water condensation in left tail light

[edb]

I bought a 03 Limited a few weeks ago, and am happy with it so far.

I noticed there are a lot of water droplets in the left tail light, is it easy to disassemble the light and restore it?

Thanks.

[heifetz17]

Unfortunately not. The light is a sealed assembly and will need to be replaced. It's farily common for sealed assemblies to have the seal go bad and allow water in.

I've seen a few people that were able to use a heat gun and putty knife and carefully remove the lens from the assembly and reglue it to make a new seal. I wouldn't try it myself for fear that it wouldn't go back together and I'd be without a light altogether.

[edb]

Thanks, Chris.

It seems that I have to either live with it or get a new one all together.

BTW, if the bulb inside burns out, I can't just replace the bulb, instead, I need a new tail light. Is that true? That's not fair.

[codfather204]

Originally Posted by edb

Thanks, Chris.

It seems that I have to either live with it or get a new one all together.

BTW, if the bulb inside burns out, I can't just replace the bulb, instead, I need a new tail light. Is that true? That's not fair.

You can replace the bulbs. Probably one of the easiest cars I've had in the last 10 years for replacing taillights actually. The headlights are another story.

[CREWZIN]

edb,

Have you tried taking the taillight out? If not, there's just one screw at the bottom. You can use a flat bladed screwdriver to get it out. Then on both sides of the light there's a metal tab that holds the taillight in, slide the whole light towards the top a little bit and pull out, it should come right out.

Look at the bulbs and see if the rubber/foam gasket around the bulb is in one piece. If it's split, that's where you might have air/condensation building up. Then look all around the lip of the taillight itself for any cracks or splits.

[CreepyPT]

Fixed mine with a small tube of clear silicone sealant. Just ran a small bead all the way around the seam between the two halves, and made sure the ?gasket? on the bulb was snug. No more water. Though, if you have humidity in your area like I've got in Missouri these days, do it in the air conditioning so you don't add more moisture in from the air outside.

[edb]

Thanks for everybody's reply. I will give it a try to fix it someday.

[matthewmilbut]

I have a very expensive watch. I once went swimming and forgot to take it off before diving in, water condensation got inside of it. I called the jewelers and their advice was to remove the watch cover and sit it by a lamp with the open side up so the water can evaporate. Worked like a charm. Getting the back off was the hardest part.
So in theory, how about removing the taillight unplugging the light assembly and leaving it sit out as I did with my watch? Also, if needed, at the same time you could fix a repair with the gasket with some silicone as described above.

[leedavis]

I had this prob on my cruiser a few years ago. I couldn't get into the tail light and I was pretty scared I might ruin the whole tail light lens. So I just drilled a small hole in the bottom of the light.. away from the wiring and let the water drain out. I drilled it in a spot that if water did get in again it would drain straight back out.. I know it might not be the best solution but that's what I did to my car.

[edb]

I took off the tailight yesterday, and found the gasket and the sealant are all fine. The problem is this. It looks like the lens is not a single piece, the yellow turn signal lens is glued or somehow attached to the red portion. And a long crack developed along the glue and let a lot of water in. It's actually not just some water droplets, there was a smool pool of water. I managed to remove most of the water, and the crack is covered with clear tape for now. I plan to use vinyl to tint it, and hopefully that will permanately solve this problem.