Found out why my headlights mist

[crespo]

When installing my HID kit i inadvertently discovered why my lights have been misting despite having the clips installed in 2007 as per the TSB.
The bloody silica bags had been installed against the bulb enclosure and the heat has burnt a hole in the bag on both sides.
Obviously i didn't expect this and when removing my lights to install my HID kit one of the bags with the biggest hole decided to half empty itself in to the light cluster, Being damp due to the condensation caused by the infective silica bag (due to having a massive hole in it) it has stuck like s**t to a blanket on the inside of the lense.
You can imagine how chuffed i am with my cars headlight looking like it is smuggling coke for the Colombians so i will be off to Honda tomorrow armed with the 2 bags i have now removed to stop any further issues and photographic evidence and try one more time for some new lights.
Wish me luck.


Please check very carefully before removing your lights so you don't end up with the same problem i have. My drivers side light is now (removed-CJ)

 

[nick 9-5]

There was another thread about silica bags and someone said that they didn't want to insert them due to the risk of fire, someone else told him not to be so stupid! Looks like they've been on fire at some stage.

 

[Paul]

i fitted my HIDs the other day and my silica bags were stuck nicely to the side of the headlamp away from the back of the reflector

best of luck Neil hope you get it sorted ok

 

[Monks]

Yep its all down to where the bags are placed really, good luck on getting them sorted.

 

[crespo]

That would be me

If they were on fire you wont find those bags in the picture what you would have found is carbon.. the headlights and the car would have been up and smoke.

The bags have obviously moved and and been in touch with of the low beam housing which gets very hot.The heat has burn into the outer bag and when the silica gel has got in touch with the housing it filled the void and stop that spreading to the other part of the bag. Which in the picture it has..

Silica gel will not burn until chucked into a furnace, since the head light have been moved from the static position surely the silica gel would get out.

Im pretty sure they were positioned there from the begining because it was not easy getting them out, The sticky tape they used to hold them there works very well.

 

[crespo]

Does anyone know who actually fits these things because there is no mention of silica bags being installed on the TSB.
My silica bags burst due to being positioned to close to the bulb enclosure and the heat burnt a hole in them, After popping down to my local dealers armed with said bags of silica to see if i could get a warranty repair done i was told the TSB was for clips only and that someone else must have put the silica bags in there.

I know the previous owner of my car and he has told me that he never put the things in there and it has a full Honda history. Im 99% sure the dealer put them in but its proving difficult to prove.
I know plenty of others on the forum have the gel packs installed in there lights, So who the hell is putting them there if Honda arent.??????????

 

[little]

I'm sure that was a Honda solution for customers in Poland, so why would it be different in the UK. They might not be very happy to admit that, because putting these bags into lamps wasn't very professional, was it?

 

[Monks]

Silca gel bags are not just a Honda thing, my old signum had them fitted from factory as well. I think maybe the previous owner has had a poke about to try and solve the misting issue before.

 

[crespo]

All 7th gen cars have the silica gels installed from factory it is not a dealer install. if it wasn't for the silica gel bag your headlight would be worse off.

Stanley are the headlight manufacturer they install these bags within the headlights.I can see why this is such a big fuss for a lot of people.?

CJ, Does that apply to the pre facelift lights.?? I know the post facelift lights with the blue tinted indicator lenses have them pre installed but i would like to clarify if the pre facelift lenses had them from factory.

And for the record i have no problem with them being there as they serve a purpose but positioning them against the bulb holder is not too clever.
It may be worth other owners checking theres to avoid a situation like mine. After all its free to check.

 

[crespo]

Silca gel bags are not just a Honda thing, my old signum had them fitted from factory as well. I think maybe the previous owner has had a poke about to try and solve the misting issue before.

The guy (a friend of mine) who owned the car before me was about as mechanically adept as my 1yr old son. All the servicing and work done to my car has been at the main dealer.
Trust me, he struggles to change a light bulb.

 

[vile]

I haven't seen the internals of my facelift headlights to confirm if they have the silica gels bags, I would ***ume so

can any of the facelift boys with the HID upgrade confirm?

http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/621-diy-hid-install/page__p__5837__hl__hid__fromsearch__1#entry5837 when i installed the HID kit in my wifes car , I noticed the two silica gel bags.

On my wife car it had the clips first they didn't work Honda replaced the headlights and the new one. So even if you buy new pre-facelift lights you will get these bags installed.

I must admit i didn't see any when i done my HIDS but then i wasn't looking for them.Would the bags be very noticeable.

 

[crespo]

I must admit i didn't see any when i done my HIDS but then i wasn't looking for them.Would the bags be very noticeable.

You can see it on the 3rd picture on the thread CJ linked to (on the left). It looks dangerously close to the metal housing like mine was imo. You can see on the pictures above what can happen.

Im wondering now if mine left the factory like it and it has been slowly burning for 7yrs as my bag has the same light blue writing on the bag as CJ's has.

 

[arab]

There was another thread about silica bags and someone said that they didn't want to insert them due to the risk of fire, someone else told him not to be so stupid! Looks like they've been on fire at some stage.

I was the other party.

I said:

I personally would not be happy with a silica bag - honestly I'd consider it a fire risk. Even if I'm wrong, having a bag of crystals sliding around inside the light doesn't strike me as a very professional fix.

Pepster said:

Well dont want to come across as a geek here , but silica gel is the ideal and near perfect solution to deal with condensation. Silica gels is non-flammable the danger of it catching fire is non existent....But the beauty of of silica gels is in it chemical properties for regenerating and evaporating the absorbed water vapour tramped inside the gel.

Now on standard halogen bulbs generates considerable heat and over really long journeys the silica gel will regenerate.. approx 120 ° C to for two hours to complete get dry.

