Moisture in headlights

I simply put a smear of vaseline around the rubber rear cap seal and threw in a couple of bags of silica gel - seems to have worked. :)
 
Special edition said:
I simply put a smear of vaseline around the rubber rear cap seal and threw in a couple of bags of silica gel - seems to have worked. :)
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Yes, but I would imagine that none of them were splitable ones. If you split a spltable headlamp you need to seal all around that joint properly too.

Steve B
 
Your right Steve - mine arn,t the splittable ones so i didn,t need any sealant. I have noticed that the earlier splittable ones do appear to have a better quality lense.
 
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aghhh..that same problem to all of us.. just did the sealing on saturday. Last night there was big rain - on the morning not even a clue of mist. I'm happy. But when I rode a bit in town and parked, saw that there are some mist.. I'm not happy. what should I do? put some more sealant on tops or drill the hole? Mine are splittable headlamps. Need an advice. Thanks!
 
SauMart said:
aghhh..that same problem to all of us.. just did the sealing on saturday. Last night there was big rain - on the morning not even a clue of mist. I'm happy. But when I rode a bit in town and parked, saw that there are some mist.. I'm not happy. what should I do? put some more sealant on tops or drill the hole? Mine are splittable headlamps. Need an advice. Thanks!
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I would bring them indoors (so that they can fully dry out) while you run a bead of sealant around the splitable joints and also some vaseline or similar in the bulb access cover sealing points.

Then if that fails drill a hole, but I suspect that the hole will allow in some moisture occasionally too.

Steve B
 
On the cold darkish mornings i have also noticed that the heat from the bulb causes slight condensation on the inside of the lense when you first put the lights on. This soon clears up though once ive got to work. :confused:
 
Birchall said:
Yes, it is strange that two solutions are offered from this, one involves a hole to let the moisture out and the other does the opposite, it makes sure that there is no way for the moisture to get in or out.

I am favouring the latter, as mentioned by Manhattan. After all if it was as easy as having a hole to let the moisture out you could just leave off the bulb access cover? But of course that would let water IN. So a hole underneath lets the moisture out and no water in.

Steve B
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The vent at the rear of the headlight is good enough, so no extra hole needed.

Step by step...

Remove headlights and take indoors.
Remove the rear bulb covers.
Place in a warm area to dry out.
Run a thin line of clear silicone sealant around where the two halves of the headlight clamshell together. (All A2 headlight versions)
Let it dry.
Place some silicone packs in the rear.
Swap bulb cover gaskets over to opposite covers.
Refit covers making sure they are sealed properly.
Refit headlights.
 
Can anyone point me out where is the vent in the splittable units? I have searched for it and didn't succeeded :( or this is so on those that cannot be taken appart?

I will try this Steve as soon as I'll have some spare time. thanks:)
 
I have not found the headlamp vent, there is a light grey part at the back that definitely looks like a vent but I don't think that it is.

Steve B
 
I had the problem of a misted headlight assembly on my Toyota (1997 Camry 2.5 estate, great car), and it failed the WoF (warrant of fitness, MoT equivalent) - hairdryer on a low setting blown into the headlight assembly sorted the misting out and got it through the warrant - fortunately the problem never recurred.
 
After rainy night there was slight mist (a size of fingerprint) in one headlamp (this might be my sealing fault in a far side corner of lamp, I was in doubt about that corner). But mist after a run maybe is because of heat inside the headlamp and quite cold weather outside?
 
SauMart said:
After rainy night there was slight mist (a size of fingerprint) in one headlamp (this might be my sealing fault in a far side corner of lamp, I was in doubt about that corner). But mist after a run maybe is because of heat inside the headlamp and quite cold weather outside?
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On the passenger side I assume? If you only have some slight misting I would be happy with that, almost all A2s I see have severe misting in at least one of the two.
 
Take the back cover off headlights
There's a foam gasket on inside
Take gasket out
Put back in other way up ,put on smear of Vaseline
Job done ,no more misting
 
Just another vote for the hole-drilling technique. After suffering with both lamps misting badly 6 years ago, I drilled one 5mm hole in the side of each lamp back and they have been clear ever since. The position of the hole was suggested in a post on a different forum which has since disappeared so I'll post a photo when I next have the lamps out.
Groot
 
daniel_se said:
On the passenger side I assume? If you only have some slight misting I would be happy with that, almost all A2s I see have severe misting in at least one of the two.
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Yes, it is the passenger side. But I know that there were some doubts about sealing on that corner, so this might be the case.

Will try to put some silica gel bags inside also. How much do you use? I think 3-5 grams will be ok for a headlight ? And will try to do a vaseline and back covers things!
 
As promised, here are some photos of the vent hole I drilled in each headlamp casing (5 - 6mm dia.). At this position, the reflector is quite close to the inside of the black casing so you need to be gentle and stop as soon as you get through the black stuff. Both headlamps have been mist-free for five years now.

Here is a link to the original discussion; the source of the info was in the www.audi-a2.nl link but that has since disappeared:
http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthrea...it-connector-plug-release&p=121762#post121762

P3131108.JPGP3131109.JPGP3131112.JPG
 
I tried a bunch of silica pacs, fixing the seal, and drying out the headlight. Didn't work for me, misting kept coming back. Ended up drilling two holes on the underside of the housing as per image, works pretty ok and driver side is completely mist free. Passenger side better, but still not perfect in humid conditions.

20150627_174112.jpg
 
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