned. Hmm what to do 
×
×
  • Create New...