[SOLVED] Misting headlights

On Sun, 4 Feb 2007 11:55:11 -0000, "jimmy" graced this newsgroup with:

what do you mean by "misting up"? From moisture or is the outside surface of the lense getting foggy? If it's the latter, there's many effective ways to repolish the surface to get the haze off.

I use a mild metal polish called Flitz. You can find it at most hardware stores. Comes in a tube. Put a dime size dot on a clean rag, rub briskly on the surface of the lens and wipe off. Just like new.

"Max" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Sorry,should have made myself clearer,misting up inside.

Jim.

I moisture is condensing on the inside of the headlight, a seal, either where the lens meets the reflector, or where the bulb attaches at the rear of the assembly, is not working properly. Toyota/Lexus has recently made replacement lenses available for some models, you might want to check to see if your IS model is one of them, or you can search to see if an aftermarket solution is available. You can try using a hair dryer to see if you can get the moisture to dry up, but I suspect that once moisture is able to get in, it will continue to get in.

Ten plus years back our middle son had an used Ford Escort at college. It had the same problem with one of the headlights. The fix was simple as it turned out. During spring brake I faced the front of the car into the sun, did not think of the hair dryer, until all of the water evaporated. I removed the grill from around the light/reflector/lens and put a thin layer of clear silicone calk where the lens and reflector met. This from a small hand squeeze tube not from a caulking gun. I also put some on my finger and ran it around the whole where the bulb went in. I let it dry before I put the bulb back in. Never had the problem again. His college BTW was in the mountains of Virginia so it got a fair amount of snow, rain, and dampness.