Moisture-related dim left headlight... intermittent

[fixizin]

Have just a narrow spit of grass 'tween my driveway and the neighbor's sprinkler system. His sprinks were jetting into my grille and headlights. It made my left headlight go dim, on both high and low beam.

It's a rental prop, absentee landlord, so I just adjusted his sprinklers myself, coincidentally giving myself more free watering of MY grass, and zero watering of my Ranger.

After enough LOW humidity wind blows into the nose of my truck, the headlight returns to normal brightness. This cycle has occurred several times.

After some recent wind-driven rain "taken on the nose", it's dim again.

Thinking about taking a hair/blow-dryer out there and seeing if I can make it bright again, and maybe localize where the moisture-sensitive or moisture-retaining fault is.


In the meantime, any ideas? I'd like some insights before I go pulling the battery (which is in the way), etc... it's a safety issue.

Thanks in advance.

 

[4x4junkie]

Dim as in the lens becomes fogged over with condensation? Or dim as in the light bulb is not reaching full brightness?

If it's fogged over, you should be able to split the light housing apart where the clear lens meets the white plastic reflector part and reseal it with some silicone caulk (I did this on mine and also drilled a tiny 1/16" hole in the bottom back a ways underneath so pressure from bulb heat wouldn't build up in there, which is what causes water to be sucked in past a bad seal as it cools).

If your problem is the latter, then I couldn't tell you (not sure how rain hitting on the outside of the light would affect it electrically ). Check for a bad/corroded common ground wire, as this would cause both beams to be dim.

 

[4x4fun]

my thing is whats the difference between a car wash, driving thru the rain at 70mph and the sprinkler. i would take it apart clean and reassemble. take the bigtail off the back pour some rubbing alcohol on it blow it out and let it dry, maybe some dielectric grease before reinstall

 

[fixizin]

No, it's electrical, not optical with the lens... and it's a bit of a stumper. Kind of acts like water/corrosion is collecting in a connector/junction, and providing a resistive bleed path from hot to ground, but not a hard short.

I should probably feel around for a hot-spot.

Just wondering if it was one of those well-known "oh yeah, in '96 they changed from a thingy to a therblig on the yellow wire, and you just need to crimp on a new thingy"... type deals... Don't want to be a pioneer if someone's already blazed the trail, lol.

Oh well, both lenses need a serious polishing/de-yellowing anyway, as outlined in other threads, and nice weather is coming.