Xenon Condensation

[AGB]

Morning All

I was out for a decent blast in the countryside yesterday and the Xenons were on for most of the trip. It was between 15-18 degrees with heavy rain and then it dried out later. When I pulled in at home, I noticed that I had condensation in the head lamps on both left and right lights. Admittedly, I've retrofitted the lights but the units were brand new and sealed from Volkswagen.

Has anyone noticed this with their xenons? I assume the unit has a vent, I've got to dig out an assembly diagram but thought I'd just ask the group before I start pulling my car apart to investigate.



Thanks



Alex

[am1w]

Sorry to hear about this but as I don't have Xenons this post is useless!
However, did the condensation affect the beam spread and it's brightness?

[Neil gti]

The xenons on mine often get a bit of condensation after heavy rain,
nothing to worry about soon clears up imo, prob if you go to the car now it has mysteriously vanished 

[mike.]

Here is some info from Elsawin.

I have seen it on mine , as Neil says, it is just normal. 

Air humidity tends to settle on cold surfaces. When switched on great heat is created in the headlamps which is released via the vents (open system). If the headlamps are switched off, they cool down and cold, humid air is sucked in via the ventilation. The air settles as condensation on the coldest point from the inside on the glass. On the headlamps this is mainly the glass. This is a normal physical process.

This has always been the case, but has been less or not at all noticeable on the old type of glass.

In stationary or when driving the condensation passes off. But the condensation may recur.

Whereas the light passage area of the glass dries quickly when the light is on and especially when driving, this takes sometimes longer around the edge and the customers suspect a fault. Technically this remaining steaming-up is insignificant. But what are the reasons for this slow thawing?

On modern headlamp systems with clear glass the light is not aligned by the lens any more but through a lens system and a reflector. The light beam hits the centre of the glass and it takes therefore longer this the edge of the glass warms up. As a result, the thawing is slower towards the edge of the glass.

[AGB]

Has anyone noticed this with their xenons? I assume the unit has a vent, I've got to dig out an assembly diagram but thought I'd just ask the group before I start pulling my car apart to investigate.

@Asker - no, it doesn't affect the beam at all, the casing is as close to the lens as you can get and the beam at that point is at its most intense.

@Neil - thanks mate, I suspected it was normal given the physical processes at play but just wanted to be sure. I've not had Xenons before so wasn't sure if this was normal operating behaviour or not. I had seen this before and yes, you're right, it does clear up as temperatures equalise but I hadn't seen it take up quite as large an area of the light before. It's one of those preventative maintenance type questions. 

@Mike - awesome, thanks! That answers that question perfectly. Appreciate you going to the trouble of looking that up for me. I've got Elsawin but it's really buggy and unstable. I suspect I didn't get a decent copy. Reminds me, need to get hold of 3.90 which is Feb 2011 current from what I understand.

[mike.]

@Mike - awesome, thanks! That answers that question perfectly. Appreciate you going to the trouble of looking that up for me. I've got Elsawin but it's really buggy and unstable. I suspect I didn't get a decent copy. Reminds me, need to get hold of 3.90 which is Feb 2011 current from what I understand.

No problem, Just got that 3.9 Feb 2011 version myself 

[Snoopy]

Funny i was just looking at elsawin 3.9 on ebay before coming here.

[AGB]

Funny i was just looking at elsawin 3.9 on ebay before coming here.

Yeah, Mike reminded me that I needed to sort out the version I've got which is junk so I hit ebay too. I was looking at 'stuart1502', the last guy I bought from what a bit of an idiot and the files were clearly hacked together - data structure on the disk was all over the place.

Do you have a reputable source Snoops?

[mike.]

I just downloaded it, 27GB   , so took a while 

[Snoopy]

Do you have a reputable source Snoops?

No. Sadly not. But i may just go and see who i bought my original one off many years ago now you mension it and see if they still do it.