the passenger side tail light on my '85 gsl-se has gotten all fogged up. it happened after i removed it to install a new power antenna (a few years ago), so i guess i messed up when i put it back in. the other one is still clear. is it the exhaust that does this or just condensation/dirt ? i know it's a pain to take them apart so has anyone cleaned them up once they got 'clouded' like that? i don't want to waste my time if i can't fix the lense. i'll just find a 'new' one and put it in right.

 

Mines the same way, passenger dirty, driver's clean. I tried to take mine apart to clean it, but it turns out that on mine, its actually the plastic itself "clouding up" because it doesnt wipe off. It really upsets me because Im sort of a perfectionist, and two different lights bother me when Im following someone, let alone my car having them . Anyway, I just thought Id let you know that I tried and it didnt work for me.

~T.J.

 

Same thing with mine.. driver side clean, but the passenger side fogged up every time I washed the car, then after a few hours the condensation would go away.

I fixed it by going to a Mazda junkyard and buying a nice passenger-side taillight for $30 US.. I don't know if all first-gen taillights are the same design.. my replacement one came off an '84. And it hasn't fogged up yet, thank god.

 

They fog up due to a leak in the hot seal part of the unit. If the plastic is old and fogged, check out Eastwood Company. They have a cleaner/polisher for plastic lenses. The gaskets in these things are getting really old!

 

Yep, I took my old ones apart, polished with Plastic cleaner, and put them back together wearing gloves to avoid prints.

The plastic polish/wax/cleaners work well. I used to use them for the overheads (red/blues) on my old police car. If you can't find it, go to a motorcycle shop, it's also used to clean motorcycle helmet visors.

 

thanks, i know it only happened to mine because i took the whole thing out and when i put it back in the gasket was in 'questionable' condition. damn, both lights were in perfect shape too. does anyone sell the gasket anymore? i never see that one anywhere.

 

mine had dirt , bugs and a little cloudy..i decided to disect it and I am glad I did. It cleaned up nice and I re-glued the lens back on. it was a little tricky cause you can break the lens easy, but I took my time and...I heated up the lens so the glue softened and it came off easier...

 

What glue do you use to put them back together?

 

I used a silicon sealant/adhesive type stuff that I had for another project. Seems to work well so far, because not only did it glue them together, but its a silicon sealant, so its nice and water tight now.

~T.J.