BAD Experience with BFC (Black Flame Customs)

Well.. this thread certainly aint going the way the OP wanted lol. Hope it gets worked out bud

 

Easy fix. Tie a string to one of thesedrop it in a turn signal bulb opening. Put the turn signal back in. Leave it for a few days it will absorb all the moister then when its clear. Take the bulb out, pull the string gently to remove the packet and presto your done.

No need to make a thread like this for that. That could of happen during shipping with freezing temperatures and climate control buildings moisture could have found its way in.

 

What should also be noted here as I just re-read and missed some of the OP's information is that the $900 pricing figure "not including bulbs, ballasts, wiring or headlight assemblies" is not entirely accurate. Your bill was in the $900 range, yes - but that pricing included shipping/paypal as well as projectors, shrouds, the additional halo installation labor (which is a service we no longer offer actually) and of course, the actual fabrication labor. The way it's written makes things sound as if we charged $900 for just installing projectors.

 

100% not our intention - it's just hard to let a thread go un-answered with some much inaccurate information.

 

Certainly a good idea - but getting them in/out of the housing without tearing the bags and spilling hundreds of the little silica balls everywhere is likely to prove SUPER tough.

Warm circulating air almost always seems best - in our experience.

 

Condensation can happen with any headlight. Factory.... Aftermarket.... Sometimes it happens just because it does. We also have a 1 year warranty on moisture or condensation, BUT it has to be an original light to qualify. If this is an aftermarket light, Black Flame is doing an exceptional job in standing behind a 2 year old conversion. WOW that is service.

Next time, email the company before publicly bashing them. JB is clearly a reasonable person who will take care of you, one way or another.

This post is a perfect example on how NOT to conduct yourself if you need a company's help with a warranty procedure. I would recommend you remove it and discuss with JB in PRIVATE.

Good luck with a resolution.

 

Not really I have done it several times and actually did it here recently to my 16 Tacoma after the Memorial Day floods in Houston. The trick is to use a sewing needle and to loop the string a few times. Lastly is to place the string on one corner since that is probably the strongest point of the bag. They make some that are a little tougher to tear as well which are made with some type of cloth. Here is a pic, it kind of difficult to tell but you can see some of the fibers

 

Ahhh yes - the 'lil packets make more sense - the other picture had us worried as they looked too large for sure.

Still seems very tedious if there's an unfortunate amount of moisture - but definitely an option to add onto the list.

Thanks for sharing the smaller size packet vs quarter pic

 

Anytime It just irritating to see people bash companies for something so relatively easy to fix. Plus 60% of everything comes with silica packets now a days. How many time haven't you thrown away silica packets that came in the shoe box lol. They're even in Jerky packets lol. No need for senseless threads like this for something so miniscule. He would have been better asking for help than just throwing you under the bus like that

 

Appreciate it. In all fairness - we were emailed - but only about 10 minutes before this thread was posted

 

@Dr. Sleep sounds like he needs a safe place.

I think my ignore list is one of them.

 

Oh your good, just not a way to do business in my book(referring to the OP) . You keep stuff like this out of the public eye, unless there is no resolution and even then you give more than 10mins for a Reply. I guess you just can't please them all. Even if they were free and arrived with a bow you'd still find that one person that has nothing better to do but complain.

 

Exactly - thanks! We certainly do try.

 

So, I need to chime in again. I was going to let this just die, but now, I cannot. BFC claims that this is likely a BACK CAP issue. IT IS NOT ! Please see attached pictures:








It is clearly a seal issue. When I received them, I could tell there wasn't a good seal, so I added some RTV silicone along the edges, but it clearly didn't hold. Upon close inspection, it is obvious to me how the moisture got inside the headlight housing. Through the seal which was broken when the housing was baked and separated. It wasn't re-sealed properly.

I will handle this on my own, as your "warranty" clearly states that this seal is only warrantied for 1 year from purchase date. My opinion is that your craftsmanship isn't really warrantied for the lifetime of the headlight housing, as this seal is a major part of a retrofit's craftsmanship.

To be fair, the projector itself and projector shroud seem to have held up well with whatever adhesive was used to attach them to the reflector. But the seal is SHIT !

 

Funny they should go on record here stating this. FACT: When I received these headlight housings, there were silica packets sealed inside the housing. If you held the housings and shook them, you could hear the rattling of these silica packets. I asked what they were, and here is the verbatim response from JB from the emails in Jan 2014:

"
thanks


shane


-----Original Message-----
From: BFC <contact@blackflamecustoms.com>
To: Dr. Shane Garrett <msgarrett1@aol.com>
Sent: Fri, Jan 31, 2014 4:07 pm
Subject: Re: Quick question

A moisture packet

Just as a preventative measure - one of the silica gel packets. No need to worry - we put it there.