Its non flammable regenerates itself , that's why it not only Honda which utilises this simple procedure.

So no mention of stupid!

Having said that, I've never seen Silica bags in my pre-facelift CL7 - neither before nor after I got my lights replaced - and I still stand by my comments that the best solution is to get the dealer to agree to replace them under warranty as I did (my story is here)

 

[Franco]

Just been through all of this with the dealer in Newcastle, he phoned Honda UK and they turned me down flat. My 54 plate is too far out of warrantee they said. £600 or misty headlights/silica bags! Same goes for the clutch problem!

 

[jammy_rex]

I bought my car a couple of months ago from a local Honda dealer (Steels of Hereford). Headlights have been misting in certain conditions. I took photos in and they had the car for the afternoon. Apparently they said the clips were not installed in the correct positions. So, they repositioned the clips and have told me to keep an eye on it and bring it back if it happens again. So far I've not seen any misting but it hasn't been cold or wet since so we'll see.

 

[Monks]

My facelift headlights dont have any silica gel bags, I check them the other day.

 

[crespo]

My facelift headlights dont have any silica gel bags, I check them the other day.

It seems to be hit and miss as to if they are installed or not. It does seem that honda dont wish to acknowledge them being used in the Accord though from the feedback im getting from my local dealer.

 

[Wazza350]

Well, the driver side one anyway!

My motor is a 2006 Accord, when we had the real cold and damp weather a few weeks back my driver side lamp had begun misting inside. I positioned a fan heater towards the headlight to dry it out, then re inserted all the bulbs from scratch to start again. Misting re-occurred.

It has all gone now as the weather is milder, but still a pain in the rear.

These silica bags, that people have had inserted, aren't present on my car. I did wonder about trying them out to see if that would make a difference, but my argument with Honda are that they shouldn't mist up in the first place. I took the car to my dealer about 2 weeks ago and he did the taking pictures thing, then came back and told me the lights weren't covered under my extended warranty plan, as the water hadn't formed droplets. Eh? Mist IS water. Cheap excuse.

I also sent an e-mail to HUK, no response as yet so I may ring them Monday.

I also don't think I have these clips on my headlights either, but by all accounts they don't work?

Wazza.

 

[SteveM]

Read this and as I was doing my HID install today thought I could check at the time, sure enough bags were just touching the reflector housing and we brown and charred.

By holding the headlamp with the hole upwards I was able to patch them with some thin aluminium tape:

HID install went fine too and used the triangular bracket on a convenient stud on the near side:

On the drivers side I fitted the ballast to the vertical bulkhead with a small nut and bolt, and fixed the transformer(?) as per CJ's how to with F1 tape (like velcro on steroids)

Steve

 

[crespo]

well im glad this thread has helped someone avoid the problem i had. It seems a monumentaly stupid place to mount a paper bag and is a time bomb waiting to go off imo.
my drivers side light is covered in white powder from the hole that was burnt in to the bag due to the position that it was mounted. i would advise everyone to check there lights because once the powder is in the lense you cant get it out and at £300 a light it could become very expensive.

 

[crespo]

Sorry to hear that you have the misty light problems that so many have. the silica gel packs didn't work on my lights as well as the clips. Unfortunately Honda UK don't seem to want to know in my case either. The silica gel packs actually burst in my lights causing my drivers side headlight to be covered in white powder due to the bag getting a hole burnt in it from placing it next to the bulb which obviously gets hot. I have taken it up with Honda UK and am awaiting reply, im not holding my breath though.
Its pretty unacceptable for a modern cars headlights to mist and is a manufacturing fault as far as i am concerned. Honda seem to think its perfectly acceptable to drive round in a car where the headlights steam up. Quite ridiculous. :huh:

 

[Puppy]

Can I suggest removing the high beam cover from the back of the affected headlight and leave it off for a few days, this will allow the moisture to escape.

This has worked for me

 

[crespo]

Why is it ?, the bag is ,made of fibre glass coated in silicone ..if it was time bomb your car my car and other cars would be burnt to ashes.

Perhaps you misunderstood what i was getting at or i didnt explain myself properly. I was not suggesting that the car would catch fire because as you rightly pointed out it would have long ago. I was highlighting the fact that if the bag is positioned next to the bulb holder like in the photo above you will end up with a large hole burnt in it and potentially a headlight full of silica gel like myself.

 

[crespo]

agree with you or a hairdryer to speed up the operation. but apart for the moaning and carrying on surround this issue.

How many of you have had a look at the large O ring on the headlight cap that O ring should be perfect no cracks no kinks and should be circular. once mounted the cap is turned and locked .you will feel a small clunk when trying it.

to soften up the O ring use Shin-Etsu rubber grease.

I understand that this is going to be a pro Honda site but to label an ihherrent isue with the Accord moaning and carrying on is a bit harsh.
People have spent a lot of money on there cars and are more than entitled to vent there frustration for what is basically a manufacturing defect that is being brushed under the carpet by Honda.

In some cases the headlight misting may be caused by incorectly seated headlight caps but not all will be and when your pride and joy looks like its lights are permanently in a sauna it gets a little depressing. And yes my caps are seated propperly.

 

[crespo]

Only if you lived closer I would fix that issue for free.. what is the conduction of the o ring?

To be fair i never investigated the condition of the rings but i did make sure they were seated propperly as it is easy to screw them back on incorectly. I will have a look when i next get in ther car.
Its a shame your not local because i would love my lights to be mist free. I love my car but the lights really get me down.
I have been contemplating splitting them and resealing the lights as the lenses have tide marks on the inside from the moisture anyway.
I will do a DIY if i ever get round to it.