Webiteks

Make situation even more obvious. . . I tried e-mailing him again last night and my e-mail was sent back to me stating that his address does not exist anymore. How ironic.

POWERZ

I don't know what your experience has been Blue350zCali, but there is no way that the fogging has anything to do with touching a bulb. There is no way a little fingerprint grease would cause all that condensation and this without a doubt a sealing issue.

Webiteks, have you tried running your lights for an extended time? The heat will help clear this up more quickly, but you obviously have a sealing problem that needs to be fixed. Aren't the headlights vented? Android123 could have sealed the vents thinking this would help but instead is keeping the moisture from escaping. Just something to check before you fire up the oven.

Webiteks

I think that Blue350zCali was trying to help me with a problem I was having with my beam pattern out of my left housing I had a while ago. . . but that is fixed now.

I could run my headlights for an extended period of time. . . but that will only temporairly fix the problem. The weather here in Illinois is horribly cold - so as soon as I pull out of my garage, they will fog back up. I checked for vents and couldn't find any that could have been accidently sealed.

ares

iTrader: (2)

it should be vented, but I doubt their easy to find. even so, thats ALOT of moisture. not like a drop here and a little fog over there. Ive boiled pots of water and gotten less mousture on there. it would seem clearly the water is somehow getting into there, and lots of it.

Webiteks

It's ridiclous. I wish I could find someone parting out a 2004 Xenon Equipped Z to just buy housings off of them and start over (leaving my housings clear of course) Buying them brand new is amazingly expensive.

POWERZ

Since nothing is technically broken, you could talk to clearcorners and see what they can do to help. It would most certainly be cheaper than brand new ones and you might end up with some nice looking leds in there too!

Webiteks

Yeah, they said they can take what I have and do their full black housing/LED Conversion for their standard price of $800.00 - which would be GREAT, but my car is an hour and a half a day - daily driver and I work monday - friday, so I can't sacrifice my car being without housings while he is fixing mine. . . no backup car :-(

POWERZ

So even if you found someone willing to try to fix your lights it wouldn't really help you. It sounds like you have no choice but to buy a new set or try to find some salvaged.

2003z

iTrader: (7)

the vents are located in the back of the housing, near the white cap that allows access to the hid. Its a 90 degree rubber elbow with a yellow mesh inside. I had to reopen mine due to some smudging. I had never attempted something like this before, and I'm sure you can do it also.
Here is how I did it:
first, look for Lao Si Fu's write-up.
1. remove headlights from car
2. take pics with your digicam if you need to, to see where everything goes in a few days when you are done., and don't mix up the parts from one light to the other. Also don't miss the 5 little brass screws that hold the lens to the housing (along with the black glue the factory uses)
3. using an xacto knife, remove as much of the silicone that the other guy applied. (took about 1 hour per bucket)
4. Heat in your oven @ 225 for 11 minutes. I did 200 the 1st time, and 225 the second and it was much easier.
5. Pry from the flat part of the top corner, and work the 2 pieces apart. It shouldn't be difficult if you were able to remove all the old silicone.
6. Thoroughly clean the insides, but be very careful not to mar the plastic or chrome.
7. Reassemble the 2 halves and reheat for 5 minutes this time.
8. Remove from oven and press the 2 halves securely together, and while still warm, reinstall the 5 screws that hold the 2 halves together.
9. Silicone. The 2nd time, I got some 'seam filling' silicone from the autoparts store. I think thats what it was called, it was much thinner than regular silicone. I coated every part of each bucket where there were seams, screws and tabs, and let it dry for a few days (was out of town, but I would give it at least 36 hours, my original smudges were from something that gave off a vapor the first time I reinstalled, and I had only let them dry overnite.)
10, After the first silicone is fully cured, apply another layer of regular silicone, and let that dry for 24, and you should be good to go.

you can email me at imspud@comcast.net if you have problems and I'll give you my phone number if you need it.

Mike

2003z

iTrader: (7)

oh yeah, we just put up a fully illustrated how to on 350zfrenzy, but we had some problems and are changing servers over the next couple days, so the site is down. Could be back up anytime though.

Webiteks

Thanks for your time 2003z !!

I JUST GOT SOME GREAT NEWS!! I have a family member that just offered me one of their extra vehicles if I want to take off my housings and send them to clearcorners.com to fix up for me.

I'm going to do it!! since android123 is hiding, I will have to take care of this myself.

