Hey guys, this story is kind of long but bear with me, please. 2003 Type-S, a few days ago I noticed my low-beam headlight went out. There's a lot of moisture in both headlight housings and I have no idea how to get it out. Just yesterday I took off the front bumper to remove the intake resonator and then put the bumper back on. Then I wanted to seafoam my car so I went for the 15min drive or so and followed the instructions in the DIY. While I was letting it suck up into the vac port I accidently stalled the engine, but immedietly started it back up again. Then after that the engine kept reving up to 2000rpm for a few seconds then went back to the normal idle for a few seconds and fluxuated the entire time I was putting seafoam in the vac port. But I kind of ignored it and continued anyway. So then after waiting and starting the car again, no white smoke. I reved the engine a few times still nothing. Then I took it for a drive around the block, and while I did that I would switch it into neutral and almost floor it and then white smoke came out. But I'd flip it back into drive, then no white smoke. And then later that night, I started the car up, and for added visibilty I turned my fog lights on to compensate for the headlight that was out. Then I hear this clicking noise coming from somewhere on the passenger side and the fog lights would flicker with the clicking. And so while I'm driving, I notice that when I accelerate, the fog lights come on, and then when I brake the fog lights would go off even though the button was pressed for them to be on. I'm so confused and if anyone could offer any advice that'd be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

that was hard to read.

what is your issue here?
fog lights or seafoam?

 

Well I guess both. Cause I know it's not normal to seafoam a car and there be no white smoke. And I know it's not normal for my car's fog lights to flicker everytime I press the gas and brake.

 

So moisture in headlights, and the fog lights is what you're looking for advice on??

 

I guess I'm looking for advice on a lot of things.

 

I gather there are three issues.

1. Headlight condensation
2. Seafoam - did it work or not?
3. Fog lights intermittent

For 1, I think you have to remove the headlight units, take the bulbs out and heat up the unit in a warm oven on low heat to separate the lens from the case. You can then clean it up and reseal it with silicon sealant. I think there is a DIY for this on the sticky. I understand that they never reseal properly again and it will condensate again.

For 2, no idea.

For 3, sounds like the fog light relay. Page 1526 of the service manual. Its located next to the passenger side fuse box, just underneath.

 

I was hoping to not have to put my housings in the oven but oh well got to do what you got to do. And I tried the seafoam again. This time instead of half a can in the vac port and half in the gas tank, I put one full can into the vac port and one full can into the gas tank (I had like 3 gallons of gas left), and it worked just fine. And as for the fog light relay, thank you, I will look into that. Most helpful.

 

You can get decent new aftermarket headlight housings for around $85 each. I've had the best luck with tyc or depo.

 

1> dont worry about seafoam....its normal for no white smoke to come out...also did you only seafoam the vac port? also put it in your gas tank/engine crankcase ?

the car shutting down during seafoam is fine as well....you didnt mess anything up....

2> headlight condensation can be caused because of multiple things....the main thing is take care of it ASAP !!! use a hair dryer or find out the leak and seal it....one of my ballast was messed up due to condensation....i had to get a new ballast....

3> finally the fog seems to have a little short circuit....

if you feel these things are somehow related, i doubt that...

 

Just make sure all batt connections and ground to the car frame and engine and alternater are clean and good contact and even foglight connector too cause this and most newer cars are very sensitive to low voltage or bad connections....cause you step on the brake so you take more power......so maybe the car is starving for juice and not enough to power fog lights too,and lets hope if you did any mods to the audio like aftermarket amp you also add a "cap" cause the tranny is power senitive too...so check these points may not fix your problem but will help in future.