Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Fixing Condensation in Headlight

Remove the front bumper and headlights. There are many write ups about this step already, so I won't write it again.

take the bulbs/connectors off the housing, let it dry out in the sun.

after its dry, buy some clear silicone from the hardware store, and put a small bead around the entire edge of the seam between the two halfs of the housing.

make sure you get the areas filled with plenty of silicone, personally I prefer a large bead on the inside of my engine bay than water in my headlight, so I did it nice and thick.

Voila!! Fixed, and no need to stick it in the oven.

Will this prevent condensation or fix it and prevent it. Cause I have the problem as we speak.

it will both prevent it and fix it if you have the problem...

do this, and make sure its dry inside when you do, and your problem is fixed

that's how i fixed mine..seem like most celi new/used have this common problem eh? one comment though. the step where you leave it out in the sun to let it dry out?? well it doesn't apply to those who live some places that snow and such. Like where i live, when i had the problem it was cold as heck outside and been raining for few days. So what i did was, instead of the sun, i use hairdryer..it work great, not as good as the sun because the sun won't leave water spot, hairdryer will..but that won't be a problem because after a few nice sunny day out the spot will be gone forevr. so now been 2months and not a single condensation..But good thread though..good job.

so once you've put the silicone all over... do you block off teh vent? take the little foam piece out and fill it with goop?

when I painted my headlights, I resealed them with liquid silicone.. good stuff

yes and no..yes you should take the lil foam piece out and no you should NOT goop it with silicon..air pressure from inside the headlight need to escape somehow and that's the place that'll escape from..so don't goop it up.

What about stock tailights? I just noticed while washing my car this weekend that the left had a little condensation on the top left. Can't barely notice it because it's red. Would this work as well? I have given up on my headlights. Every week one clears up then another has bad condensation. On and on and over and over.

My headlights had that problem.. humm but now it doesn't I have no idea how they got fix.. but its always good to be prepare, so i'll do this to prevent more condensation. thanks

yeah..betta to be safe then sorry...just look at ur stock headlight around the edges to see if it's starting to open a bit..just use silicon all around it to be safe so you dont' have to worry about condensation in the future, whethe you had it or haven't had it.

That's what I did but I put masking tape on either side of the seam about 1mm from the seam on each side. Then when I put the automotive Goop on it, I smeared it smooth, and pulled off the tape right away. Then all that was left was about a 2mm strip of sealent all the way around. Didn't put them in the oven either. Nice & clean looking. No condensation problems after that!

can't you also drill like 3 1/8 holes on the bottom, and the condensation will go away forever? i read that somewhere on here.

I got a 3 year warranty when I bought my 2000 celica gt in january this year. All I got to do is pay about 180 dollars, and the rest is covered by the warranty. New ones would probably run me like 500 or something (norway is expencive!!!)

Go warranty. It's your birthday. And so on, and so forth..

when i changed my headlights (they both went out within 2 weeks of each other) i had noticed condensation in them for a couple of days...but not any more

hoping the problem doesnt return.

i'm not sure. not familiar with this but it just seems that it would make an exit for the condensation to leave (when the headlights were on and the air inside heated the condensation to a gas)...but it would also provide an entry to mist (and thus condensation in the morning).

it seems to me that condensation would happen overnight, but be gone once the air turned the condensation into gas and the holes would allow it to exit.

the hole in the bottom won't do anything, you will still get condensation.

The idea with the tape sounds like a good one, but after the hell I went through to get the bumper off the car, and the problems I had, I was in no mood to make it clean.

It's condensation free, all I care.