I sent Mike @ clearcorners.com an e-mail letting him know that I am willing to send my housings on over to them to fix up with their LED / Black housing conversion, and re-seal them PROPERLY.

Hopefully he gets back to me soon. This is exciting! I don't have to buy brand new housings!!!!

old_s13

iTrader: (1)

Hello everyone. To answer some questions, yes we can inspect and possibly repair damaged housings -- to an extent. Z owners need to understand that headlight assemblies are pretty fragile and made of plastic, this means they should be worked on by professionals who are accustomed to working with lighting to prevent mistakes from being made while handling the headlight units. The Z headlamps have sensative chrome plating and UV coatings which are very easy to scratch and dullen. In addition, the xenon lighting system works off of 24,000 volts.. operating these lamps with high amounts of condensation inside the housing is far from ideal and should be repaired immediately.

While the Civic and 350Z are both equipped with "headlamps," there are many technological differences between the two. Besides, ONE xenon 350Z headlamp costs the equivelent of 10 Civic headlamps. I checked with the dealer, price of the HID headlamp WITHOUT any bulbs, ballasts, or wiring harness is just shy of $700/ea.

I have been in touch with Mr Webiteks for several weeks now regarding his unfortunate headlight issue. While yes, we can assist in resolving this situation.. the best alternative is paying to have the modification which he originally attempted to attain. This will involve disassembly, cleanup/repair, LED retrofitting, wiring, and re-sealing with OEM sealant. The saddest part about this situation is that it could have been prevented from the get-go.

- Mike / ClearCorners.Com

ares

iTrader: (2)

Im afraid powerz is right.

what would be good is if clear corners had a housing on hand. sent it to you to use for the time while he is modifying yours, then send yours back, return his temp set.

it would probably help most people out, you end up with your own set of lights, but you have a set to use in the mean time. of course thats a huge investment for him to make too.

Webiteks

that is a great idea ares!

Mike. . . do you have a spare set? If not. . . how soon can we get going. I e-mailed you at your personal e-mail address. let me know, I'm ready to get this fixed asap.

old_s13

iTrader: (1)

We do not stock core-sets for forward facing lamps. No customer will want to exchange a pristine condition lamp off of a Z with 800 miles, for a pitted or water-damaged headlamp off of a Z with 1,000,000 miles. This is why we do not stock any forward facing lamps.

note: Even if it was for "temporary use" the shipping costs and amount of labor to install, swap, send back, modify, install, swap, and send back would be rediculous. This is the unfortunate thing about daily driven vehicles and why we refrain from working on them. It is next to near impossible to get a cleanly executed modification when you are rushing from time, you are destined to cut corners and make mistakes.

- Mike

2003z

iTrader: (7)

webiteks, I think you will be happiest going with clear corners now that you have a replacement vehicle. They know their stuff and will back up their work. I did mine more for something to do, not because it was a 'must have' mod. That being said, I love the new look, and if I had any doubts, I would have gone with clearcorners too.

Webiteks

I'm very excited that i'm going with clearcorners.com. I can't wait!

Zs2Fast4U

This is such an easy mod to do. Just take them in the oven. Set the temp at 250 and keep the front open, don't close the oven. The heat will start to warm up the seal on the light. Keep them in for like 15 mins. After that take them out, and the black goe will be really sticky, and you just pry the light apart. Take then lens dry it off completly on the inside, make sure there is no condinsation cause when you seal it, they will fog back up. Get a window seal at like Home Depot, either clear or black, black is stock, and put it around the edge of the light where it seals. Don't put it together yet, just take the housing without the lens, and put it in for 5 mins, so it can heat up the factory seal again and make it sticky and it can make your new sealant sticky also. After 5mins, take it out, put the lens on it , snap it such, then put the whole light in the oven for 10 mins, so it will melt the sealant all around the inside and outside of the rim to make sure it is toatlly sealed and won't condinsate. After 10 mins, take the light out, and just got and press around the whole light, and make sure that it is totally sealed, put a lot of pressure on them. Then leave them for like 15 mins to dry up so they aren't sticky anymore, and put them back on the car. You won't burn the lights I promise. I have done this in MY WRX i had, then some STIs, and Celicas, and Civics. Done them in a bunch of cars. Never any leakage, but I resealed them. This guy prob used the factory sealent, and that will surely make them leak. Enjoy!

Zs2Fast4U

Yeah they do have HIDS, but so do the STIs and I did it in that, and the STI headlamps cost twice of what the Zs are. 1400 bucks! Non HID, 2200 with HIDs and balasts! WOW!