Excessive headlight moisture + headlight out
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 12
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2008 C300 Sport 4matic
Excessive headlight moisture + headlight out
I had to replace parking lights a week ago in both headlights. We then had 3 days of constant rainfall here and during that my drivers side headlight went out. I notice now that there is a great deal of moisture inside of the headlight and I'm assuming that I must have not had the seal on the eyelid lights on tight enough. Not positive. Has anyone encountered something like this? Is it safe to assume that the ballast has probably shorted out and not the bulb? In order to remove this much moisture do I have to remove the entire headlight assembly? From what I've been reading, it seems as though the whole front bumper will need to be removed in order to do that, which kind of intimidates me honestly. I'm dreading taking this matter to the dealership. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
Member
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 242
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From: West by god Virginia
'08 C300 4Matic Sport / '11 C63
I've had an issue close to yours as far as moisture in my head light. I used my wifes hairdryer and removed one of the main bulbs in this case it was the low beam. I set the hairdryer up to blow into the housing and worked like a charm, granted it takes time, took me about half an hour when I did mine. Assuming it was moisture let in by the parking bulbs not sealing you should be good, have you had moisture in there before? If you have to reseal the headlight you would need to remove it which actually isn't that bad, don't be too intimidated.
As far as what went out for headlight bulb can't say as it'd just be speculation, dry everything out first and go from there.
As far as what went out for headlight bulb can't say as it'd just be speculation, dry everything out first and go from there.
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 12
Likes: 0
2008 C300 Sport 4matic
So I pulled the headlight bulb and used a hairdryer and that worked perfectly to get all of the moisture out. I couldn't feel or see any reason why water got in like it did. Reset the bulb covers again and they seem fine... hope so. Tested the good bulb from the passenger side and it didn't light, so I'm assuming that it's the driver's side headlight ballast that is bad. Apparently have to remove the headlight to access it as I've seen in other threads.
