Coming to the gurus once again! I have a 98 disco... one of my headlights fills with water from just normal rain and condensation. I bought a replacement for it and when I went to take it apart I noticed something odd that I haven't been able to find answers to. My right headlight has a black rubber band that goes around the lens between the plastic and glass. My left one which I plan to replace doesn't have this band. The replacement I purchased doesn't have it either. is the band an actual part meant to help be a form of gasket or is it a redneck engineering done at some point in the discos life? Id had to swap in the housing for it to just fill with water if its just a band I'm missing where I could clean out the old one and replace the band. Its either this or I am just a little crazy... not sure! Thanks in advance!

 

Yes to answer your question there is a rubber gasket that goes around the headlight and it is a separate part - the part number is STC1714 and STC1713 - there is a left and right

 

Huh, weird mine was missing on both the old and the new. Bar the old headlight having any cracks or anything in the housing is it worth just pulling it out cleaning it real good and keeping the new one I have as a spare? or if it leaked once will it continue even with the gasket?

 

I would keep the new as a spare so you do not mix old new and source the gasket for appropriate side - roverparts.com has them

 

Hi5, be sure you know where your nearest Disco-in-scrapyard is. I found a headlight with gasket there.

 

If your headlight is filling with water, there is a crack somewhere. The black rubber gasket came with the trucks headlights and keeps water out where the glass meets the plastic housing. The rubber gasket likely acts as a buffer between the headlight and the amber marker lights, which if you look closely rub against each other. These trucks parts and design are very rudimentary, which is why we love them! Don't ever toss an original glass headlight. Not an easy item to come by.

 

Thanks for the advice. This weekend if it stops raining ill likely pull it apart. I got a gasket online yesterday which should be here hopefully Friday. Ill pull the headlight out and inspect for any cracks and spend some time cleaning it up. Even if the plastic housing is cracked I would never throw away the glass. Just seemed odd that the new headlight I sourced didn't come with the gasket. Unfortunately in NC I haven't been able to find any donor discos in the junk yards. We predominantly have LKQ in the central NC region. If anyone is in and around the area and knows of any yards that stock them shoot me a message! I'm relatively new to the discovery world and I'm excited as things go wrong and I get to work on them. I'm hoping to start making trips out to the Uwharrie sometime this year.

 

An easy mod to keep a headlight from filling with water is simply drill a couple 1/4 inch holes at a low point in the bottom or back side. Obviously doesn't work if you go wading deeper than that .