Cleaning R34 Xenon Headlights

[lanky71]

Hi,

I've done several search's using different terms and could not locate an answer, just wondering has anyone with an R34 with Xenon's removed the casing and managed to clean the inside of the headlight cover to remove the gas discharge residue? Or is there another way? I had a look at the car today and there is several bolts connecting the whole headlight to the front bumper and also to the body. Then there is also some clips but they come off really easy but couldn't get the "back" half of the case off... My lights are starting to look really shocking almost as bad as the R33's get after a while with the yellow residue on theres and would like to clean the inside but need some help on how to remove or do it.

If you need a pic let me know and ill take one to better explain what i can't in words lol.

Drew.

[Fujiwara]

if you mean cleaning the inside of the plastic, you need to take apart the headlight assembly, heat it in an oven and then pry it open. Can get bvery sticky.

And then after u cleaned them, you put it back together and then heat it up again...

MAKE SURE YOU READ WHAT Degree you have to set it at and for how long, as i have not performed this yet.

[BoostdR32]

BUMP for this thread,

I'm needing to do the same, but the above instructions were not complete for me to feel comfortable doing this!

Cheers

Yvonne

[SS8_Gohan]

how do you guys know it's on the inside? if you're just referring to yellowing, try polishing the outside first before cranking the oven up

[dori34]

as gohan said, it depends how bad the yellowing is.

i rubbed my outside so much, there wasn't any yellow coming off on the rag and there still yellow left which i assume is in the insides.

not gonna bother opening the headlights up to clean it, might damage it so just leave it as it is.

[Kujotk]

a friend gave me some cleaner from MEguires to clean the headlights with, I thought my lights were in pretty good condition before but now they look brand new except there is a tiny bit of something on the inside of one but its not really noticeable. I wanted to oven my headlights thinking the prob was on the inside, but the prob was mainly the outside. The cleaner cost $20 and out of 100mL we did 6 head lights and probably used about 6 mL, the tube will last about 100ish cars lol thats 10cents per headlight lol and the car looks amazing now. I do recomend this before risk melting your very very expensive headlights

[Kujotk]

also lanky71 your post title sounds like your car has an STD or something lol (how to clean your cars discharge lol)

[iseekool]

how do you guys know it's on the inside? if you're just referring to yellowing, try polishing the outside first before cranking the oven up

+1 to this comment. I thought majority fogging was on the inside, however i was wrong most of the fogging is on the outside (however there is very minor fogging on the inside - not worth pulling the headlights apart IMO).

Clean the headlights the best you can with normal car wash - make sure there is no grit left over.

Get a clean soft cloth and use Meguiars PlastiX (non gel toothpaste also works a treat too ) and rub clean the headlights.

Hope this helps.

[dori34]

plastiX is what i use from meguiars. freaken awesome stuff

gotta rub it hard tho.

Edited October 7, 2008 by dori32

[Granthem]

I think he is talking about the HID discharge. In which case its definitely on the inside. Mine started off quite good, but have been getting worse and worse. Mine need the inside of the lense to be cleaned, however im not comfortable doing it with an oven. Isnt a heat gun what is used to heat the glue up again?

Any who I think NOVUS here in town offers to clean the inside of the lights, however Im yet to see their work or be confident enough in them. Therefore, I will be attempting to clean my lights myself, at some stage. But I dont think ill be using an oven

[lanky71]

Yeah its definitely on the inside of lights, discharge from Xenon's..... yep car has a STD but not ashamed as i love the bright light it gives off lol.

Yeah yet to hear, see a good way of cleaning without possibly stuffing up $1000 or nearabouts headlights.

[R34Liner]

PlastiX is awsome...use that stuff aswell...and yes u do have to do it hard and long to get all of it off..but the discharge Lanky is talking about is def inside....ive got the same stuff on the inside of my left xenon...i want to take it apart...but once again trust issues.....my mate is part of the water cooled (VW) club and they told him to do the same thing...chuck the headlights into the oven or even microwave :S (i know. WTF - MICROWAVE!!) and it will melt the plastic just enough to pop it off....but i dont think the VW headlights are as expensive as our precious xenons...but yea...moral of the story..it worked for him..but not game enough to try it

[Vik]

Oven .. wtf .. microwave!! ??

