Headlights – how much condensation is too much..?

[Stroudy]

Hi,

Just wondering how much condensation is considered too much..

Considering taking mine out, drying and silicone sealing to see if it helps??

Cheers

[71-bda]

sealing it up will make it worse unless you can guarantee the ‘air’ you seal in is free from moisture! I believe the units are vented so need to breathe !

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No nothing.

No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.

No tackiness.

Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.

Innit?

 

[Stroudy]

Agreed yes, they should have a breather/breathers. I was just wondering if more ingress was occurring potentially between the lens to light body joint. If this is not perfect there’s potential for more water to get in than just “acceptable” levels from the air.

Running some clear silicone around this and making sure the breather is not blocked was my thought.

[Stroudy]

SO, pulled the headlight to check. Usually the breather is where the small rubber piece is.. behind it there is indeed a hole through into the headlight..

However, the rubber tube is solid in the middle.. not straight through.. Should this be hollow to allow it to breath?

There is another location on the back of the light the same shape as the rubber fitment, but this is not drilled though.

 

[71-bda]

I’d drill some holes in the ‘black part’ and maybe leave the brown part off, if it is worse you can always put the brown part on and basically be back to where you started. I would reckon  drilling a hole(s) maybe 4/5mm in that dead end hole(s) may do the trick. Maybe grease the drill up to reduce any waste going in to the sealed part of lamp? If it does work noticeably better I would try and hollow out so its a clear tube the ‘brown rubbery? bit’

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No nothing.

No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.

No tackiness.

Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.

Innit?

 

[crocket81]

I had a look on autodata at work the other day on known fixes and bulletins, this is a common issue with the mk3, the vents on the back arnt big enough, they say to drill them out bigger and fit modified rubber vents from ford

[stu-c]

Mine were suffering with condensation when I picked it up. I spoke to the ford guys and they said it was common and would dissipate as the car was left idle for a while. They were right, it took about a couple of days of use and been fine since.

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NB FPM375

[Stroudy]

Interesting stuff, certainly the two breather hole points on mine were currently doing nothing. I opted heating a terminal screwdriver and use it to melt through the blank in the brown rubber vent and refit on the upper most vent hole that does go through the headlight.

Will see how it goes..  next step would be to drill through the lower vent position and get a vent tube.. I see there are some on ebay from rates ford £14 for a small piece of rubber :O

Took the opportunity with the lights out to switch the orange indicators for the Philips silver vision versions 🙂

[Stroudy]

@crocket81 I don’t suppose you know the finis of the modified vent?? cheers

[crocket81]

@Stroudy

I’ll have another look on autodata tomorrow and see if it has it on there mate, sometimes does have the number, I’ll let you know

[crocket81]

Part number according to auto data is 1842985, I’ve googled it and comes up with the vents

[davyr5]

My Red edition also suffered from condensation in my headlights, reported it on my service carried out late 2019, was told at the time it was acceptable. Just had the car serviced again Dec 2020 and reported the same problem only worse, took pictures and showed the service department as it was never wet inside the light unit when i drove to them, always dried out in the short drive down, This time they agreed that there was way to much misting inside both lights and they changed both under warranty.

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My 1st Ford since 1993, and its awesome!

[Stroudy]

@crocket81 thanks for checking the finis number

@davyr5 how have the new units been? hopefully much better.

[davyr5]

TBH i haven’t really been out in the car that much since they’ve been changed (cars a bit of a garage queen) but when i have been out I’ve not noticed any misting at all, hopefully they’re all good now.

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My 1st Ford since 1993, and its awesome!

[Author]

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