I got condensation inside my head lights, im thinkin that i could re-seal them with glass sealant like someone (cant remember who) advised the guy with water in his lights. anybody else have this problem, i got an `85, and dont wanna spend the money on new headlights, they are erally dim though, even after getting new bulbs, im thinking i need to clean the inside and outside of the glass, plus ive should probally look at grounds too.

 

It was me I think that advised that. It could work. It worked on my Fog lights. the only thing is you may just want to invest in some new ones. I am and Im going to seal them with silicon(clear) around the edges. Headlights use to be about 75.00 each now I think theyve gone up to 109.00 from certain places. Ive located some for I think 99.99. As long as youve located the leak and seal it it should work. Yours are kinda worse than my foglights were but clean it out seal it and see. Its the cheapest way to go.

 

Thanks max, yeah im gonna try to seal them, im cheap ya know? i dont buy things unless i simply want it or absolutley cannot fix it, in this case im thinking i can fix it..thanks for your input bro....oh and what do you think abut bad grounds??anybody else got dim lights?

 

When you do seal your lights, what you should do is remove them from the car, clean them out throughly, inside and out, then take a hair dryer and pointed at one of the bulb openings and dry the inside out completely, then seal them. That way you get best results.

S

 

The headlight housings are made of plastic. Chances are, they probably have yellowed over the years due to the sunlight, which means you may not have much luck in cleaning them. Ours are actually made of a really good plastic and haven't yellowed as much as some cars I've seen, particularly Ford's made in the late 80s - early 90s. The only solution if your headlights are really yellow is to replace them with brand new ones.

-C-

 

Are you sure plastic?? I thought they were glass like the old days(scratching head) well, however they are good plastic if they are. Im still trying to find the right time to get a rear light assembly from an 88 in the junkyard and see how I can clear out the turns. Ive thought of a method but I have no money no money no way of trying. I think it should be easy though. I know I CANT mess with the outer curved piece but I want to see how much of a difference it would make if I took out that inner orange piece. I think it would be noticeable though.

 

Well, when I looked at your car, the orange piece is the outer piece. The inner piece is white. What I'm thinking of doing is dremeling out the amber piece, take it to a plastics shop and have them custom make a clear piece to replace the old one. Then glue it in place. Or maybe have the show do an entire piece. Dunno yet. Oh yeah the headlights, the lenses is glass, the rest of it is plastic.

S

 

There are two inner pieces one is orange and behind it is a clear plastic piece. Same with the red parts. There is a red inner piece that you can see from outside but when you look inside there is a clear/white piece behind it.

 

so are you guys trying to get an altezza type look?? hmmm...sounds like a good idea, im gonna start looking into that.

 

Oh hel.l no! Altezza's on 2nd gen's would look ugly! I'm trying to clear out the amber turn signals. On my car, it would look cool that way be cause you have red lights on top of a bank of white. Dunno if its possible though.

S

 

ya das all we tryin to do altezzas just wouldnt look right. Might as well do a custom r32 rear light job on our cars

 

just fixed ,my lights, i removed the headlight assemblys and then popped off all six metal clamps (six per headlight) once that happend i used a flathead screwdriver to carefully, i mean very very very carefully pry the glass lense off the assembly, you gotta do a little bit at a time and just work with it, once i got it off i clean the interior of the lense with soap an water then dried it very well(dont want any moisture in there) then i used a silicone based sealant adheisive inside the groove where the lense fits in, (little under 1/4 inch bead) then push the lense back into place and put the clips back on, now let them dry with the lense facing up (this is so the sealint doesent drip onto the lense) I had a real problem with my lights, they always had condensation in them and this can cause the bulb to burst at times, plus my headlights were always very dim, this fixed the condensation problem and kinda helped my dim lights, but they should still be brighter, i think i need to get a better ground, if anyone knows where the main ground for the headlights are i would appreciate it very much, i think the ground at the headlight plug switches between ground and 12+ but im not sure, if this is the case i cant really run a direct ground to the headlights, if anyone else has ever had this problem and fixed it i would like to hear what you have done, late, Kenneth.