Omg, im not in the right state of mind to chuck my xenons in the microwave lols.

My missz is gonna' be like " wtf you doin ! .. get that shitt outta there!! "

..

How much does this bloke in sydney charge to clean the inside ?

Anyone find any of his work ?

MRXTCZ

[DLOOOK]

if u wanna open up your lights try this

http://www.mkiv.com/techarticles/headlights/index.html

[macca911]

Bit of a late reply, but If its yellowing of the headlight use some autosol ( yes metal polish ) worked wonders on my 33, as for the inside, they are a pain in the a$$ to clean. In the oven to loosen the black goo, and pry them open.

Cheers

[DJ-DRIFT]

did both my lights last night. undone the little clips and two little screws.

put oven on 100 degrees and just kept checking till it got hot and came apart easy.

cleaned them & fixed my park lights coz they had fallen apart inside.

then back on 100 degrees for 15 20 mins then they went together really easy and replaced the clips and screws.

easy done

Edited August 21, 2010 by DJ-DRIFT

[Jenkk]

...my fickin globe blew inside the lght...so now "overning" it is the ONLY way to get it out????

[Shaydsta R34]

When i had my soarers i used the oven trick to clean the inside of my lights after cleaning the outside. Now With my R34 i have to do the same. I have cleaned the outside with a product i'm sure most of you have heard, it's called glassylite, and is available from Auto 1 for usually $40. But unfortunately even though i did get most of the oxidisation off, there was still quite a bit of yellow inside the light. So back to the oven it is, although i'm not that keen as last time i didn't seal the light properly and it leaked. And the price of these Xenon lights.. i really don't want to stuff it up...

[BlindspottNZ]

Can also confirm 100 degrees is the magic temperature to open these up

[BlindspottNZ]

And also that they go together EASY

so the full deal...

Heat oven to 100 degrees

Put a flat tray in the oven for the light to sit on, so there are no grill's or raised bits of the oven touching the light in one spot where it can damage/melt (make sure light is evenly placed in the oven/heat is not going to one spot)

Make sure no rubber seal or any meltable bit is touching a hot part of the oven so you do not damage the area. The plastic of the light surround is made of thermoplastic, it will not be even close to melting at this temp, just make sure you do not concentrate the heat on any vunerable part

leave in for 10 min at least (I tried at 85 degrees for 15 min; it does not activate the goop, must be at 100+ for the glue to become soft)

pull apart from one side and lever off all the way to the other side, this is probably the hardest part, if it is not pulling apart easily leave it in the oven longer, once the goop is at the right temp it will move

After both pieces are seperated..

I would REALLY reccomend using a tool to move/rearrange any goop which has pulled out now WHILE IT IS HOT, if you place it all back in line with the seal now it will stick back together naturally (basically the glue can become very messy and stringy like mozzarella but no where near as bad, clean up the strings NOW while its still soft)

Clean inside of the light and fix whatever else is screwed (my lights like many others will find have been de-xenoned by complience for ADR [because the xenon was too bright]... yay... so crappy h-bulbs were fitted instead of the v.pricy xenon bulbs and the ballast setup [and as result the wiring for the stock balast has been butchered and balast gone]... I have not completed the restoration back to xenon yet but will soon, apparently the kit to go for is bosche HID kit for D2R fittings [D2R is the code of the xenon fitting/plug used in the light] )

If you clean it all up sweet the light will glue back together very easily, it presses together into the seams with minimal force

Just heat both parts back up to 100 and push together till it has sealed, have the 5 clips and 2 screws ready to put in while still warm, I had no issues at all with this part, prep of the seams/glue will make it go straight in

hope this helps, will update when I return the light back to proper power/bosche kit