It recently dawned on me that the condensation in the Astra's nearside rear-light cluster wasn't clearing and had built up to give a small pool in the bottom of the unit. There are a few references to the problem on the web and it would appear that the problem is fairly common and, indeed, Vauxhall had issued a technical bulletin and were making modifications under warranty.
At 7+ years old, my Astra is well out of warranty so I can't imagine that Vx would want to know - I just wonder if anyone on here has come across the condensation issue and how it was dealt with.
Thanks.
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They all get condensation, as opposed to water collecting in the bottom. That is why there is a small hole formed in the plastic to let this out when the sun shines. On a Vauxhall website an owner had used something like a fine bit in a Dremel drill to very carefully pierce the lens at the very bottom of the area where the water was collecting and it fixed the problem.
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Most makes and models suffer this to some degree.The bonding between the front and back of the lamp deteriorates and allows water to enter.As suggested above,a small hole drilled in the lamp will let water out.Also don't forget that on most modern cars the rear of the lamp is actually outside the car ,and not in the boot,so important to make sure the bulb holder seals against the back of the lamp unit.
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>> At 7+ years old, my Astra is well out of warranty so I can't imagine that Vx would want to know
Phone/email/call into your local dealer and ask. You never know.
>> I just wonder if anyone on here has come across the condensation issue and how it was dealt with.
My late dad had it on his Astra Estate. The cluster wasn't fitted snug enough the bodywork so I cleaned the gasket and made sure it went tight back into place, then fitted a small pack of dessicant (moisture absorber) into the bottom of the cluster to soak up the remaining condensation that hadn't come out when I had it off the car. Quite often you find these absorber packs in shoe boxes or in the boxes/packaging of electronic items such as TVs, microwaves, etc.
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This thread is also showing, in more extreme form, the odd text characters first mentioned by a reader in my 'lingo thread:
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?f=1&t=17062
PLease could Mods refer to Stephen who will hopefully be able to implement or suggest a cure?
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>> PLease could Mods refer to Stephen
Done.
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Many thanks for the replies.
Looking into the unit from the outside, it appears as though there are 2 layers of 'glass'; there's 2 or 3 mm of free water between the 2 layers, and further condensation on the inside of the 'inner' layer. I'll have to sort something out fairly quickly, as I imagine that there will be a small culture of green alga before too long.
Drilling a hole in the unit sounds a bit drastic at this stage so, as I'm going past the Vx garage on Friday morning, I'll call and ask about the later gasket.
I'll let you know what happens - as VxF says, it's worth a try.
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As these units are held into the rear panel by two plastic wing nuts accessible once the inside boot trim panel is removed, it's worth checking they are both still there and done up tight to make a snug fit against the bodywork. The whole unit is removed to change a bulb - hence the two wing nuts.
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I couldn't wait any longer, so attacked the lamp unit this afternoon. My reasoning was that a) if I was going into the dealer to ask for a gasket, I should at least have some idea of what it might look like and b) I would need to know how to get the unit off in case I needed to change a bulb in future.
The water had collected between two layers of 'glass' - and there was no way I was able to shake it all out so, in the end I drilled a small hole through the bottom corner of the unit i.e. the entry hole is not visible when the unit is in place. I decided to apply a smear of silicon grease to the gasket and hope for the best before reassembling and forgetting about getting a new one.
I stupidly hadn't bothered to test the lights before removing the unit; I had assumed the bulbs were all OK and, when I noticed that the fog bulb was a little smoky, assumed that it might be on its way out. Of course, when I reassembled and tested the lights, I discovered that the bulb had already failed - which means that I've now got to call at the garage for a replacement bulb ……… then take the unit off again! Grrr!
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Is this the nearside, or the off side light cluster?
If it is the nearside, then chances are the foglight won't work as only the offside light is wired up.
MOT only requires an offside or central location rear foglight.
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Nearside fog doesn't work on Astra H or Zafira B only the offside bulb - even though bulb is in place as suggested. As it's a canbus system if any bulb is out you will get INSP2 showing for a few seconds where mileage trip details normally are on the dash on start up and switch off.
Last edited by: Victorbox on Thu 25 Sep 14 at 17:02
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Thanks for the last couple of comments - the 'failed' light was, indeed, the nearside one. I was thrown by the presence of a bulb and, if my memory serves me well, a slightly blackened one at that. I checked again, and no INSP2 warning was showing [I saw this warning previously when a front dip had failed], so it looks like you've saved me a job - thanks!
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I suspect someone in the past used the 'spare' bulb in the nearside foglight for one of the other lights (they're all 12v 21w single filament bulbs ##) and put the duff bulb into its place.
## With the exception of the indicator bulbs which also have staggered pins.
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"I suspect someone in the past used the 'spare' bulb in the nearside foglight for one of the other lights "
That thought had crossed my mind too!
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Vauxhall Astra H estate - 07 1.3 Water in rear-light cluster �.. - Victorbox
