Condensation LED headlight

Camperfamily · Mar 11, 2024

The LED headlights in our T6.1 Beach - less than 1 week old from registration - each have a small amount of condensation. Photos attached. Is this normal?

Our 5.1 Cali (which we still have, for now) has Xenon headlights and I don’t recall those ever having condensation although it’s clearly a different headlight unit. These don’t currently have any condensation in them despite being exposed to similar weather conditions today.

The 6.1 has been driven today, the 5.1 not.

andyinluton · Mar 11, 2024

Camperfamily said:
The LED headlights in our T6.1 Beach - less than 1 week old from registration - each have a small amount of condensation. Photos attached. Is this normal?

Our 5.1 Cali (which we still have, for now) has Xenon headlights and I don’t recall those ever having condensation although it’s clearly a different headlight unit. These don’t currently have any condensation in them despite being exposed to similar weather conditions today.

The 6.1 has been driven today, the 5.1 not.

View attachment 120325

Normal for just about any car with LEDs they don't get hot enough to burn off the moisture.
Need to make a point of clearing the ice off them in winter.

Camperfamily · Mar 11, 2024

Cheers @andyinluton that’s the reassurance I was hoping for!

WelshGas · Mar 11, 2024

Camperfamily said:
Cheers @andyinluton that’s the reassurance I was hoping for!

Everytime you get a significant temperature drop and change in humidity you'll see that, and they are prone to icing in very cold weather with rain/snow.

RockinNRollin · Mar 12, 2024

As above, quite normal (across all VAG LEDs I've seen, although oddly my wife's Honda with LEDs doesn't suffer this issue). They're not sealed units (by design) so inevitably fluctuations in temperature and humidity cause condensation from time to time. They do get slightly warmer than ambient in use, enough to raise the air temperature inside them slightly, but not by enough to drive all the moisture out. Net effect is this slightly warmer moist air then condenses on the parts of the headlight cover where the light doesn't directly shine, so it's often most noticeable after driving in humid/wet conditions with the headlights on.