Leaky lenses

My car was exposed to some rain yesterday; it was parked, though. Afterwards I noticed some water vapor/condensation inside the tailight, license plate light and the left headlight lenses. Previously, upon noticing this type of occurrence I tried to seal everything off with some dielectric grease (it's silicone based) between the rubber and metal parts and with clear RTV on the top lenses of the license plate light. I thought I did a good job but.....Is this common in our cars? What about real 356's?; I can't imagine they can be much better.....Upon inspection, I can't see where the water would be able to get through....and...the car was still. I've got European SWF lenses.....how can I fix this? Thanks!

Mike; it's weird though because it hadn't rained here in over a month (of course that was before yesterday). Also, the right headlight lens is fine....I'm baffled.

Ricardo I think because you are in San Juan you are looking at condensation and not leaking. I think you need to think to about vent...holes. From the humidity and not the rain. Maybe take out the lenses and check the rubber covers over the plug attachment.

It's either water getting in or condensation due to higher humidity and hot lenses (lights). Does the water get in when the lights are OFF as well?

Ricardo, you may want to replace the seals on the front and rear lights.
The leaking shine up light may be a bit of a challenge - I'm thinking about fabricating some rectangular rubber seals for the shine up lenses, the other seal around the SU light may need to be sealed with some black or clear silicone - maybe taping around the rubber seal leaving a ~1/16" space between the rubber seal and the metal - apply the silicone, then remove the tape before it cures.

Thanks for the pointers Dave, I think I'll try them. Thing is the car is only a year old, are those Taiwan assemblies THAT bad?? I already put clear silicone around the shine up lenses and think did a pretty good and undetectable job at that. Maybe it's leaking water between the metal assembly and the rubber seal; now I wonder where could water get in the tailight lens assemblies?

Ricardo wrote: "are those Taiwan assemblies THAT bad?? "

Yup, they're that bad. the assembly is OK, at best, but the gaskets are junk.

If the gasket hasn't cracked so much that it's become porous, I've had pretty good luck with removing the gasket entirely, and, while wearing a pair of latex gloves, liberally coat the gasket with BLACK silicon caulk (DIY's have it for fixing cracks in asphalt and on roofs). Use your hands to squish it into the gasket cracks, and then gently squeeze off the excess so the gasket looks like new.

Allow it to "set up" by letting it dry for a few hours, then re-assemble everything. That should do it for the tail light assemblies. I've never tried this on the headlights, but my headlights have (fortunately) never had condensation in them. I'm just running the regular gaskets on them and they're OK.

Also, make sure you put a coat of wax on the headlight and tail light chrome rims a few times each season to keep them from rusting or pitting.


gn

Ricardo, I ordered new seals for my tail lights and SU light (from parts obsolete) - the SU light seal is a better quality of rubber that the one that came with the original unit.
Another suggestion would be to make sure the small screws (or bolts?) that hold the plastic lenses on the SU light are sealed as well.

Oh! Hey!

Tail Lights have a plastic lens which has a fork at each end to fit around the bezel mounting stud. I have often seen some interference either between that plastic fork or the bezel mounting stud such that the lens won't fit firmly against the gasket when the screws are tightened down, and it allows moisture in. Take a close look at your assembly to see if this is the case, and use a Dremel tool to remove material here and there to allow the lens to fit firmly against the gasket when tightened down.

gn

Thanks guys; I'll definitely check it out....as of today, the worse was the SU assembly; it still looks full of condensation and that was almost a week ago!!!

Gord; I put in clear silicone around the tailight lenses (not visible though). One of the lenses sealed fine while the other is still letting water in. I think I'll just put more clear silicone on the leaky one as well as in the SU light lenses. I may drill some drainage holes in the SU light as well.

David how are the new seals holding up?

Ricardo:

On the one that's still condensing, completely remove the lens, and, using a hair dryer on medium, blast the lens and the light base for a minute or two each to completely expel any moisture, especially in the bulb bases (remove the bulbs before blasting).

Goop up the bulb sockets well with dielectric grease and replace the bulbs, then apply the silicon caulk to the gasket where the lens seats and put everything back together.

But wait! There's more!! Look at the back of the socket (in the wheel well) and put a small blob of silicon caulk around the area where the wire enters the back of the socket. Just use the caulk to for a "cap" where the wire enters, don't put gobs of it into the back of the socket. Even better, if the socket does not have a rubber boot, then get a boot for a PCV valve at an auto parts store (5/8" diameter should do it) and put that on with a little silicon caulk.

That should do it.

What you've now done is to get any remaining moisture out of the assembly, and then seal it to prevent more from getting it.

I can't gaurantee that this will totally work, as these light assemblies are notorious for moisture infiltration from ANY of the "Big Four" builders, but this should help a lot.

Gordon
One of the "Speedstah Guys" from humid Rhode Island (the "Ocean State")

Holding up fine - no leaks.

Thanks for your invaluable help Gord! I'll definitely do that since I never thought about it before. While I'm at it maybe I'll drill a small hole at the bottom of the SU light or just seal it off real well with silicone, using the hair dryer trick first. I still have a concern: won't it be a bitch to remove for light bulb replacement after using the silicone? Would there be a risk of breaking the rubber gaskets?

If that's the case then maybe it's a case of crummy rubber seals. I did get Porsche OEM door handle seals to replace the repros that came in my car (already cracked 30 days after leaving the shop); let me tell you the difference is like night and day. Maybe I should replace those seals.

Yup....replace those seals with Porsche OEM and you probably won't have to do the other stuff.

I was looking around and I notice that Tweeks has the Porsche OEM stuff for $11.99 each. I wonder if the ones offered by Klasse 356 are the real deal too.