2013 Fog Light Leaking

I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem...

The passenger side fog light on my 13 OR has started leaking. I haven’t had any problems out of it before. It has never had condensation or showed signs of leaking until about 2 weeks ago. I first noticed the condensation inside the housing after the weather change. Didn’t really think much of it, because it would always go away by the time the outdoor temperature got around 70°F. After a few days of non-stop rain, I noticed my passenger side fog light flickering in my reflection off of the vehicle in front of me. I immediately turned my fogs off bc I didn’t want to ruin my new amber lights. It quit raining by the time I got to work, and I noticed it was about 1/4 of the way full of water. I removed the fog light, brought it inside, removed my amber bulb, and drained the water. Couldn’t visibly see a crack or broken seal anywhere. Decided to fill the housing with water, put the old halogen bulb back in, dried it off, and put it on a dry paper towel to see if any water leaked out. I put it in every position possible for about an hour on each. Nothing. Completely dry paper towel. Thought maybe it was a bad seal, even though I saw no flaws in the current one. Replaced the seal, drained the water, and left the casing open in a warm room with circulating air for 3-4 hours to give it time to dry. Put my amber lights back in, and put silicone around the seal and edges of the housing to make damn sure it didn’t happen again. Gave it plenty of time to dry, and put it back in. Things were great for about 3-4 days, then it rained again. Water and condensation back in the housing.

I am extremely close to just ordering new housings and saving myself the frustration of figuring out where in the hell the water is coming from

 

You can buy a new pair off of a brand new Tacoma most days of the week off the forum marketplace.

The fog assemblies are physically identical. Only the bezel is different.

I’ve bought 3 sets and paid $50 for the most expensive set with 100 miles of use. Other 2 sets were $40 shipped to my door.

 

I had a similar problem but had the idea that my new (More aggressive) tires were throwing water through the vent on the front of the passenger side fender liner at the back of the fog assembly. I riveted some rigid black plastic sheet over the vents and the problem seems to have resolved itself. Maybe?

 

I have had this problem for a while. It’s not a fix, but I’ve just decided to upgrade to some Baja pods to have some amber in the mix for snow storms this winter.

By the time you buy a few sets of replacement OEM housings and new bulbs, you’re half way to high end LED replacements. I try to live the buy once cry once motto.

 

Some aftermarket bulbs have issues with poor sealing - usually die to a cheap o-ring seal. (I've never had an issue with OEM or any reputable bulb manufacturer.) My bet would be that once the bulb heats up, something is changing shape / size and causing the leak. Have you tried going back to the OEM bulbs after drying the housing out and running them for a while?

As for replacing the housing, yes, take off OEM housings are available pretty cheaply forum marketplace here. Or, you could upgrade to any number of the newer LED pod replacement units and significantly increase your lighting performance.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

 

I have a set of OEM housings and new 90w bulbs from a 2015. One had no bulb in it when I bought it and it was full of water, the other was dry. I replaced the bulbs with the cheapest thing at Autozone and had no issues with water after that.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2015-oem-fogs-with-bulbs-150obo.687444/

 

I had the fogging issue with my stock halogens before switching to my current amber LED bulbs a few weeks ago. Same issue. And it’s only on the passenger side. Love the amber LEDs, and I don’t really want to go back to halogen, because my headlights are LED. I’ve tried the original OEM washer on my new LEDs. Same result. Only the passenger side. Also tried switching my driver side bulb to the passenger, and vice versa. Same result. Tried putting silicone around the entire hole after the bulb was put in place. Same result. My only guess is there’s some hairline fracture that I can’t see, even with the water test. If that doesn’t work, I may just put my true LED smoked housings back in until I can find a better alternative like the bajas or (gag) Cali Raised. But damn, I like the amber look.
Also, on a side note, I noticed it again after another decent rain today. Went to unplug the fog and a decent amount of water came out of the connector. May try wrapping it with electrical tape and maybe put another layer of silicone around the housing to see if that stops it. May even try to place an additional rubber washer in the housing before putting the bulb back in with the stock washer in hopes to give it a better seal.

 

I'd agree that you have a housing issue that's not immediately visible. Probably time for new fogs. As I stated above, you can significantly improve your performance with a number of LED pods described in that post. The two you noted however are two of the lower performing products. I'd recommend (based on personal experience) either the KC G4 or the Diode Dynamics SS3.

You also noted that you have LED bulbs in your headlights. I'd suggest that you take a look at these two threads to see how / why that really doesn't work well and what you can do to dramatically improve your headlight performance. And again, I recommend this based on personal experience.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

Its the "vent" in the fender liner. Water gets thrown right at the back of the foglight housing whenever it rains. Very annoying

 

Update:
Found the problem. The housing around the bulb itself had a hairline crack on the plastic part just above the male connector. I didn’t test it with the LED bulb the first time because I thought it would mess them up. After reading a little into it, it has a seal around the electrical components, and water won’t hurt them. Threw them in and it leaked like a sieve where it looked like 2 plastic pieces connect together. Threw a couple of layers of commercial grade JB Weld around the crack and an additional seal for good measure, tested again, and not a drop. Fingers crossed that this fixes the problem for good

 

Yep. Read this article a few times. I’m about to replace my reflectors with smoked projectors. Planned on doing that in the first place, so I ordered the LED lights first, then life had different plans. Since I already had the LEDs, I went ahead and put them in my reflector headlights. Not ideal, I know, but not a big issue considering I like in a small country town with a population of like 5 (not literally 5, but there aren’t many). And I know that even with what minor glare mine produce, at least I’m not as bad as the asshole that drives around with his light bar on 24/7