Does anyone know how to fix the fogging on the inside of the HID Lens? Can you remove the bulb and clean this somehow? I have the Xenons. Funny though the fog lights are still clear. This is only on one side too. Passenger side...which was replaced 5 years ago.

 

Pics?

Gotta see what it looks like before I can tell what's wrong with it. Another thing is, when does this usually happen? For example, usually when it's raining, car wash, out of nowhere, etc.

 

I'm talking about the round 3" fish eye lens that houses the HID bulb....this lens is now permanently fogged....not just after rain or wash....I will try to get a picture today. The one on the driver side is still clear.

 

I found out from my dealer that this is sealed fixture and it is probably very difficult to do. I will talk to the body shop manager when he gets back from his summer vacation in 2 weeks and keep you guys posted. I wonder if the body shops (Nissan Dealer) use jobber headlight assemblies to save money.

 

it IS in fact a "sealed fixture" but you can open it right up if you do the heat gun/oven bake method and pry them apart. many of us have done it and there are lots or tutorials out there. once they are open you will need to wipe away the condensation, use a mild acidic compound to dissolve any calcium/mineral deposits that dried on the lens and worse case scenario wet sand and polish. the dealer was right, this will be difficult.

how bad is the fogging? is it enough to limit light? the better question is why did it fog? have you baked your lights open before? if not, than there could be a crack or problem that you don't know about. it would be useless to go through all that work to "unfog" the lens if its just going to get "refogged" again in the future. so your priority is to find out where it is on your assembly that is letting in moisture and seal it.

if i were you id just go buy another head light assembly.

 

Remove bumper. Remove the headlights. Get them somewhere dry. Remove the HID cover and bulb, and fog cover/bulb.

Blow the crap out of it with hairgun. Close it back in the dry place.

Problem solved. Did that on mine. Easy fix.

 

I have the same exectly the same problem, thanks for the idea! and mine fogged on the Passenger side of my car also! the driver side is fine!

 

Well since my use to fog up too and my bulb went out...so i had to change it and when I changed it the little gasket was torn so it let everything in , i let it dry for a few hours became clean then i just sealed it...

 

Oh ok, how long has it been like that? More than likely your gonna have to take it apart and clean it like the others have said. One thing to be leery of, is that the inside of the lens is prone to scratches. Which is going to make doing something like that pretty hard, as the dealer said. If your not careful than that area that you thought you had cleaned is going to be scratched the fked up. Taking it apart and sealing it correctly is kind of tricky but easy at the same time.

If your not accustomed to doing stuff like that then letting a shop do it is a viable option. So, are they saying that they are going to replace the headlights or something? Don't know what you mean by jobber headlight assemblies.

 

If you need to wipe the projector lens, you can pull the HID projector out of the headlight housing through the opening, no need to bake it. Just remove the 4 screws holding the projector in place and maybe loosen 2 screws holding a shield above the projector in place.

 

Best way is to take it off or if the lens is yellow that means it becomes like that from the sun light sand paper ( not scrachy!) get a bucket of water with soap. Soak the paper with water and scrub the lense 10 mins each and will be good as new

 

Oh you can take projector off without baking?, didnt know that. If I had knew i would have inspected them last time I removed them.

 

Guys! A big huge thank you for all the great support on this! Yes it is bad enough that it does limit the light. The fogging is actually quite visible with the headlights on during the day. I'm not sure if this was a jobber part....A jobber part is an aftermarket part manufactured by a third party to save the body shop from an expensive repair. In my case, I had a minor accident with the car a few years back and the bumper was replace by a jobber. The fit isn't perfect but it is hard to notice. In fact the bumper is flatter than the original Maxima bumper and I like it. More aggressive in styling. The light fixture however I'm not sure...I'll have to ask the body shop manager when he gets back from vacation in 2 weeks. If I have to remove it I will ask them to do it and then bring it to my friend who has been baking lights for Nissan 300 ZXs for years...they take out any yellow plastic clear strips and re-bake them. I know it's a PITA but what can you do...it looks bad.

 

Yes, the HID projectors can, but halogen projectors need to be baked because the reflector is too big.

I'm confused, is there anything wrong with the headlight lens or is it just the projector lens? I thought it was only the projector lens that is fogged/fogging.

