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Posted

It has been raining in Baltimore. I now have a significant amount of moisture inside the headlight on the driver's side. My car is a 2001 300ES. Is there a way to dry it out? Also can it be sealed? Thanks

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

I have the same question. I have a 94 ES300 and inside the head light is foggy looking. Is there a way to take off the head light lens and clean it?

  • 1 year later...
Posted
I have the same question. I have a 94 ES300 and inside the head light is foggy looking. Is there a way to take off the head light lens and clean it?

I had this ame problem with my 94 LS. Matter of fact it had about 1/4" of water standing in the bottom of it. I took a tiny drill bit and drilled a few holes in the very bottom of the light. All the water drained out and it was as clear as a bell in a few days. No moisture what so ever. When I say tiny bit I mean real tiny. Hope this helps.

Posted

Drilling holes does not solve the problem and that allows outside elements to enter into the headlamp which could cause faster corrosion, rust, burnt bulb, etc... Your basically allowing O2 to enter into a sealed headlamp to evaporate the moisture...

Unfortunately, the only way to truely correct the problem is to remove the headlamp from the car... Then place the headlamp in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or so to loosen the glue...What that does is loosen and make the lense glue soft so you can effectively remove the clear lense from the headlamp casing... You then can clean the lense with plexy glass cleaner and make it shine on both sides... This will make the head lamp look like new... Lastly go to the auto parts store near you and ask for the best adhesive gasket sealer they have (I used high temp silicon gasket sealer on my SC400 and ES300)...Both times the lamps came out as good as new and had no leaks.. I then of course had to do the other headlamps to match the newer looking ones... T

What you can also do if you don't want down time is to log onto Ebay and buy a like new head lamp for a couple of hundred and replace it with your fogged lamp... Then on your own free time you can do as I stated above and restore your fogged headlamp and then reseal it on Ebay and reclaim your money...

Hope that helps....

Posted
Drilling holes does not solve the problem and that allows outside elements to enter into the headlamp which could cause faster corrosion, rust, burnt bulb, etc... Your basically allowing O2 to enter into a sealed headlamp to evaporate the moisture...

Unfortunately, the only way to truely correct the problem is to remove the headlamp from the car... Then place the headlamp in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or so to loosen the glue...What that does is loosen and make the lense glue soft so you can effectively remove the clear lense from the headlamp casing... You then can clean the lense with plexy glass cleaner and make it shine on both sides... This will make the head lamp look like new... Lastly go to the auto parts store near you and ask for the best adhesive gasket sealer they have (I used high temp silicon gasket sealer on my SC400 and ES300)...Both times the lamps came out as good as new and had no leaks.. I then of course had to do the other headlamps to match the newer looking ones... T

What you can also do if you don't want down time is to log onto Ebay and buy a like new head lamp for a couple of hundred and replace it with your fogged lamp... Then on your own free time you can do as I stated above and restore your fogged headlamp and then reseal it on Ebay and reclaim your money...

Hope that helps....

After I did it I never had a problem at all. Never even had to replace a single bulb, I ran it with the holes for a year or better.

Posted
Drilling holes does not solve the problem and that allows outside elements to enter into the headlamp which could cause faster corrosion, rust, burnt bulb, etc... Your basically allowing O2 to enter into a sealed headlamp to evaporate the moisture...

Unfortunately, the only way to truely correct the problem is to remove the headlamp from the car... Then place the headlamp in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or so to loosen the glue...What that does is loosen and make the lense glue soft so you can effectively remove the clear lense from the headlamp casing... You then can clean the lense with plexy glass cleaner and make it shine on both sides... This will make the head lamp look like new... Lastly go to the auto parts store near you and ask for the best adhesive gasket sealer they have (I used high temp silicon gasket sealer on my SC400 and ES300)...Both times the lamps came out as good as new and had no leaks.. I then of course had to do the other headlamps to match the newer looking ones... T

What you can also do if you don't want down time is to log onto Ebay and buy a like new head lamp for a couple of hundred and replace it with your fogged lamp... Then on your own free time you can do as I stated above and restore your fogged headlamp and then reseal it on Ebay and reclaim your money...

Hope that helps....

After I did it I never had a problem at all. Never even had to replace a single bulb, I ran it with the holes for a year or better. Even if for some reason it didnt work just put a dap of silicon to seal back the holes and take a different approach.

Posted

How about 5 years from now? Maybe the drilling the hole might work though.... I just know you are still allowing alot of air and moisture to run thru the headlamp which is supposed to sealed off from the elements...I personally would be just a little weary about that after several years.....

If it worked for you then maybe it's a go... That's inovative and creative anyway and I can appreciate that....

Posted
How about 5 years from now? Maybe the drilling the hole might work though.... I just know you are still allowing alot of air and moisture to run thru the headlamp which is supposed to sealed off from the elements...I personally would be just a little weary about that after several years.....

If it worked for you then maybe it's a go... That's inovative and creative anyway and I can appreciate that....

Yea, who really knows the long term. It did get me by for awhile. NC law says no moisture in lens to pass inspection. Like I said mine had about 1/4" of water standing in the bottom of the head lamp. Who knows but it worked for me???

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