rincewind
Member
I did. 4 days later, fogging in the unit again. I didn't do a leak test but I did thoroughly seal all around where the factory seal is.
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Condensation in rear lights
- Thread starter Rooster6655
- Start date
I did. 4 days later, fogging in the unit again. I didn't do a leak test but I did thoroughly seal all around where the factory seal is.
rincewind
Member
I'm suspecting this. When I carefully removed mine, the white adhesive wasn't just around the edges, it covered it completely. I removed the adhesive in the centre but I'm thinking that this is where the moisture is also getting in.
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Glan gluaisne
Active Member
Might be an idea to find a source for these Goretex patches and combine the drying out and seam sealing process with fitting new patches to the light units. As a sealant, I'd be inclined to try the stuff mentioned earlier in this thread, Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure, as that's been proven to be exceptionally good at getting into very fine cracks and sealing them up well. I suspect that part of the problem is just that the places where moisture is getting in are very small holes and cracks around the seams, and perhaps also around the fasteners and connector, perhaps.
rincewind
Member
I read somewhere a comment from someone who tried the Captn Tolley stuff on his light unit and said it didn't work. TBH I think any flexible silicon type sealant or plastidip is going to work fine. I used plastidip myself. No fogging has come back so far.
I don't think water can get in through the Gore patch as long as it's stuck on firmly, but for moisture to exit from them the conditions have to be warm and dry and that's not what we've got in the UK at the moment.
I don't think water can get in through the Gore patch as long as it's stuck on firmly, but for moisture to exit from them the conditions have to be warm and dry and that's not what we've got in the UK at the moment.
Possibly a stupid question but could a completely sealed unit ever be immune to misting? The lights have screws that attach them to the bodywork, and I don’t even know if the electrical connection to them is air tight - I know it has an orange gasket presumably to make it waterproof.
And you’ve got the Goretex patch which presumably isn’t air tight if it’s designed to equalise pressure.
I guess what I’m saying is that maybe it’s not possible to make them completely immune to any misting at all.
And you’ve got the Goretex patch which presumably isn’t air tight if it’s designed to equalise pressure.
I guess what I’m saying is that maybe it’s not possible to make them completely immune to any misting at all.
rincewind
Member
It's not, air blows in and out of it quite noticeably. Which is probably part of the problem.
It doesn't matter if they aren't airtight. It's liquid water getting in via the cracks and holes in the weld which is the problem here. Moist air getting in will just eventually exit via the Gore patch, but liquid water in there is never going to evaporate completely unless we had a really hot few summer days and even then it may not all evaporate and exit through the patch.
Once the electrical connector is properly seated, i don;t think liquid water can enter there and it's not in a location where water would normally be anyway. There's that foam seal around it which prevents water from pooling around the connector.
The water getting is as all down to the bad welds, nothing else, as can be proved once the welds are sealed properly and the light is put back in after drying. Mine are perfect now and we've had very wet and cold weather here for quite a while now.
Once the electrical connector is properly seated, i don;t think liquid water can enter there and it's not in a location where water would normally be anyway. There's that foam seal around it which prevents water from pooling around the connector.
The water getting is as all down to the bad welds, nothing else, as can be proved once the welds are sealed properly and the light is put back in after drying. Mine are perfect now and we've had very wet and cold weather here for quite a while now.
Collected my M3 late March 2020 and had zero misting or water in any of the rear lights until a really bad storm in August. Immediately afterwards one light was notably full of moisture, droplets on the lens etc. This didn’t clear despite being left in the sun for 2 weeks. Eventually it was replaced by Mobile Service in September. I had a repeat of this process with another one a month later, which was subsequently replaced in October.
Throughout the winter I’ve had occasional misting of any number of lights and under damp, but not necessarily stormy conditions. The good news is this misting seems completely different than the original drenching and has always cleared overnight.
My conclusion is that the lights are prone to occasional water penetration that is completely different than the atmospheric misting and clearing which is helped by the Gore-Tex patch. I’d imagine sealing them would help to prevent storm leakage, but they’d still mist up.
Throughout the winter I’ve had occasional misting of any number of lights and under damp, but not necessarily stormy conditions. The good news is this misting seems completely different than the original drenching and has always cleared overnight.
My conclusion is that the lights are prone to occasional water penetration that is completely different than the atmospheric misting and clearing which is helped by the Gore-Tex patch. I’d imagine sealing them would help to prevent storm leakage, but they’d still mist up.
Cnixon
Member
What bugs me is that I can have 2 really dripping wet units and 2 perfectly dry. It has to be a manufacturing or installation problem. Just out of interest the video posted at #221 appears to show the flat rubber seal (washer) between the light and the body being put on incorrectly? after its been fitted to the car!!!! That level of detail could be occuring on the production line.
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rincewind
Member
I've just removed the bootlid light to seal it, and there was no flat rubber seal between the light and the body.
Cnixon
Member
In the video post #221 there is an oval foam washer on the electrical connector which appears in several shots.
Cnixon
Member
I would also be tempted to check the seals on the screws etc. The video only submerges the weld but it could leak from multiple places. Please post some pictures of your fix. Removing the boot lid trim bothers me the most. It looks to flimsy and breakable.
rincewind
Member
Ah yes, that's there but it's small and goes between the connector and the light body, I didn't even need to remove it.
The bootlid trim pulls down easily enough, but one of the white trim holder plugs was a pig to get out of the bootlid and back in to the trim panel. I won't be doing any more removing and sealing until it warms up a bit.
Tevo Solutions
Former Vendor
Hi everyone, I made the Tesla Gurus video linked to earlier and just thought I'd clear a couple of things up.
