Headlight questions for FX4...
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Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2010
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Guys- new headlights will always fog up!
This seems to be a common misunderstanding here. Unless you have visible water droplets forming a puddle in the bottom of your housings, there are nothing wrong with your headlights. They may have been made in China, but they still do full submersion tests on the housings prior to shipment. Due to atmospheric changes, they will fog up anywhere from 1-7 days before they equalize. Sometimes taking the bulb out will help (only hot and dry days) but there are one or two fabric vents over a small 7/16" hole on the back of your headlights that act as one-way gates to allow the moisture to escape.
tl;dr- Fogging is normal. Unless you have water pooling up on the bottom, there is no need to run silicone around the edges.
This seems to be a common misunderstanding here. Unless you have visible water droplets forming a puddle in the bottom of your housings, there are nothing wrong with your headlights. They may have been made in China, but they still do full submersion tests on the housings prior to shipment. Due to atmospheric changes, they will fog up anywhere from 1-7 days before they equalize. Sometimes taking the bulb out will help (only hot and dry days) but there are one or two fabric vents over a small 7/16" hole on the back of your headlights that act as one-way gates to allow the moisture to escape.
tl;dr- Fogging is normal. Unless you have water pooling up on the bottom, there is no need to run silicone around the edges.
Exactly. If a week goes by and/or you have more than a couple ounces of water sitting on the bottom, don't bother. My headlights have a GAPING hole in them from my retrofit. You could stick two fingers inside my headlight. Point being, you never want to fully 100% seal off a housing. You want some vent flow, and stock lights have these.
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Joined: Jul 2012
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From: Morgantown, WV
I've bought several sets of these knock-offs from Ebay with constant fogging issues (well beyond a break-in period) unless RTV was applied. A good quality automotive RTV solved the problem. Applying the RTV doesn't affect the natural venting of the lights through the designed vent locations, so from my experience, it's worth a couple extra bucks.
No halogen will look like HID. Ultras have a decent power output with a relatively short life and zXe's supposedly have more light with even less life span.
Technical Article Contributor
Joined: Jun 2002
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From: Under the flightpath of old ORD 22R
In 2006, the Ford HD housing I got ( actual Ford ones from Tasca ) did not fog up at all after install.
UPS showed up with them, I took them out of the box, installed them and ever since no fogging.
UPS showed up with them, I took them out of the box, installed them and ever since no fogging.
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Hmm, well what would you recommend over the stock bulbs until I can afford projectors?
Sylvania Silverstar Ultras or Philips Xtreme Powers
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Thanks! I will pick up a set of the Silverstar Ultra's next weekend
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From: Under the flightpath of old ORD 22R
Mexico ( manufacture ) to Rhode Island ( Tasca ) to Chicago w/ summer time 80%+ humidity.
So new headlights will not always fog up.
