Foglight Kit Moisture/Condensation Issues

Back in July of last year, I installed the OEM foglight kit and replaced the lightbulbs with a pair of yellow Luminics JDM 55w H11 bulbs.

A few months later when it would rain or snow, condensation began appearing on the inside of the foglight lens on both sides. It would burn off when I left the foglights on for a while, but would reappear shortly thereafter. The driver's side would generally stay clear most of the time but the passenger side would always have moisture on the inside.

Then, a few months ago, the driver's side bulb seemed to burn out. Today, when I took them apart to reinstall the clear lightbulbs, it turns out that fluid (it actually looked like windshield washer fluid) had gotten inside the connector and shorted it out, actually melting some of the plastic to the contact. It took a while, but I was able to scrape off enough of the plastic from the contact to get it to work with the JDM bulb again.

I also cleaned off the inside of the lens on the passenger side and put everything back together (including the JDM yellow lightbulbs).

While I had it apart, I noticed a small, rubber plug on the bottom of the foglight housing. Does anyone know what this is for? I wonder if it should be removed to allow the condensation to evaporate.

Has anyone had the same or similiar experience and, if so, how did they rectify it?

 

Those are good suggestions. In fact, I did the RTV thing around the lens. It looks like there's a place where the rubber O-ring did not seal properly between the lens and the housing. Maybe this is where the moisture got in in the first place.

Or, as suggested, it happened when I changed out the lightbulbs. It should also be noted that the new lightbulbs seem to have a rubber gasket that is more flexible than the one with the original lightbulbs. That could also be a factor so I swapped those.

If it's the O-ring, once the housing is sealed by the RTV, the issue then becomes that there's existing moisture inside the housing that simply has nowhere to go and alternates between vapor and condensation, depending on whether the light is on or not.

Thanks for the help.