Issues with DRL's and painted headlights

JMac88

This is not meant to be a deterrent for anyone to do this, I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you are one of the poor souls like all us Canadians that have DRL's I have discovered a rather nasty issue with painted headlights. It appears that the heat from the ballast (which sits right under this area) will cause damage to the light under the turn signal. The heat must get trapped between the ballast and the paint. This most likely happens on really hot days in the summer combined with the fact our hid's are on all the time.

I originally thought it was just paint bubble, not a big deal. But it appears that the heat is high enough to cause the plastic to bubble. The housing on the left has been sanded significantly more then the one on the right to show the damage. The one on the left will still require more sanding as what you are seeing is pitting.

I am going to try a heat resistant material on the underside of the shroud this time after I finish the repair. I would suggest trying the same thing if you are doing this mod to avoid this issue if you have DRL. Unless someone can finally figure out how to disable the DRL's.

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V1H

Is it a legal requirement to have one's HIDs on at the brightest of summer days?
Sounds a bit exaggerated to do. I pity you mate. Hope you find a working solution for ur heat problem

DIGItonium

Did you replace the turn signal lens with projector lens? See here:
To those with painted headlights...

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JMac88

Yes I replaced the turn signals with lenses. There is another local guy who did his lights without the lenses and his paint is bubbling too. He has not opened them up to see if it's bubbling plastic though.

Yes, they are on all the time and it's ridiculous.

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vrfreak

u can have them turned off thru consult3 i had it done and i have contol over my headlights now which is awesome
however i am in the process of doin my lights and i alredy have cut my turnsignals to mount the clear lens when i read about that heat issue
has anyone a fix for that yet?
this also is the second time i am doing my headlights and first time i just had paint and no turnsignal mod and never had an issue
so i dont think the bubbling is caused by the ballast or bulbs but from the turnsignal clear lens like lot of members experienced!

DIGItonium

I don't have DRLs, but with the projector lens the sun hits the lens and melts the housing. It happened to both sets with the projector lens. Some OEM headlights have this issue as well (e.g., Prius).

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VDC_OFF

This happens to all who do the lens swap for the turn signal. I have found that it is not heat from the halos or hid bulb, it's actually from the sunlight. Just like a kid with a magnifying glass burning ants, the sun reflects the light through the lens on to the plastic causing it to burn holes. For yours to have burned it that bad it must have been left outside a long time. Only fixes I have found are to use a 60mm halo with a diffuser cover and mount the lens further back so the sun doesn't hit it as much.


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vrfreak

what about the 70mm halo and diffuser I know u said u need to cut more but would it work?
cuz I already have my order from TRS
also how big was the diffuser u used I didn't seem to find anything smaller then 70mm at tmart

JMac88

Damn, Karma caught up with me and my headlights lol. Thanks for the info, if this is the case i know exactly when it happened. Worst car show I ever attended too.

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edconline

Damn.. Same thing is happening to mine and like Jmac88 I assumed it was the ballast. Good to know the real cause anyways, I'll make sure I'm not parking in the sun then, or I'll make a little cover for it lol. I really don't feel like opening them up, I sent them out for work in the first place cause i was too worried to do it.

Vrfreak -
Do you know the process they used to disable your DRL (assuming it was at the dealer)? I'm having this done as well soon and rather than experimenting it would be nice to know the steps.

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VDC_OFF

Yeah you can still use the 70, just mount the lens as far back as possible so it doesnt popout too much. Mine scarred a little bit but not too bad. A headlight cover of some sort is a good idea for those hot days left in the sun.

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RocItSimon

Hey if I bake my headlight is it ok if I use a gas oven?


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VDC_OFF

yes thats what i use. 250 degrees for 10min.

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RocItSimon

Alright thanks I'll post a pic after I get them finished.


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vrfreak

ya it was done at the dealer but they usually don't do that cuz well u know why lol
u gotta find one that does it and it takes about 1 minute and it's in the drl settings can't tell u how to get there but it's probably self explanatory
and only cost me a bottle whiskey

oh and @VDC I got one more question for u u mentioned to not forget to put auto goop or glue Inside the diffuser so does that mean it won't harm the halo if they get in touch with it
sorry but as of right now I dont have my diffusers yet so how i fasten them to me is a little like a guessing game right now :/