[MrSweet1991]

Hi All,

On the weekend I'm going to crack open my xenon headlights with a heat gun and some careful prying, when I bought the car I realised after a while that the tabs for the headlight rear cover was broke in a few places and dirt was inside the lense as well as the lenses themselves being scuffed and discoloured so they have to be done...

Got some Reemo High Performance Butyl to reassemble the lense and a heat gun to separate the lense and also a meguiars headlight restoration kit but I thought it would be worth asking if anyone has any tips?

Side note, is there a cheap conversion to go from D1S to D2S?

[RajB]

Only tip is to go gentle and slow with the heat. It’s very easy to get over excited with heating to try and speed up the process.

As for the conversion, I came across this a while ago but not really cheap so to speak with shipping and tax etc:

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/mo...E-R?quantity=1

[1 AKY]

Is the Meguiars headlight restoration kit any good?

[MrSweet1991]

Originally Posted by RajB

Only tip is to go gentle and slow with the heat. It’s very easy to get over excited with heating to try and speed up the process.

As for the conversion, I came across this a while ago but not really cheap so to speak with shipping and tax etc:

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/morimoto-d1s-to-d2s-igniter-conversion-D1IGNITE-R?quantity=1

Thanks! I could literally see me overhearing the bloody headlight thinking I'm doing more good than bad.. I suppose like you say, it's more about patience the same way you'd appy head to phone screens but you wouldn't just tear it off lol. Seems I can get some of these d1s to d2s igniters from the UK as well for about £70.. Its something I wanted to look into because the OSRAM nightbreaker is £83 in the d2s style and £124.12 as D1S which is a £41.12 difference so it's just something I'm contemplating.

[MrSweet1991]

Originally Posted by 1 AKY

Is the Meguiars headlight restoration kit any good?

I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow, I'll take a lot of pics of the before and after because the passenger lens it really bad, I definitely think it will have to be sanded down and then polished.

[P14kle]

If you are going to the trouble of removing the lenses from the housings, surely its worth putting new lenses on!. Think they can be had for very reasonable money, although non genuine I guess.. Take plenty of pics, and feel free to do a step by step guide for others to use.. 😉 lol. Good luck.

[MrSweet1991]

Originally Posted by P14kle

If you are going to the trouble of removing the lenses from the housings, surely its worth putting new lenses on!. Think they can be had for very reasonable money, although non genuine I guess.. Take plenty of pics, and feel free to do a step by step guide for others to use.. lol. Good luck.

You know what the problem is mate, despite doing a ton of things on the car.. Its always my first time doing things so I'd be telling people how to do something while at the same time probably watching YouTube videos learning myself

I could probably do something like my other thread with the Valve Cover removal and take pics and do a write up afterwards

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1491121

Knowing my luck ill be like "and carefully pry at the lense taking extra special care so you don't crack it.. just like I've just done" :

[RajB]

Originally Posted by MrSweet1991

Thanks! I could literally see me overhearing the bloody headlight thinking I'm doing more good than bad.. I suppose like you say, it's more about patience the same way you'd appy head to phone screens but you wouldn't just tear it off lol. Seems I can get some of these d1s to d2s igniters from the UK as well for about £70.. Its something I wanted to look into because the OSRAM nightbreaker is £83 in the d2s style and £124.12 as D1S which is a £41.12 difference so it's just something I'm contemplating.

Ha ha yeah I know what you mean. Sometimes you can just go a bit overboard thinking it’ll be fine and just want to hurry it through.

I did wonder about the reason for the conversion but yeah guess if the price in bulbs is significant enough then could be worth it. Although I personally would prefer to keep with the original fitment as most likely you’ll only change them once.

[MrSweet1991]

Originally Posted by RajB

Ha ha yeah I know what you mean. Sometimes you can just go a bit overboard thinking it’ll be fine and just want to hurry it through.

I did wonder about the reason for the conversion but yeah guess if the price in bulbs is significant enough then could be worth it. Although I personally would prefer to keep with the original fitment as most likely you’ll only change them once.

I'm glad you said that, when I purchased the car in 2017 I had a bulb go in the first year or two and in my head I was just assuming these Xenons last a couple of years. But, after you said about how long they last I had a quick Google and people have been using the same bulbs for like 8 years before they started dimming/changing colour so its not worth it at all.

And FML it would be wet today when I want to start on the headlights :

[MrSweet1991]

Na peeps, why is it that my headlight has to be "special" video after video of a lense replacement I see the preliminary step to remove the screw(s) from the housing.. Yet mine doesn't have any exterior screws, instead it appears to have two screws inside of the housing on the top of the lense.. Like these screws are on the inside of the headlight.. Am I missing something here?..

Update

So, I decided to contact "Keep Your Car Safe" because they quite literally specialise in custom head lights and disassemble these day in, day out (link below)

https://www.facebook.com/KYCS.UK/

So it turns out my PRE-LCI Xenons are one of the more difficult ones to take apart because of the "permaseal" that's used. Usually, on the headlights from the E92 and others, you will see people using a heat gun to soften the seal, but this permaseal (from what I've read) has a melting point of 500 degrees, so heat doesn't actually achieve anything other than softening the plastic.

What I found was, there's two methods which are:

1) Heat the plastic up enough to bend the plastic lip up and then dig under the lense to try and maintain an OEM look but much more difficult.

2) dremel the lip completely off and then use a razor to cut the permaseal away from the lense and housing which appears tobe a favourite as its very quick!

The lense can still be installed again with Butyl because it will still have a lip to slide onto and the benefit of the second method (other than it being much quicker) is that one the lense is installed again with Butyl it becomes like any other lense where you can heat and pry.

So yeah, nothing to show at the moment but I'll get myself a dremel and maybe some M badges and possibly some LED angel eyes and then have another go next week.

[RajB]

Xenon bulbs as you’ve found generally last for many years. You’d be a bit unlucky to swap them out for new ones and have one go again within a couple of years.

Good call on calling Simon. He does know his stuff and is very helpful. Not ideal being permaseal but not many real options for splitting them other than dremel etc.

[MrSweet1991]

OMD, what a nightmare it's been. I'll just chuck a couple of pictures up and then once I've put the headlights back on tomorrow and seen if any condensation occurs I'll update the thread. I've spent all weekend on one headlight so when I come to do the other one I might do a video.

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[MrSweet1991]

Originally Posted by Klorki34

what about the condensate?

It condensates, I will have another go at it though. The problem is, when I placed the lense back onto the housing with the heated butyl on the housing lip, instead of a thin layer of butyl remaining under the lense it just pushed the butyl to the back of the housing. The next time I do it I think I'll apply the butyl to the lense first and then push it onto the housing.

[Andy198712]

if you get condensation you can add the small bags of silica gel you get in new shoes ect, and stuck it to the back on the bulb cover and refit the cover..... that sorted mine for quite a while