1998 LSC with leaky passenger side headlight fixture

[MN12hybrid]

Greetings all,

I picked up a gorgeous 98 LSC with not much more than 60k miles late last year, and its been my daily driver since and I love it. When I got the car, I noticed the passenger side fixture had some water spots at the bottom, but the drivers side did not.

We have had some pretty heavy rain, hail, and flooding today in parts of Los Angeles. When I got back home, I saw the inside of the passenger side headlight fixture all fogged up since moisture got in there. I wish I had taken the damn fixture off the car when I got it and sealed it with silicone when I saw those water marks at the bottom of the fixture.

I am going to take the fixture off the car when the weather improves. Has anyone taken these fixtures apart before? The car has original HID lights stock that work fantastic, and the fixtures are actually crystal clear as well as you can see in the pics taken as I bought the car.

I want to get the lens off, to clean the inside and then reseal it properly.

Since the driver side is not leaking at all (yet) I am going to take that off and also seal it with silicone to prevent any potential leaks. I also want to take the rear neon off and seal that fixture up with silicone as well to help prevent that from leaking and failing.

Does anyone know the best way to take the lens off the fixture? I have a heat gun from harbor freight that I can use with extreme care, but I read about someone sticking the fixture in their oven on low heat for less than 10 mins and that worked as well. I looked at replacement fixtures on ebay, and none of them are anywhere near as clear and nice looking as the current ones I have on my Mark!

I have searched the forums, but found very little about taking the fixtures apart. There was a post on TCCoA a long time ago (maybe 15-18 years), and I cant find it.

 

[MN12hybrid]

FUCK FUCK FUCK!!

I went outside to check the headlight and the HID is no longer working in the fixture that is full of moisture. They were working perfectly until the storm came and I can kick myself in the ass for not taking the lights out and sealing them when I had a suspicion that it leaked a bit. Although this time it seems to be leaking quite a bit. There’s no water running around in the fixture or anything - it’s just a lot of condensation moisture buildup on the inside of the lens.

You can see the pic of the drivers and then the dramatic difference of the passenger side now. As soon as the rain is over with I’m going to take the fixture off the car to see if I can dry it out and hopefully salvage the headlight that’s in there. I went down with a plastic bag and have it situated over the headlight and close the hood on the plastic so it’ll stay put for now.

I really need to dry out the fixture completely so I may use a hairdryer and compressed air when I bring it upstairs into my place to work on. If I end up needing to get a retrofit kit to change the HID lights to the newer ones there is a kit on eBay for $299. But if I cannot get the headlight taken apart and cleaned properly inside then I may need to just get a new light unless anyone can suggest anything I can try? I’ve never taken these headlights apart before! I’m hoping when I get the headlight apart and try it out maybe the light will start working fine again. The high beam and the turn signal are working - just the HID that’s out and it’s showing up to check headlights on the maintenance monitor in the dash too.

The headlight fixtures on this car are crystal clear and incredible shape visually otherwise and if I get another fixture on eBay it’s likely not gonna be anywhere near as clear as this one. A lot of them have broken tabs or screwed up mounts so I may have to dig to find a good one. Also I will need to find one with the silver trim to match my car since it’s a silver LSC.

I may check with racebronco to see if I’m he has any spare HID’s laying around I can pick up.

 

[xtriggerman]

Wow, your car looks mint! I had the same exact problem as you about a year ago. I took the housing out and razored away the OEM caulking as best as I could around the lens joint to the base, rough the seem area up alittle with sand paper and used a top quality Auto seem sealer over the entire joint. Fixed. I blew it out with light air pressure and left it out in the sun upside down for a day first and once bone dry, did the work.

 

[Rapple1031]

That sucks, But I have done many of those " I should have's" myself. If you do have to replace the bulb here's a thought. I bough a 97 mark viii about 5 years ago. It had been converted to halogen at some point so needless to say I could not see a thing at night. I converted it to LED from the headlight experts (100 bucks for the pair). I think its really a high beam bulb, but works and very good. But you will have to adjust the lights lower. To make a long story longer I recently bought a near mint 98 mark viii LSC 58,000 mile. It still has the HID lights, and can tell you the LED's are much better then the HID's. After reading this it may have motivated me to get out there and seal up that working neon tail light. Thank you.
BTW thats a really nice looking Mark. One sold right near me that look just like that, was on Ebay and I missed it. Drove 200 miles to get the one I just bought.