LED Sidelights

Tim_GTi · Post by **Tim_GTi** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:24 am

ohh will be interesting to see how this turns out, I've got fat amounts of condensation in one lamp now.

Some people suggest drivlling small discreet holes in your lamp (which i would NEVER do), but i'm convinced that's how it got there in the first palce? (my sidelight wasn't securely put in place, so there was a gap for air to get it)

It's doing my head in, i've driven round with the lights on for half hours to hours at a time and it's still there!

8080 · Post by **8080** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:16 pm

Tim_GTi wrote:It's doing my head in, i've driven round with the lights on for half hours to hours at a time and it's still there!

Unless you're driving around with your full headlights on, it's not going to evaporate

There's not enough heat from the xenons. And the water will probably just condense again when the lights cool down (if it can't escape while it's a gas)

Tim_GTi · Post by **Tim_GTi** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:23 pm

well i use my fulls on and off,

Is there a logical way of getting rid of it?

8080 · Post by **8080** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:09 pm

OK, I found this

So that clears that up - it's an ongoing problem. So you'd need to constantly put new bags of silica in to evapourate the water in 6n2 GTI headlights

If the headlight was sealed and the water had got in as a once off - I reckon the Silica Gel would work. So are the new GTI's headlights sealed?

M@Turner · Post by **M@Turner** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:02 pm

Very useful the above post! But it seems bizarre in my case only one has managed to accumulate condensation!

Anyways, Silica Gel doesn't appear to have done owt. So i got the Hair dryer out and heat up the head lamp, and just as the above article states, when the headlight unit heats up, condensation dissappears!!!

However, as soon as it cools down again, it re-appears!!!

I'm presuming the headlights on the 9N3 are sealed units! Although mine aren't currently due to wires feeding through for the HID's!!! I'm pretty certain i can achieve this with some electrical tape, but need to rid all moisture before hand!!!

Any ideas other than Silica Gel or a tissue attached to end of a metal coat hanger wiping inside of the heaslight unit???

M@Turner · Post by **M@Turner** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 7:08 pm

Had a thought.

Do you reckon if i heated up the headlamp to evaporate the water/condensation, then use a vacuum cleaner to suck the warm air out of the headlight unit until the headlight is fully cooled, that this may rid the condensation problem?

Then hopefully the air that gets into the headlight wont contain any moisture, i'll re-seal the headlight unit and that will be the end of it!

Will try this tomorrow morning! Fingers crossed!

Tim_GTi · Post by **Tim_GTi** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:25 pm

sounds like a plant Matt, let me know how you get on!

M@Turner · Post by **M@Turner** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:18 pm

Well i tried the heat up and vacuum out procedure and it appeared to help! However i now have the condensation back again which i think may just be down to me not sealing the unit properly again!!!

Will give it another try later in the week and see what happens then, but i'm beginning to think as cool as HID's look, they're not worth it with an unclear headlight!!!

andy947 · Post by **andy947** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:46 pm

They aren't sealed units.

They do suffer from condensation, in the same way that seat ibiza lights suffer with condensation.

You've just got to live with it

Tim_GTi · Post by **Tim_GTi** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:09 pm

andy947 wrote: You've just got to live with it

Much as i hate to say it, I agree too!