 

The 9004 bulbs are cars use are notorious for being dimmer than other bulbs. On top of that, our lenses aren't really optimized for high quality lighting.

Re-grounding them MAY work, but I seriously doubt it. You would likely be better off getting some upgraded wiring harnesses, and higher wattage bulbs. For any bulb rated above the stock 45/60 (I believe), you need upgraded harnesses, or you'll burn the harness itself...

 

Oh, I see, so everybody has bad lighting huh?? well guess I might as well slap on some fogs, but cleaning and getting the condensation out did help some, enough for me to tell a difference, thanks bro.

 

Well, even though our headlights aren't the best design, there are things you can do to fix that. Obviously you hit on the first by removing the dirt and condensation inside the bulb. (Also on another note about that, to make it easier to remove the glass lens, you can also use a heat gun to remove it, or stick the headlight in the oven at a low temperature setting so it makes it easier to remove.) Other things can be going with better bulbs. Though this can cause a lot of debate, I'm am one person that will go out and spend $90 dollars on a set of PIAA bulbs. I currently run PIAA extreme white bulbs, which I'm very happy with. Plus they have the blue tip on them that glows giving a nice HID look. Some people say that Sylvania Silverstars are good, but only a fraction of the price. Personally I think it's a bit of personal preference and what not. Next thing is, invest in a decent set of fog lamps. Again I went with the PIAA 2100XT fog lamps, and these thing produce a very nice wide beam pattern, I can almost use them like headlights at times. Now remember there is a difference between fog lamps and driving lamps. Fog are wide pattern, and are meant to work with your low beams, driving lamps are long range, narrow beam design to work with your high beams. Some of the other things you can do is run a higher wattage bulb, but by doing so, you need to upgrade the wiring harness or you will melt your existing one. The last option is to convert to 9007 bulbs, which are brighter and better.

S

 

All good, valid points...

However, after researching the 9007 upgrade, I've found that it makes a negligible difference. The reason for this is, the 9004 bulbs are designed for a particular type of reflector housing, to focus the beam. The 9007 uses a different type of reflector, which has a different effect on the beam pattern.

A lot of people experienced brighter light, but it was hard to focus and adjust properly, as well not focusing the beam where it truely should be focused.

I have also considered disassembling my headlights, cleaning them, and re-sealing them. However, the silver reflective coating inside of mine is peeling, and almost gone in one housing. Does anyone know of a good way to restore this coating, providing decent reflectivity, and will withstand the heat from the bulbs?

 

Yeah, i went cheap, bought some "ebay special" blue bulbs, they weent as bad as i thought they would be two bulbs for under twenty bucks aint a bad price, thank you for clearing up the difference between fog and driving lamps, ive always wondered the real difference, just never enough to find out on my own...i have concidered getting a new harness...but like i said...i go cheap and make things work, so far i havent done to bad...i tend to always find a cheaper and good enough alternative, thanks.

 

Maxwgn the only thing thatll really do the job is to get new ones. I saw some on the internet for like 99.00 each. Being the fact I even question myself if my lights are on even though the dash is lit Im going to get new ones. I couldnt find any way to actually restore them except by getting better ones from the junk yard or new ones. Im getting new ones. If you are lucky though some in the junkyards do have very good almost brand new like reflectors in them. The only problem I had was that it was always the Passengers headlight that was almost brand new looking all the time. So since I had no luck with the left ones I left them alone. My headlights are so bad that my side clearance lights shine a hellofa lot brighter than the headlights. My fog lights pretty much keep me on par with lighting. The only thing is still that if something was to jump out in front of me my lights dont catch it until its too late.

 

I'm in the same boat, lighting wise...the light quality is horrible.

Where did you find the lights for $99 each? I need both....

