old_s13

hey there lexus owners

I own a 93 sc300 and i love the car.. well a couple of weeks ago it was very very hot i decided to wash my car in the hot sun.... "i had a feeling something was going to happen.. " well anyways i sprayed cold water on the whole car and next thing i know was that water started to appear in my left headlight.. I try tapping it but the evaporation cannot escape or anything. i think that the hot car and cold water did something to the left headlight. Well if anyone knows how to get rid of it please help me I am desperate to get rid of the water... thank you for your help.

I don't think it was the hot day and cold water. The seals around those front headlights often go bad. Mine did the same thing. Water and condensation stayed in it for weeks until I took it in to the dealer. In fact the glass often fades a dirty gray color which some people supposedly grind down with light sandpaper then buff it out. As for me I just bought a new, very expensive replacement. But when you are trying to keep your car at it's best it's worth it. I replaced one headlight because of your issue with the seal and another one because of the fading problem.

There are a few different options. Depending on the age and condition of your light, you may want to consider replacing it.

If thats not an option, you can look into a few different options:

1) Park the car in the sun and let it evaporate. This will take a lot of time, but the water will evaporate over time depending how much went inside. Some people add sealant around the outer seam of the light, this is a cheap and simple solution.

2) You can disassemble and re-seal, then re-assemble. This is very time consuming and many hobbyists make mistakes that effect the integrity of the light. You can warp the light, use the wrong sealant, or cause other damage - I've seen endless amounts of costly mistakes.

3) Some folks have drilled numerous holes on the bottom of the light. This works, but I wouldnt recommend this as debri can enter the light.

We published an interesting article about this just recently, makes good reading for you folks with older headlights:

http://clearcorners.com/products/004/

good luck!

cheers

mike / clearcorners.com

Watch out for bad dealers on eBay. On my old Corolla, I bought some clear corner lights and the glue/seal job was pretty poor on them.

As in from clearcorners.com, or after-after markets from ebay?

Refurbishing your older lights is possible, but its a lot of work and not always worth it. Some plastics will end up with stress cracks within the plastic which cannot be eliminated. In addition, the projector lenses on the early SC models suffered from cracked projector lenses as the manufacturer did not leave sufficient room for thermal expansion, so the projector lenses would crack along the edges.

The SC headlights are good quality, a billion times better than the aftermarket chinese-made junk lamps being sold on ebay - I wouldnt touch those with a 10 foot pole.

Mike / ClearCorners.Com

Don't use a heat gun to open the lights. You WILL warp the black housing. I need a new one because of this.

Three minutes in your oven at 325 degrees will open it up nicely. Spend a few hours taking ALL of the old sealant off of the lights and reseal them as they would from the factory. The ones that are sealed on the outside look like crap.

You can buy the Ebay lights that look really cool and make them fit.

the ebay lights are a joke, horrible quality.

your best bet is replacing or restoring the old lights and installing HIR-spec bulbs, they are much better than the stock bulbs.

nothing will help other than upgrading your low beam projectors with actual xenon projector/bulb/ballast conversion.

dont plug and unplug the battery while the car is running, you risk doing serious damage to numerous electrical/computer components on your SC. ever heard of voltage spikes? not a good thing.

there is a heavy gauge wire that goes from the alt to the bat, its typically around 8-10ga and secures the ring terminal with a nut. careful, this lead is directly connected to the battery, disconnect your battery when working with this lead.