During the making of the video I had those light units in and out of two Model 3s multiple times. I can tell you that the plastic trim you have to pull back to get to it is pretty strong and flexible so you won't damage it. You could damage one or more of those plastic fasteners though, but they can be bought very cheaply from ebay. I really would advise buying a popper removel tool as well (preferaably plastic or coated metal) as it makes getting them out of the boot lid much easier.
WRT that foam piece which goes around the electrical connector, that was an annoying mistake on my part. I put the light unit back into the boot lid and then saw the foam piece on the floor so assumed it had dropped off. Someone on YT pointed out the error and when I went back to that light unit and took it out again, I had actually installed it correctly in the first place, so there was one gasket on the outside and one on the inside. I'd picked up a gasket which had fallen off another one I'd been repairing. D'oh! That gasket is only there to prevent water entering the boot around where the connector comes in but I wouldn't expect much water to get in there whatever happens.
These light unts were never meant to be hermetically sealed. There are little gaskets around the 3 bolts at the read, and the silicone gasket in the connector, and of course the Gore patch, but if a little air manages to get into the unit it wouldn't cause the sort of fogging a lot of owners see. As a couple of people have said, the real issue is lots of water from rain or washing getting in by capilliary action through the gaps in the plastic weld. If that weld was done properly, the Gore patch would eventually vent excess moisture out and there would be hardly any moisture inside to condense in cold weather.
Maybe the whole plastic welding process has never been properly perfected, as there are lots of other manufacturers suffering from this. Regardless, my feeling about this is that we can either keep throwing these lights in a bin or take it into our own hands and fix it ourselves. I know some have said "why DIY when Tesla should exchange", but look at the eMMC debacle where many owners have had their MCUs fixed by a third party because they're fed up with waiting for Tesla to do what they should have done ages ago. I had one unit replaced by a ranger but cancelled the second appointment I had booked so someone more deserving could get my appointment slot. I've got no problem spending a bit of time fixing this sort of stuff, especially as I know it will then be sorted for good.
Thanks for the positive comments on the video and if you have any other questions about it I'll try to answer them.
Cheers
John
During the making of the video I had those light units in and out of two Model 3s multiple times. I can tell you that the plastic trim you have to pull back to get to it is pretty strong and flexible so you won't damage it. You could damage one or more of those plastic fasteners though, but they can be bought very cheaply from ebay. I really would advise buying a popper removel tool as well (preferaably plastic or coated metal) as it makes getting them out of the boot lid much easier.
WRT that foam piece which goes around the electrical connector, that was an annoying mistake on my part. I put the light unit back into the boot lid and then saw the foam piece on the floor so assumed it had dropped off. Someone on YT pointed out the error and when I went back to that light unit and took it out again, I had actually installed it correctly in the first place, so there was one gasket on the outside and one on the inside. I'd picked up a gasket which had fallen off another one I'd been repairing. D'oh! That gasket is only there to prevent water entering the boot around where the connector comes in but I wouldn't expect much water to get in there whatever happens.
These light unts were never meant to be hermetically sealed. There are little gaskets around the 3 bolts at the read, and the silicone gasket in the connector, and of course the Gore patch, but if a little air manages to get into the unit it wouldn't cause the sort of fogging a lot of owners see. As a couple of people have said, the real issue is lots of water from rain or washing getting in by capilliary action through the gaps in the plastic weld. If that weld was done properly, the Gore patch would eventually vent excess moisture out and there would be hardly any moisture inside to condense in cold weather.
Maybe the whole plastic welding process has never been properly perfected, as there are lots of other manufacturers suffering from this. Regardless, my feeling about this is that we can either keep throwing these lights in a bin or take it into our own hands and fix it ourselves. I know some have said "why DIY when Tesla should exchange", but look at the eMMC debacle where many owners have had their MCUs fixed by a third party because they're fed up with waiting for Tesla to do what they should have done ages ago. I had one unit replaced by a ranger but cancelled the second appointment I had booked so someone more deserving could get my appointment slot. I've got no problem spending a bit of time fixing this sort of stuff, especially as I know it will then be sorted for good.
Thanks for the positive comments on the video and if you have any other questions about it I'll try to answer them.
Cheers
John
My M3P was picked up 24 Dec 2020, it's the refreshed model and has condensation in all the rear lights and both front headlights, plus the side pillar cameras albeit not as bad. I've had other cars that had similar issues with some needing new lights but on such a new car, are they really going to replace everything on mine? Bit deflated and annoyed with this.
Push like mad 'cos otherwise everything is 'fixed in an update' or 'factory spec'...And keep taking pics of the new lights/...
Tesla won't replace lights unless there are visible water droplets in them, at the point of actually doing the job, so you had better hope it doesn't come and go.
I have an open service request for the end of the month for my B pillar cameras, both of which get condensation in and pretty much every journey has constant left or multiple cameras blocked or blinded, from start to finish. The only thing that seems to clear it is the car sitting there with sentry mode active, for hours. I don't do much mileage at the moment so I'm finding every journey has these problems, even if I precondition the car for ~1 hour beforehand.
I have an open service request for the end of the month for my B pillar cameras, both of which get condensation in and pretty much every journey has constant left or multiple cameras blocked or blinded, from start to finish. The only thing that seems to clear it is the car sitting there with sentry mode active, for hours. I don't do much mileage at the moment so I'm finding every journey has these problems, even if I precondition the car for ~1 hour beforehand.
My front headlights have visible lines left from where the condensation/water has run down the inside of the lens, the condensation looks like it's going but the run lines remain. Not loads but doesn't look great on a £56k car :-( The B pillar ones have gone now although the taillights still have fogging, not bad, but there so we'll see what's said. Have to say I'm gutted, truly am especially as was hoping on the refreshed model that this would've been sorted.
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