Is this normal or is the inside of the lens have condensation or dirt? I just had the car over a month. I noticed it few days after I had the car and thought the headlights just had some oil smudge on it and I will just clean when I do my first car wash. I just washed the car today and noticed that it's still there. This is the standard LED headlights on F-Sport.




Right Headlight





Left Headlight

 

The projector is pointing through curved plastic. What you're seeing is the light reflecting off the surface area.

Normal.

 

Thanks Swacer. I didn't see this on my previous GS350 and RX350 headlights. So you mean that the NX headlight is curved and that's why it has this shadows. At least it's good to know that my headlights don't have any leak or inside dirt. That would have been very upsetting.

 

My '05 RX's headlight assembly (both sides) would sometimes get fogged with moisture after washing or rain. I was told by my dealer that it was "normal". No permanent damage ever occurred.

 

That is correct. What you're seeing is the bright light hitting the impurities in the plastic.

 

Your RX had halogen headlights back then, correct?

If so, and even with HIDs, you will get moisture from time to time. The reason being is the amount of heat that the light creates. Due to that, the local dew point will change, which will allow water that was normally air humidity (as it passes through the light housing) to condense and form water droplets inside the headlight. Sadly, this is normal.

I drove my Camaro with HIDs through a heavy fog on my way home from a car show last year and it actually filled both headlights with fog that became huge water droplets once the lights were off. I ended up replacing both headlights with a warranty claim.

 

They were Xenon, which are High Intensity Discharge lamps (HID). Luckily, the fogged-up headlight lenses weren't that bad and they usually cleared up fairly quickly in the dryer air here in Southern California. Since these were the adaptive headlights (they turn when the car turns), I didn't want the excess moisture to screw with that functionality.

 

Xenon is a HID, but HIDs aren't only xenon. They can be tungsten as well.

 

I had the '07 RX and had the same moisture issue on the headlight after going through a car wash, but that was after the car was older and I had it for years.

The glass headlights used before in older cars were sealed very well and I believe never had moisture issues, I don't know why car manufacturers started using acrylic. My brother bought a Toyota Sienna a few years back while it was still few months old after getting drenched with heavy rain, the headlights already started fogging.

 

Now you're comparing apples and oranges. Your older headlights only had to seal against temperatures from halogen headlights, which are SO much lower than the heat created by HIDs. What you're not seeing here is not a "sealing" issue, as much as an issue where the light source is so hot, that it is further impacting the surrounding air that goes through the housing to cool it. Glass or plastic does not matter.

 

It makes a lot of sense @Swacer. Hopefully the new LED lights are much cooler and wouldn't have the same issues with HIDs?

 

LEDs create very little heat. Unlike a HID that would give you 3rd degree burns if touched, you can touch an LED anytime without a problem. What gets hot for an LED is their circult board. However, that is in the back of the light housing and not near the lense interface.