Condensation in LED rear lights

[Deesider]

When strong sunlight is on the rear of our motorhome we have significant condensation inside our Wipac Led rear lights; indicator, tail, reversing and brake. Most clear as sun moves on but one is constantly covered in condensation. The one which is constantly full of condensation is to be replaced by our dealer We are told that having significant condensation which clears in the others is "normal" but we would like to know if this is correct. Do any other readers have experience of this?

[tonyishuk]

I would think far from normal in the sense that the damp will corrode thr bulb mountings and wiring, leading to bad connections, dash board warning lights coming up etc.

 

Or could be normal for badly manufactured and fitting units, that the Motorhome converter uses.

 

Harsh but true ?.

.

 

Rgds

[Charles]

I once had a Seat car that one of the headlamps kept steaming up. I mentioned it to the salesman and he said oh they're supposed to do that it's normal. To which I replied the other one is faulty then as it doesn't do it. He hadn't got an answer for that... Smart arse :D

[Derek Uzzell]

 

Deesider

 

Plainly the rear-light that has condensation in it permanently must be considered faulty (and will be replaced by your dealer) but it’s quite likely that what’s happening with the other rear-lights is ’normal’ (ie. Something you dislike, but happens with all of these Wipac light-units).

 

The round ‘NAS’ Wipac LED light-units are widely advertised on line (example here)

 

http://www.motorcaravanning.co.uk/shopuk/vehicle_lights.htm

 

The light-units are said to be IP67-rated (protected from dust and capable of withstanding water immersion between 15 cm and 1 meter for 30 minutes) so - other than the light-unit that’s to be replaced - water should not be penetrating into the light-units themselves. My previous Hobby motorhome had 10 separate Hella bulb-type rear lights and all of these let in rainwater. Each light had a small drain-hole, but dirt and mould built up inside and the only course of action was to remove each outer lens regularly and clean inside the light. It was an unwelcome and known characteristic of that Hella light-unit and nothing could realistically be done to prevent it. As long as the condensation clears after your Auto-Trail’s lights are no longer exposed to the sun, your dealer and/or Auto-Trail can be expected to be reluctant to consider this as a fault.

 

If you want to research whether the condensation issue is commonplace for Auto-Trail motorhomes with these LED rear-lights, your best bet would be to enquire via the Auto-Trail Facebook groups

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/569051023302494/

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1203880659732838/