cleaning tailights

**justinmc978** · 05-12-2009, 05:04 PM

my right taillight allows condensation inside of the plastic, but this is not the problem, the problem is i think the water made the shiny silver "reflector" backing dark and dingy, so thusly one tail light is brighter than the other, in daylight without the lights on it is still notaceably different. what kind of solution should i use to get this stuff off? i tried soap and water, what about alcohol?, acetone?, is there a special chemical i can buy?

**ls1camino** · 05-12-2009, 05:31 PM

Buy new taillights...I don't think there is any fix for this.

**justinmc978** · 05-12-2009, 05:43 PM

with the lt1 taillights i know you can pry them apart to give them that clear look, i know you cant get that clear look with the ls1 lights, but can they still be pryed apart?

**chuckie669** · 05-12-2009, 06:35 PM

I had a similar issue back when I bought my car. Driver taillight would fill up almost halfway submerging all the bulbs. Took it off the car and hooked up my shop vac to the first socket and using some extra cardboard, blocked the other holes and created suction to get all the condensation/water out.

Ran it for about thirty min and the inside of the housing was bone dry. Then ran a bead of silicone across the top to help the water navigate out to the bumper and drilled two tiny weep holes in the lowest spot of the housing. Used a moist paper towel and dry microfiber cloth to buff the fading chrome and spotty glass of the reverse section. 2 + years now without a hint of condensation in driver side housing again.

It's barely noticeable up close, but I've yet to have anybody else other than I look twice at it. You will really be better off fixing the water issue before trying to clean up the housing or it's just a bandaid.

I've heard of people baking the taillights on 400 in the oven and gently prying them apart. I probably couldn't ever get it to seal again, so avoided that route.