Thanks Shane!
____________________________
Black Flame Customs
Leading Edge Lighting
www.blackflamecustoms.com

On 1/31/2014 4:57 PM, Dr. Shane Garrett wrote:
Hey JB,

Weird question:

when I move the headlight assembly around, it sounds like sand moving inside the housing somewhere. I can't see anything, but there is definitely something sand-like inside there somewhere. Any idea what that is?


Shane
"

 

Also, still can't let it die: Here is a picture of one of the headlight housings the day I received them. Notice the MISSING SCREW !

 

BOTTOM LINE: I'll deal with this myself. Not a huge deal, but fact is, the housing was NOT properly re-sealed. AND frankly, if you spend $900 on a retrofit (not including bulbs, ballasts, wiring or the housings), I'd expect more. Just saying.

 

I think we all understand here that you will proceed on your own to correct the issue. It seems to me that BFC has chosen to publicly address this concern here and offer their assistance even though you might fall out of their warranty margin. I dont see why you need to keep bashing them when they have offered to address your headlights at no cost besides shipping. Clearly, as you have stated this issue should of been brought up at the time when it was first noticed which as it sounds, is what BFC has their warranty in place for. Products always have a percentage that need to be sent back, cough cough 3rd gen...if it were me, why not take up BFC on their offer and maybe check out their spot since you are relatively local? I like learning stuff whenever I can, and if BFC was willing to go over my light with me then I could see first hand what happened and what procedures they might do to correct it.

Regardless, it sounds like you paid $900 for a functioning set of retrofits WITH A WARRANTY. I got aftermarket headlights that I have on my truck that I found out a little later had shit projectors and replaced myself. Even made a damn build thread for it. All things considered with my morimotos and new headlight housings, I paid about $700 and did the job myself. For a few hundred more you were able to have a professional job, that although didnt have the right outcome, a company willing to still stand behind their work and want to fix your stuff. I dont think you have lost that much considering what has taken place. I will be eager to see your results.

Coot

 

Coot,

I understand what you're saying. Fair enough. I guess I'm the kind of guy who would rather just do it right the 1st time. Nothing frustrates me more than having to do any job twice. Nonetheless, there are many jobs I have done twice, for ignorance on how to do it right the 1st time.

I'll take a heating gun to the housing; slowly heat it up; get the moisture out and the re-seal it. And hopefully, all will be fine. I'm sure it will.

But, to be honest, I hope that BFC has changed their process for re-sealing these headlight housings. I'm not sure exactly what to do differently, but I know if I ran a business, no way I'd seal another housing the same way I sealed these.

I have used the black sticky stuff TRS (Retrofit Source) sells, and I've personally had good luck with that stuff. These are my 2nd retrofits. 1st time I went DIY with Morimoto mini's but decided to go with a different projector, so I went with BFC. To be fair, overall, the housings were BEAUTIFUL when I 1st got them. My only issue has been the seal. I suppose that seal may have failed anyway, even without the retrofit.

So, to end on a positive note: here are pictures when they were new and beautiful. :

 

When you originally received the headlights, there were a few small things noted with us - none of which concerned this moisture OR seal issue.

You stated above that you immediately put RTV silicone along the seals/edges - this is not a good idea at all. Any professional retrofit ship will state that anything silicone does not provide a good seal where there once was or still is butyl - it simply has no adhesion and can make an issue worse.

The bottom line here :: - if you had an issue with the seal, we should have been contacted right away - on day one when they were delivered or even at the SIX month mark when you claimed they first had moisture appear - not almost THREE years later - and publicly none the less.

What's to say the RTV silicone YOU opted to install didn't make things worse? As we've found in the past - it simply doesn't seal - so it's extremely possible that more and more moisture crept in and slowing either building up OR freezing occasionally and creating a progressively larger gap.

The moisture packets we openly stated have been worked with in the past (in another post within this thread) - we've never denied using them and didn't deny using them with your headlights. It should also be noted that your headlights contain halos - something we haven't worked with for over TWO years.

So yes - some of our methods, applications and procedures change - as do our offerings with components (such as the halos). Much like any business in this industry would. None of this changes the fact that we offered to dry/test/seal the lights at NO labor cost to you - clearly you've refused and opted to tackle this on your own - as you did the first day it was apparently an issue.

It's a shame you felt the need to create this thread, when there's really nothing about the build WE did that's "BAD".

Hope the dryout goes well.