Hi All, Just wondering if any of you have had issues with the rear lamps on 500 misting up after long periods of wet weather?After Our car has been out in the ran/Damp it takes at least 3 to 4 days for the rear lamps to dry out in the top corners????...see pic

Yes, I've noticed this too on several occasions on the Wife's car though the rear light clusters do eventually dry out. Like so many things I've noticed with our 500, little is surprising me anymore. I still can't personally get over the passenger side door handle just snapping off, the only car we've ever owned where that has happened. Indeed, I'm seriously considering trading the 500 in for a Dacia Sandero.

Misting lights in this weather are perfectly normal. Everything mists when the air is saturated and the temperature so erratic.

As for the handles, I stood next to a customer in my dealership who was holding his in his hand and the receptionist told him that the new one was in and the car would be done while he waited.

It was all so normal it was disturbing

But have you seen the interiors of those Sanderos, I mean, they are decent cars no doubt, and I like simplicity myself, but not at any cost. And they aren't galvanized. Some customers have had their Dusters replaced after only a few months due to rust, according to the Dacia Forum, and others have gone in for remedial paintwork issues. Just like the sixties and seventies then.

Ulpian said:

Misting lights in this weather are perfectly normal. Everything mists when the air is saturated and the temperature so erratic.

As for the handles, I stood next to a customer in my dealership who was holding his in his hand and the receptionist told him that the new one was in and the car would be done while he waited.

It was all so normal it was disturbing

But have you seen the interiors of those Sanderos, I mean, they are decent cars no doubt, and I like simplicity myself, but not at any cost. And they aren't galvanized. Some customers have had their Dusters replaced after only a few months due to rust, according to the Dacia Forum, and others have gone in for remedial paintwork issues. Just like the sixties and seventies then.

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The light clusters misting up might be normal for this car, but it doesn't happen on my own car and I don't ever recall it happening on my Nissan Primera that I had for ten years.

Concerning the door handle, the dealership I had ours replaced at just made light of it telling me they'd just replaced someone elses the same morning. Door handles snapping off cars is not normal, it's just poor quality materials imvho.

As for the Dacia, I was actually just being a bit sarcastic. If I want a tarted up old Renault Clio, I'll go and buy an old Renault Clio, after all, that is what the Dacia is, just Renault mechanicals in a new skin.

My greatest concern with the snapping handles and other small mechanical problems is that they are allowed to remain in production without a fix for so long, and that nobody at Fiat seems particularly concerned.

But don't worry about the condensation in the lights, nothing in there to rust and lots of different makes do it. Normal.

Normal, move on... Nothing to see here

I had this issue in my 59 plate 500, I reported it a few months after buying it new and they replaced them under warranty and said it was a known issue! After that it wasn't an issue for the next 3 years! As for the handles, the driver one half came off, so had that replaced under warranty and the passenger was coming a little loose just before the end of the 3rd year warranty so got that replaced too! Not sure about the newer handles, as my new 500S has the darkened chrome!

The issue isn't the handle, it's the hinge

The rear lights on both of our 500's have been known to mist, but it seems to cause no problems so far? The door handles / hinges are a known problem and whilst inconvenient if they fail under warranty could be an unwanted expense if they fail after 3 years. To be honest owners should moan more about these niggly out of warranty issues as I don't think that it's acceptable to be asked to stump up the cost of replacing a door handle on a 4 or 5 year old car, when the cause is obviously cheap materials / poor quality control and no feedback though to the supplier to identify the fault, introduce a corrective action to be implemented and prevent this from occurring in future. I have not had to replace the door handles, boot microswitch etc on any other car I've previously owned.

Little things like this can mar an otherwise excellent product and ownership experience, which is a shame IMHO.......

This makes me feel better, as I noticed the same thing on my new 500s last weekend. Took pics and everything to post up but they are the spitting image of the OP's so no need.

Yep. My rear light clusters have had condensation inside for months. It hasn't caused any problems as yet.

I'm more annoyed about my broken rev counter.

My current car's headlamps condense inside, my last car's did, and the car before that, and that... Never any problem.

The misting up is something that is normal, it happen on my Audi and Merc.

This is nothing untoward, I was told this by a dealership after which I did not worry:

As the outside temperature goes down and the warm lamps cool off (either from being in the sun or just from being turned on), cooler, moister outside enters the housings. The housings are vented top and bottom to allow for pressure differences, or they would quickly crack and fail. When the clear plastic lens is even a little bit cooler than the air inside the housing, droplets of moisture will condense on the inside of the lens. That’s normal. When the outside temperatures come back up, the moisture will evaporate.

Mind you I did fail Physics at GCE 'O' level so the statement is over to those
of you who are scientists, to pick holes in it.

But maybe it is a valid explanation?

It is the explanation, but why doesn't everybody know this from the experience of life, and noticing other cars.

It doesn't just apply to car lamps of course, it applies to everything. Which is why windscreens get misted up.

Anyway, at least it means there are no more worries.

Door handles on the other hand, although subject to the laws of physics too, are made by man, and should be designed better, by people who understand basic material physics and good design

Ulpian said:

It is the explanation, but why doesn't everybody know this from the experience of life, and noticing other cars.

It doesn't just apply to car lamps of course, it applies to everything. Which is why windscreens get misted up.

Anyway, at least it means there are no more worries.

Door handles on the other hand, although subject to the laws of physics too, are made by man, and should be designed better, by people who understand basic material physics and good design

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Because science is extremely uncool these days, sure people like to watch Brian Cox, but the vast majority of people in the UK seem to be rather ignorant when it comes to science.

And we seem to be losing the skills necessary to build nuclear power plants, ships, trains, run power companies, and much else besides.

Soon we will be a mega world city (London) that the whole world loves, central to banking, other devious fiddling and 'cool', sitting in a hinterland of third world poverty.

London is already another country, and much of Britain's urban landscape looks pretty rough and scruffy these days, with far too many poor looking people shuffling listlessly along pushing babies about. Worrying actually.