This is the lining pulled back to allow access to the rear nuts.
Looking up behind the headlights to where the nuts are, you need a long socket extension to reach them..
After removing the nuts and single top bolt, slide the headlight forward a little and unclip the lamp leads. Notice the duct tape, I put that there to protect against scratching the paint just in case.
This is the fun part.....
First, snap off the little metal clips, there should be 3 on top and 3 on bottom.
Next you need to heat the goo that seals the assembly so you can slowly prise the two halves apart. I used a paint stripper heat gun, others have used an oven. The problem I had with the heat gun method, was trying to get the goo hot enough without making the plastic too soft, then working gently but quickly enough to get it apart before the goo cooled again. As it was, I noticed later I had bent the plastic a little while trying to prise the halves apart with a screwdriver and the plastic must have been a bit soft at the time.
For that reason, I might be tempted to try the oven method for the second assy
Here you can see the two halves coming apart and the clips I removed.
Here are the two halves, I am currently cleaning the goo out off the joint so I can remove the reflector from the glass in order to polish the inside of the glass.
As you can see, there is a lot of goo to remove, in fact I really doubt that this is the cause of the moisture getting in. The water would have to go in the slot, around the tongue and back out the slot to enter the housing., that means getting past about 2 centimetres of sealant goo. I don't think so.
To remove the reflector, remove the screw located just below the parking lamp hole,.
Then carefully pull the reflector away from the front glass. The next photo looks yucky as I didn't use the flash in case of too much glare from the reflector.
I chose to remove all of the existing sealant and replace it with fresh stuff. It was a pig of a job, heating, scraping and finally cleaning with Mineral Turpentine I replaced the sealant with Selleys D-Mastic. Do not use any of the silicone based products as they need to be cut away if you ever want to open the lamp assembly in future, and how will you cut the inside layer? The D-Mastic is nice and soft when fresh making reassembly very easy, if you choose to use the original sealant again you will need to reheat the lamp components and use a fair bit of force to reassemble, but it will save you a lot of time.
Here you can see the cleaned slot in the rear housing and I have removed the low beam lens for cleaning also.
The front glass was a lot easier to clean than the rear slot. I also removed the parking lamp tube for a quick clean.
Don't use anything too aggressive for the actual cleaning, and try to make sure you don't have any lint or fingerprints left to annoy you later.
Don't bother too much about cleaning the outside of the glass as you can tidy that later.
Having gone to all this trouble, treat yourself to a stunning upgrade.
Before reassembly, remove the orange indicator lamp condom.
Rush to your nearest car accessory shop and buy a pair of Phillips Silver Vision lamps. These are really neat amber lamps with a fine silver coating so they just look silver until lit up.
You need to grind down one of the locator pins, then they just plug straight in to the normal Soarer socket.
The end result is no more orange splotch in your headlamps!
While shopping, buy 4 Narva 48616BL Arctic Blue lamps to replace your high and low beam. These are labelled as 60 watts, but the first one I bought to test was labelled as 65 watts with the same part number. The lamps are identical however, possibly the packaging has been changed to appear to comply with the ADR specifications.
The high beams are a direct replacement, but you need to trim the two locator tabs closest to the plug for these lamps to fit the low beam socket. I just snipped them with a pair of side cutters.
Also get the matching Narva 17189BL Arctic Blue parking lamps. These have only just been released (Jan 03) and may not yet be available near you.
Here is the new parking lamp inserted into the extended socket along with the Silver Vision and normal indicator lamps. The Silver Vision (left) is showing the amber internal colouring due to the camera flash. Otherwise they just look pretty much silver.
Refit your "new" headlamp assembly with the new lamps, and notice the difference. The indicators look so much better immediately, but you will need to wait until dark to really appreciate the high/low beam upgrade.
Before driving, check the colour match, the parkers are the same white as the headlamps, no more ugly yellow. Now go for a drive, see the difference immediately even in the city on low beam, you can even see the two "tracks" of the low beam in front of the car.
Get out to some isolated road and try the high beam. The colour is not actually blue, but more of a daylight white with a tinge of yellow colour. Very easy on the eye, no real glare back at you, but so much brighter with more distance than the standard lamps.
One point here. Now that your headlamps have more punch, please make sure you check the low beam alignment, if your beams are too high, other drivers will have to deal with it. Not nice! You shouldn't be using high beam in range of any visible traffic, so it really doesn't matter if they point up in the trees, that's your problem.
It is all a lot of work if you do the entire process, but the satisfaction makes it all worth while.
The one on the right has the new "clear" indicator.
Enjoy!
by Soarer ace
