Do Depo Lights Need To Be Sealed?

[Safari Wagon]

Wagonsrule suggested for me to buy some Depo's for my wagon, and after looking at some pics and prices, I am going to buy them.

Before installing though, I wanted to get some input on whether these should be re-sealed. My past experience with some aftermarket lights tells me to re-seal before installation to avoid moisture inside.

Since Depo is a quality brand, I thought that maybe they don't need to be sealed.

What is your experience with them? Do you recommend me to seal them?

Thank you!

[eyeball96]

I owned two sets of Depo's, bought both sets new. I didn't have any problems with the Headlights and moisture.

I did have to reseal the Corners and signals tho.

[99offroadrngr]

i bought a set for my previous vehicle and they got a bit of moisture in them. i ended up having to throw em in the oven at one point and take them apart because the reflector "shield" that went around the bulb fell off inside the housing.

[bigbird]

they are pretty good. ive had 2 sets and no leaks. BUT i have seen them get a little misty in teh past. best thing to do is to get them, install them and if they leak...kust pop them off and reseal. removing them is easy.

[lemegacool]

i have mines for about 2 years and did not touch them... no leaking at all!

[Yuko]

I had Depo lamps on some family vehicles. The replacement fog lamp on the Pathfinder matches the OEM and never fogged up. The Depo corner lamp for my Camry worked fine but it never did quite match OEM and the plastics are a bit thinner. I ended up getting a used OEM but I never had to reseal the Depos. They usually come with a 1-yr warranty depending where you get them if they ever leak.

[LynchburgCSI]

Originally Posted by eyeball96

I owned to sets of Depo's, bought both sets new. I didn't have any problems with the Headlights and moisture.

I did have to reseal the Corners and signals tho.

+1 on that. Corners and signals have issues sometimes. Also, Rob has no short term memory when it comes to voting. But he's right. If they leak, just pop them back off.

[iovaykind]

All the DEPO's I've been through, the headlights leaked only ONCE and that was MY fault, because I didn't seal them correctly after a retrofit They should be fine, I haven't had corners or signals leak either.. might just be a rare occurrence. Don't do anything to them, as they say, don't try and fix it if there's no problem.

[Safari Wagon]

Thank you for all the input!
At the of me posting this, we are dead even in the seal / don't seal votes.
I will seal them so that I don't have to run into the problem of pulling them off and having to re-seal later. It probably won't take more than 30 minutes to get this done, so I'll just do it.

[Safari Wagon]

Placed my orders today - black depos $146 shipped (amazon) + ddm hids $53 shipped.
So that puts it at just under $200 for the lights and hids. The hids are on backorder, so the install won't happen for several weeks. I will update with pics when I get them on.

[4Cyl'erThriller]

The only problem I ever had was the piece that holds the bulb not being tight but that was depo bumper lights. Never had a problem with my headlights or corners.

[Silent Runner]

Hey, Safari I agononized for a couple of weeks over whether to order the all chrome or black accented units... I'd love to see a pic of them once you get them installed. I went with the all chrome ones, I've had them installed for nearly a year now, with no leaking/moisture problems and we have had one of our wettest, messiest, winters in years. We have big freeze-thaw cycles arounds here caused by a phenomena called "chinooks". Big snow dumps, then big melts, water everywhere. The only thing I noticed was that the corner lights have an outside trim band that is of relatively poor quality and apppearance compared to the originals.

[Safari Wagon]

Yeah Silent Runner, I am not too fond of the corners. How do the original corners look with Depos?

[4Cyl'erThriller]

Clear headlights with Not so clear markers. Just me personally but Id keep the clear corners aswell. Do you have a pic of what you bought? There are a few different sets of corners.

[Silent Runner]

Honestly, I haven't set them up in the car side by side. But I think that unless you have a show car judge looking at the set-up, the Depo corner lights still look a little nicer/maybe modern, than the OE's from any significant distance. I still have all my OE stuff in great shape too. They had the old plexi sheilds, all beat up, cracked and coloured to protect them. I'd rather fit an OE set of 94-95, side lights, if they will fit.