outer bed lights are already ... rusting?

[lauren01]

Similar on my TH, and I only handwash with a gentle hose. It’s not as orangey as OP’s pics but it appears mine is getting there.

Sponsored

 

[TX-BluStreak]

That actually makes me feel a lot better knowing I’m not the only one dealing with this. My folks thought I secretly installed some aftermarket lights or smoked overlays onto them. Heck I’ve never even turned the lights on and the edges are already starting to turn that weird orange/brown color. For something OEM, this really shouldn’t be happening this early.

 

[PNW_Taco_Trail]

similar to mine ...

 

[Will721]

This is my fear after installing last week. LEDs are not sealed. Lots of water intrusion just from washing.
I’m using deionized water, so hopefully that will limit the amount of salts or whatever else will cause corrosion under the lens.

So fun fact, DI water causes rust to accelerate. I know it's sounds strange. DI water is stripped of all minerals, but water WANTS minerals and it will absorb them from anywhere it can. If exposed to bare metals it will leach from them, and if trapped in a space long enough becomes acidic.

One of the many pieces of equipment I get the wonderous joy (I hate my job) of working on daily are giant ultra sound machines which work by submerging air craft wings into giant tanks of DI water. They have by far the worst corrosion related failures of everything we have, including those stored or operated outdoors. To the point we have a large mill which uses the same pump for cooling it's gearbox as we use for recirculation pumps on the DI tanks. The coolant pump runs constant, the DI pumps run on a timer system every few hours. The coolant pump has not been changed in 10 or so years, which I only recently discovered as I was changing the drive motor for it. The DI pumps fail due to corrosion about yearly.


Having not seen the internals of these lights, I wouldn't recommend trying to seal them because they would likely collect condensation if you tried. Probably the best option would be cleaning the lenses, replacing any hardware with stainless, cleaning any corroded components and applying a thin layer of clear dielectric grease over everything that can corrode except the LED lens itself.

 

[rijc99]

Has anyone torn one apart to confirm this is in fact rust and not dried grimy dirt water build up from car washes? It’s just odd for the whole edge of the lens to be discolored like that.

 

[crepr12]

Sponsored