I have been driving the magic bus for a while now.
I have gotten used to it, and am fond of it. It has some issues that I am correcting. It has some rust which I am dealing with as best I can. Nothing structural, thank G-d, it’s solid where it counts. There’s some surface rust under that I have treated and will coat with some fish oil Rustoleum, and it will see the first hard winter this winter.
One of the things that has annoyed me is some condensation inside one of the headlamps. I have taken the bulb out hoping it would dry, but no joy. It supposedly requires removal of the bumper to replace, but I was determined, and last night I tugged and pulled and removed the bugger, and poured out a half a cup of water. I soaked up the little drops with a towel on the end of a stick, and dried it out with a hair dryer, then used one of those headlamp cleaning kits to clear it up. It’s a good deal nicer now, and I think it will be fine. So long as the tranny doesn’t go tits up, I will be alright, I think.
12 comments Og | Uncategorized
Any advantage to drilling drain holes in the bottom of the headlight?
It has vent holes in the back. I am completely unsure how the water got in, but i hope it doesnt again.
I had similar issues with my ’89 Mustang, I wound up drilling holes in the bottom of the headlight to let the water out. The water would get deep enough to splash on the (very hot) halogen bulb, resulting in immediate catastrophic bulb failure (and lots of little bits of glass to dump out of the headlight).
Im sincerely hoping this was a one time result of exuberant pressure washing.
I’ve seen that in a lot of ford headlights for some reason. Never have figured out the cause. Maybe condensation, but you have to wonder how the water got in. The assembly is sealed and the hole the bulb goes in is pretty tight.
One of life’s continuing mystery’s.
I’ve heard that the water gets in thru microscopic cracks that form in the lens, water is forced thru when driving in the rain. I’ve also suspected it could be leaking in from the top, where the reflector attaches to the lens if it’s not sealed well enough. Either way, drilling a couple holes in the bottom solved the problem for me.
I’ve heard you can use mosquito repellent that is 40% or so DEET to remove the haze on headlights. I never have tried it tho.
If all else fails on the headlight, then replacement units on Ebay tend to be amazingly cheap.
Just be sure to buy ’em in the pair.
Yeah, a lot of ’em look straight out of the PepBoy Rice Rocket catalog, but there’s plenty of stock-looking ones, too.
And there’s one thing you never wanna see in your Magic Bus, and that’s a Tranny lying there “tits up”. I mean, that’s just the stuff of nightmares! *shudder*
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
The hole drilling idea sounds interezting but where the water collects it woulnt drain out of a hole. Unless the car was standing on its nose. Hard to explain. Still, i hope im done with this for a while.
I often wondered is a couple tablespoons of silica gel cat litter wouldn’t take care of all but heavy amounts of water. Our old Malibu’s both had fog & water laying in the bottom. I guess it came in through the seal between the clear “glass” and the back reflector. Both the headlamps and the tail light assemblies leaked.
Mosquito repellent will definitely fog lens on your safety glasses. Repellent and polycarbonate(?) do not play well together.
I’d not be running it through the car wash…