I found a bone yard here locally, with an 88 SE...however, the engine fire it suffered melted the housings on both lights....but you can tell that if they hadn't melted, they looked new...good reflectors, and clear lenses - no condensation...

 

yeah, i had a problem with peeling reflector also, i just used some chrome spray paint, no this is not the best fix, but it doesent seem to have melted , no smoking or anything, it probally wont last that long, but its better than nothin, im just gonna go for accessory lighting.

 

Well, your can probably sand out the older reflective material, and coat it with a high reflective, high temperature paint. For mine, the reflectors are in fairly decent shape. I don't have peeling, but I have areas where the reflector has darken out. The big problem I'm having is the condensation, and if you look at some of the pics at my homepage, the foggy lights just make the car look dirty...and when it isn't, and it takes some of the lighting performance away.

S

 

Here
ok maybe with black trim its 99.00 with Chrome its 109.00 still the cheapest Ive seen.
http://liteemporium.safeshopper.com/19/cat19.htm?397

 

How did that chrome spray paint turn out? Was is actually reflective, and all?

 

its not the best, but its better than the black left over from the peeled and flaking reflective stuff, just make sure you sand it out a bit, just dont get carried away.

 

You know what sucks....they don't have the 85-86 Headlight assembly....


S

 

I've found something I may try. Instead of spray painting them, I'm thinking of trying some of the flexible, chrome trim tape. TrimBrite makes a chrome tape that is heat resistant, and was designed to help dress up items under the hood, etc...I'm thinking of trying that to re-do my reflectors, and of course, polish the lenses prior to reassembly.

 

if you use that tell me how that works out. might just do that my self. And Sarin arent your headlights fine. I saw them in the pics up close they look pretty brand new looking.

 

The drivers side headlight is fine, the reflector is in perfect shape, but it has a leak somewhere, so it gets condensation. The passenger side I replaced in my accident from one that was in the junkyard, The top and bottom reflectors are black, so my guess is the previous owner had bulbs that were to high of wattage. That one has a leak, but it so minor that it sometimes get condensation, but doesn't most of the time doesn't.

S

 

Will do. Even if their not perfect, they'd be better than having all the black exposed on them. complete, albeit poor, reflection, is better than incomplete to zero reflection, right? and it's a lot cheaper than $100+ for each side...

I figure it should only take one roll of that tape to refinish both lights.

 

Anyone wants true HIDs? *wow look at all those hands*
There is this company called CATZ and they make aftermarket HIDs! If you are thinking about the reflector patterns, don't. They did a 1996 Volvo 850R with the CATZ HID setup. Those headlights are similar to ours. I saw the article in Car Audio and Electronics (www.caraudiomag.com). I went to check out the CATZ site (www.fet-usa.com)to see if how much they cost and do they make them for our cars. And they are pricey! $888 dollars for high beam/low beam applications. The only problem is that ours are 9004 and they don't make them as of yet. I have called them to see if they would make them for our cars and the representitive said he will get back in touch with me. The number is 1-800-4FET-USA. You guys should call them and nag them till they make them for our cars.

That is my last present I can give to you guys. If I give anymore, it'll be from Germany.

 

Well, you can have the best bulbs in the world...but you need those reflectors to be in good condition to direct the light properly, or else it would be defeat the purpose of having them. But thanks for the present Rodney, it's gonna suck when you take off, because I won't have another 86 SE to race against in Seattle. :P

S

S

 

so what ever happend for the people who re-painted the reflective area inside the headlight housing?....I need to do this before it gets too cold out! Hopefully it helps out...an imput?

-Carson

 

I'm not sure, you could try getting a junkyard set of headlights and try painting them. If you can, try to polish them so they have a really glossy/reflective surface.

S

 

If you are lucky man you can search hard and find some that are practically brand new looking inside. My problem was I would find 87-88's that had a new headlight, but the problem was that every single car I looked at was on the drivers side. Can't do much with two driver side headlights.