 

Ok so I asked my friend who works for the dealership and he was able to pull out the files for the work that was done by their body shop and it is an original Nissan light fixture.

Once again just so we're on the same page....it is the round 3" diameter Xenon headlight projector lens that has fogged. And I will try and clean in from the bulb side...but I believe the fogging may be on the housing side. If so I will have to remove the headlight fixture and bake it to have access to the projector lens in order to wipe it clean.
Maybe if I use the fog at the same time it might dry up the HID lens as the fogs run much hotter. I switched to the PIAA Amber Ion Plasma bulbs... IMHO the look is awesome.

 

is it just water? blow it with hair dryer man.... not gona take long. If it has been assembled on a humid day or something, it's going to fog..... just dry/reassemble in a dry place and ur done.

Tread hijacking : Does the HID reflector eventually peel and reflect less light? It seems like my HIDS kinda suck. My gf car with halogen lights up more. Anyone looked at their reflectors and noticed it wasnt all shiny?

If we can remove the projectors from the light I think ill have a look this week and see. You can order E55 projectors online for kinda cheap, so if it could give back full power to the lights, that would be nice.

As for the fog reflectors and housing, my 55w hids birned the crap outta them. Lens is black, reflector is peeled... eh.

 

If you have OEM xenon projectors, you do NOT have to bake the headlights to access the projector lens, just remove the projector from the back. I have removed the xenon projector this way plenty of times. If you are going to try to clean any part of the projector lens, you might as well just pull the whole projector out to make it easier.

Yes, if you open and close your headlights on a humid day you have just allowed moisture inside your headlight.

The reflector bowls CAN degrade, which is generally called burning. Parts of the inside of the bowl will become dull, but shouldn't have a drastic effect unless it is discolored (to the point where it absorbs light). I'm assuming you have OEM xenon headlights, what bulbs and color temperature are you using?

 

glue in some silica packets in a hidden area so if you do have any condensation left it will suck it up forever.

if im not mistaken the assembly does have silica packets in them from the factory.

 

Ya, one silica packet in each from the factory, noticed that when I disassembles.

I have OEM 4300K bulbs. But, I,ve had 6000K crap china hids that kept roasting every 4 months for a while, and 55w fogs that burned my housing too... so I might have to check into this to see if my reflector is fried. Maybe thats why I get ****ty light output.

I'll have a look. My bulbs are like 6 months old, bought some new OEM bulbs at 100$ each because I though they were just worn after 7 years.

 

If you've had aftermarket bulbs burn out plenty of times, that very well could have degraded the reflectivity of the reflector bowl. I've had aftermarket bulbs burnout without so much of a warning, whereas OEM bulbs should discolor indicating they need to be changed. What happens when bulbs (aftermarket or OEM) burnout, I have no idea, but I would assume it's good to change the bulbs when they discolor to prevent burnouts.

 

yes what joecurr says is right. i've taken out the projectors and cleaned the lens off. i was trying to do a lens swap and i couldn't figure out how to remove the lens.

joecurr do u know how to remove the lens?

 

Took projector off yesterday to clean, lens was fine.... no dust. reflector was just a tad less reflective in some places, but nothing alarming.... reassembles that way.

worst case you can get projectors from the retrofit source for less than 200$ including their clear lenses.

 

Thanks for the update Kryogen. I will try the same method soon. So it seems that the fog on your lens was on the inside of the lens / bulb housing.

 

no need to remove the projector to remove the fog though.

 

i really need to change out my projectors as well. my output have gone to sh*t within the past few months. i suspect the reflector bowl is starting to fade.

 

yeah, my output is **** too. dont really know why.

Have you changed your bulbs or they are still OEM? They fade over time. If they are still stock, get new bulbs. They are 100$ for 2 (get phillips) from the retrofit source. got them local for 200$... got screwed. Did help a bit, but still faded.

removed projector to have a look, but I mean, it looked okay to me...

 

Yeah, I heard that 55w have burnt a LOT of people's fog light housing. You might just wanna pick up a 35w kit next time if you ever decide on doing that again. They are bright enough IMO. Like I said before to other people. I highly suggest DDM Tuning that has a lifetime warranty.

With the reflectors, if you ever decide to paint your housing. You can paint them with some Duplicolor black metallic. It's pretty damn reflective.

 

main beam reflectors are #1....

 

hi

 

yet another useless post

 

and one more

 

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