thers dirt buildup in the rear lights, does anyone know WHY or even how to clean this up? i cant seem to get the plastic to splitt

 

There is a technique people use to take the lights apart. It involves cooking it in the oven for a few minutes.. Thats the only way to take it apart.. Or just take out all the bulbs and flush the crap out of it...

 

are you sure? wouldnt that melt the plastic? i know my friend did that with his EK civic but im not sure with ef's.... does anyone know how much degrees u gotta set the oven to?

 

I think its 350.. Do a search.

My friend did this to his prelude.. It worked just fine.

 

http://www.jlevisw.com/Bake.pdf

You will get the idea

 

allright man, thanks

 

smoke them at the same time

 

how would i smoke them? is ther special film i would have to buy?

 

i just took them apart and painted the inside reflector dish with black paint.
it is not extremely dramatic, but it looked better for me.

i only did the ambers, but i know my friend did the entire rear lights, and they actually looked good.

 

Um that's not dirt, that's RUST inside your tail light. I know since the same thing happened on my old Datsun tail lights, but hasn't happened on my Honda's since my housing and gaskets are in better shape. This also happened on my mom's 98 Civic.

What happens is that the lens gets a hairline fracture so water will seap in there when it's steadily raining and your car is sitting. Then since the crack is so small the water will collect and pool inside the lens housing and since the crack is so thin it doesn't allow evaporation too occur quickly. As a result your light bulb housing that's made out of metal will start to rust, then with the water splashing around inside, the rust stain spreads all around your bottom half of the visible part of the interior lens housing, that's the part you're seeing and confusing with dirt. The tell tale sign is the change in rust (dirt) color gradient, you can notice the staining effect go from lighter on top of the stain to darker at the bottom where the rust collects most as the water finally evaporates into the concentrated bottom section.

Look for a crack on your lens on the outside. If you can't see anything then you'll have to remove it from the car and check the rear (hidden) housing and look for a bad gasket too. I really think it's rust not dirt.

The only way to clean it is to take off the headlight housing and use a long q-tip to clean it up but you won't be able to really get all of it off with this method. The only real way to clean it all out is to do what they've mentioned in this thead above, and that's to take it apart to clean it out really good. Then of course seal what ever cracks you may find before mounting it back on.

If I was you I'd just get another tail light section and call it a day. Faster, easier and not that expensive, especially if you go to a junk yard and pull it off yourself. Might run you $10-$20 top. Good luck.


Modified by 97SS at 4:40 PM 4/16/2008


Modified by 97SS at 4:43 PM 4/16/2008