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Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: Rudedog on 09 September 2024, 21:54
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Now my lights are on more often I've noticed that I seem to have dust on the inside of the headlights - is this normal? if so can you clean them I would have thought they were sealed apart from where the bulbs go so the perspex was inaccessible.
Did spot a small fly in one corner how on earth did that get in?
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So going by all of the newish cars I looked at during the commute home it seems normal - must be something only when the lights are on as you can't see it during the day when they are off.
Plenty of VW's (Golf & Polo), Audi's, BMW's had the same as mine - a sort of cloudy smudge right were the headlight beam passes through the perspex cover.
Still would like to get the fly out though!
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This might explain all - https://www.iaaf.co.uk/news/headlight-condensation-guidance-from-hella/#:~:text=Modern%20headlamps%20are%20equipped%20with,back%20into%20the%20light%20interior.
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@Rudedog; If your car is a mk7.5 with LED headlamps (from your signature details it seems to be), then LED’s generate relatively little heat. I think the explanation given in the linked article in @Watts post is a likely cause of dust or condensation inside the headlamps with xenon’s or halogen units which run hotter than LED’s - but less so for LED’s because of their lower operating temperature.
With LED headlamps, IMHO what appears to be dust is more likely to be micro crazing of the polycarbonate lenses, especially if it can only be seen when the lights are illuminated. The headlamp lenses have UV filter protection applied when they’re manufactured and that filter gradually degrades over time as the headlamps get older, resulting in micro crazing. I think the only way it can be rectified is to replace the headlamps; I don’t think it will polish out even if you could get to it, as I believe the micro crazing is in the structure of the polycarbonate rather than on the internal surface.
If headlamp performance isn’t affected, then I wouldn’t worry about it (the polycarbonate lenses on my car’s LED headlamps also show signs of micro crazing when my lights are on. It can’t be seen when the lights are off).
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Not noticed anything on my 7.5 with LED’s apart from a few chips and scratches. Hope it stays that way as I understand they ain’t cheap to replace.
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Thanks - as I said I've now noticed on new cars (23 & 73 plates) as I drove home, I only get a small bit of condensation along the very bottom where the indicators are but that seems common and soon disappears.
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Thanks - as I said I've now noticed on new cars (23 & 73 plates) as I drove home, I only get a small bit of condensation along the very bottom where the indicators are but that seems common and soon disappears.
I actually get that as well, even from new and as you say, soon disappears so never bothered me or registers as an issue (which is why I didn’t mention it in earlier post)