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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:24 am
by Tim_GTi
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!

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:16 pm
by 8080
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 :D 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)

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:23 pm
by Tim_GTi
well i use my fulls on and off,

Is there a logical way of getting rid of it?

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:09 pm
by 8080
OK, I found this

Image

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?

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:02 pm
by M@Turner
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??? :? :roll:

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 7:08 pm
by M@Turner
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! :P

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:25 pm
by Tim_GTi
sounds like a plant Matt, let me know how you get on!

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:18 pm
by M@Turner
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!!! :?

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:46 pm
by andy947
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

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:09 pm
by Tim_GTi
andy947 wrote: You've just got to live with it
Much as i hate to say it, I agree too!