Misting headlight, possible new glass ones?!

[unclepete]

I have a headlight, which is constantly wet. Does anyone know if I can buy glass headlights (I thought I had heard this from somewhere) to upgrade at the same time as a problem solver. However, I did a search on here and found a thread about drilling a wee hole in the bottom and draining out the water so I'll try that for the time being. Any advice always welcome, I'll probably make my bumper even worse than before...!

[Nick Mann]

Remove the light, warm gently in the airing cupboard overnight, refit making sure that the seals are fitting snugly over the bulbs.

Glass lights are a UK spec thing - you can sometimes find them on ebay.

I personally wouldn't drill a hole in mine!

[miller]

Uncle pete,

see below how the GTO' lads unfog theirs, the MK2 suffers badly but thats an enclosed unit. There may be some helpfull tips in there if you choose to use it. I personally think the silica packs after cleaning will stop it in the future so well worth contemplating.

Happy reading






My new GTO had really bad condensation and baked on deposits inside the light units, and getting a price of nearly £1000 from Mitsubishi made me research cleaning them myself. Here is a step by step guide on how to do them yourself.......

I have now done several units and although a pig of a job I can say without doubt that it makes the world of difference to the cars looks, not to mention the headlight efficiency. All the projector lighted cars I've seen so far have condensation marks and even mould on the inside of the sealed units. Some much worse (Especially the black and red colours).

Here's the way I did it:

Remove the unit (there is one bolt hidden behind the indicator unit)

Clean and refurb all the rubbers and now bare light recesses (CAR).

Remove as much as possible that's bolted to the unit, including the clips that hold the two halfs together. Clean and refurb the unit exterior.

Pre-heat the oven to the lowest setting and pop the light unit in on the bottom shelf (Making sure it's well away from the naked flame). Gradually turn the temp up to gas mark 2 over a few mins so as not to stress the glass too much. Leave for around 15 mins until the glass is too hot to touch. It's the glass temp that's important here as it melts/softens the mastic adhesive bonding. Keep an eye on it though and remove or turn down if the rubber starts to smoke!

With lightweight cotton gloves, remove from the oven and place glass side down on a towel and run a blunt knife around the seam in the unit. This will displace a lot of adhesive and will start to seperate the unit. Don't force it at the moment as it will probably have set a little, so pop it back in the oven for a few mins.

Now, with the unit right way up, from the back of the glass gently start to pry from the housing. I find a couple of old table knifes do the job well. When you can get a knife under the glass GENTLY lever it up until you can get a fingerhold on it and slowly seperate the glass from the housing. It will come away like a slice of hot pizza (with plenty of mozzarella!) Having someone to cut/pull the stringy stuff away from the internals is very helpfull. Now quickly lay the glass on the towl and push as much bonding back into the recess in the housing, no need to be too neat here. While the glass is still hot remove as much of the bonding as possible. If neccesary use white spirit or even petrol.

Now you have the unit apart the hard part is over, Yay! Ignore the glass for now and concentrate on the main unit. You can now remove the coloured panel with one screw at the back and a poplock captive nut, plus two guide rails at the front. Undo the screw and left the back until it pops out of the captive nut, then slide forwards out of the guide rails. This panel is usually unmarked and only needs a wash in the sink with a little washing up liquid. With this out of the way you can get at the dirty projector lenses and remove from their mounts and clean with hot water and washing up liquid. They arn't handed so don't worry about mixing them up.

As for the main glass I used a good squirt of MuckOff and let it soak in for a few mins. Then scrub lighty with the rough side of a washing up sponge (or some ScotchBrite). This removes most of the baked on deposits on the inside of the glass without damaging it. I then used some Meguires glass polish and finished the job. Then I used a product I use for my diving goggles that stops condensation forming on glass. This should stop any further attacks of the wet stuff! I also placed several silica packs in the bottom of the housing. These absorb moisture and should also help in the future. You can get silica packs from Comet or Curries, just ask for a few packs as they throw loads out. I have loads as well if anyone needs some.

Ok, replace the coloured panel and pop the glass back in the oven for a couple of mins. This will get the glass nice and hot! Then gently place back on the housing. If the glass is hot enough it will reseat itself in the groove and melt the sealant. Quickly replace the holding clips and squeeze the glass into the groove. When it's cooled down enough I also ran a bead of clear silicone sealant around the whole unit to make double sure it was watertight.

I rebuilt the units with some Phillips BlueVision bulbs which give of a much whiter light then the stock yellow candles!

Job done, now replace, stand back and admire an afternoons work and a good as new front end. Although you might have to polish the rest of the car to match the new lights :D

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j71/cyberfyn/Web1.jpg

If you don't fance doing them yourself, send them to me and I'll do them for you and return within a couple of days..... For a small fee of course :lol:

[HMG1K]

Fitting my new VR4 style twin front fogs this weekend (I hope!) and wanted to belt and brace a misting problem...

My current single fog units on my Elegance mist up a bit on the edges in the wet - is this a 'quirk' of this style of unit, or should I take measures of extra sealing the backs of my new genuine Mitsubishi parts before wiring and fitting...?

Thanks in advance.

[Nick Mann]

Mine mist, especially after a good wash. I'd look into sealing them before fitting.

[HMG1K]

Thank you ! I'll get the sillicon gun out!

Appreciate your help, Nick!

[Beastlee]

Pete, was it the black one you refer to? If so this thread has jogged my memory that there seemed to be a slite crack in the bottom of the indicator/light join that may need sealing to resolve it. I had always lived with it and planned to fix i if I needed to take the units out but the need never arose.

[Beastlee]

As a side note, I have had to go for continental lights which are glass 2-piece units and I much prefer the glass lenses. If they did the VR4 units in glass they would be fantastic!

[Kieran]

As a side note, I have had to go for continental lights which are glass 2-piece units and I much prefer the glass lenses. If they did the VR4 units in glass they would be fantastic!

Yeah, I now run with UK-Spec glass lenses on my Legnum. It does make quite a difference at night. Just need to wire up the headlamp adjusters... Well, when I say "Wire up", I mean raid a UK breaker for the parts I need and create my own loom.....:inquisiti

[Paul Beazer]

Yeah, I now run with UK-Spec glass lenses on my Legnum. It does make quite a difference at night. Just need to wire up the headlamp adjusters... Well, when I say "Wire up", I mean raid a UK breaker for the parts I need and create my own loom.....:inquisiti
How so? Different connectors / looms compared to UK / Jap lights?

[Beastlee]

Jap cars don't have adjusters at all!