Wow, tail light full of water - still works!

[beau]

I just noticed that the clear (reverse) portion of my tail light on the 97 Explorer I just bought is completely full of water... and it's not draining. The reverse light still works fine though! Is this going to result in a short or cause other problems? Has anyone had this problem and fixed it? It looks like its on right, I can't figure out how the water got in there.

 

[mhn3773]

it probably is worth the time to take it out and drain the watter then silicone every hole so the water doesnt get back in

it could probably cause a short..although if it hassent already then u might be safe

 

[draft]

This is the problem with aftermarket tails, especially Altezzas. The demand is growing dramatically, that they start worrying less and less on the quality of the sealing. This is why you put silicon around them always. When I got mine, silicon'd them right away without even questioning the quality. In about a week I took them off not liking them, but that's a different story.

Get yourself some silicon.

 

[Jefe]

Well, you could leave the water in there and start a scientific test to see which bulb lasts longer, the air-cooled or the water-cooled. Probably looks pretty cool too. Maybe you should patent the idea

 

[beau]

Yes I like the lava lamp idea, but I drained it today. Could not figure out where it was coming from to silicone, so I just put it back together to see how it goes. Those of you who have used silicone, did you put it all the way around the outside of the light when you had it disattached from the car?

I might just drill a hole in the bottom so that it can drain, idunno.

 

[draft]

Yes, around the entire thing. Just needs a nice bead of it (less than a tube) where the plastic from the back and front cover meets, this will prevent the moisture from coming in, also helping lessen your chances of yellowing (don't forget about that, heh).

 

[Opera House]

I had that fish bowl problem with my 97 when I bought it. It seemed to be from a hairline crack from when the last owner tried to pop out the assembly. Tried to solve it with plastic solvent, but that never worked. Only real solution is to drill some holes in the bottom. If I remember it had to be done on two of the lenses.

 

[dreamr]

The drill was the solution to my gf's Tracer "fish tank light"
Tried a couple times to seal it, finally gave up and just put some drainage holes in it.

 

[beau]

Thanks all. I'll dry it out with a hairdryer to get rid of the moisture then try a bead of silicone all the way around. If that doesn't work I'll drill some holes and it can be a waterfall.

 

[F14CRAZY]

The driver's side front turn signal lamp was having that problem the other day on one of my dad's '98 E250s. He simply put a very small hole on the outside on the bottom. Lets water out but I seriously doubt any will get in during normal driving. The bulb was not under water, but I have seen that happen before. My dad was lazy and whipped out the Mapp gas torch, heated a screwdriver, and burned the hole in.