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Bi-xenon headlight dismantling?
Hi all
Does anyone know if the bi-xenon headlights can be easily stripped down, either by removing the glass or taking the internals out the back? I bought some led side light bulbs but they're too big to go in through the hole in the back with the reflector in place inside the light unit. Should fit fine if I can put them in from the front, or possibly if I can open up the reflector a tiny bit. I'm assuming it's doable as I think you can buy replacement internal reflectors for the bi-xenons? |
They do come apart quiet easily once you know how.
http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/cl...sfacelift.html dissassembly is the same as the standard lights above. |
Thanks - perfect! Doesn't look too tricky although I've said that before and been caught out lol
Never had the light units out of the car but was considering new reflector units so will price them up before I strip them :) Bought these LEDs but the barrel is just a little too chunky to fit through http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/141243079984?nav=SEARCH |
Adrian I followed this excellent guide, very easy really, I would of put new reflectors to if I'd known they where available. And I wish I'd opened up the sidelight holes to take cree LEDs
Cheers Dave |
I'm going to give it a go - been looking at Etka and need to decide whether to order new seals for the headlight units, on the assumption the originals will fall to pieces! Did yours survive OK?
I'm sure I remember someone (possibly Sergey?) replacing the reflectors, but I can't see a part number in Etka for them, so I may have imagined it! The hole on the back side of the headlight is big enough for the LED to go through so it's whether there's any meat to the reflector part that I can 'relieve' a little bit to allow future bulb changes via the regular route. I'm not too worried if not since the LEDs should last for years given my typical usage! |
Adrian, I replaced front lenses on my FL car and also purchased second set for the future in case audi will discontinue them. Ordered and changed gaskets too. Nice DIY job.
Interesting bulb you found. I purchase LED bulbs about 4 years ago, but they had no lens in it. One failed in 3-4 months, so I threw them away and went back to OEM incandescent ones, which work perfectly, but too yellowish for my taste. Perhaps I should try these ones with the lens. |
Cheers Sergey - is it inevitable that the seals are going to be broken, or am I likely to find they're intact on dismantling, in your experience?
Also wondering about the rubber gasket that goes around the outer edge of the headlight as that looks likely to be damaged from aging and/or removal process....also the rubber fitting on the wing end of the body coloured trim under the headlight. I looked at alternatives to the stock bulbs some time ago and couldn't find anything that would get close to the colour of the xenon headlights and i wasn't keen on the exposed LED on a circuit board look since the bulbs are plainly visible. The bulbs I have fitted at the moment were supposedly special colour match jobbies (they have a blue tint to the glass) but they are just as yellow as the regular options! These LEDs look and feel well made - I stuck one in a holder and prodded it through as far as I could and it looked infinitely better than the current bulb! Much brighter with a decent white light, as you'd expect. Once I've got one headlight out I'm going to look at the opening in the reflector to see if I can drill/dremel it to accept the LED through the normal fitting route, in case one does fail, or if I will have to live with the potential need to strip the headlight again to access them. The 'reflector' for the sidelight looks like a bit of ally plate and isn't anodised or shiny in any way so I think is intended to just stop light scatter? I've attached a size comparison of the bulbs http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psbmcan50r.jpg |
Lens-to-headlight seals are going to be a bit squashed from all the years of being under pressure. It is not vital to change them when you change lenses. You can probably reposition them a bit then you change the lens so they get squashed in different position this time. I changed mine as I wanted complete air tightness. The cost of changing the reflector damaged by moisture is much higher.
My outer surrund rubber gasket was in perfect condition, so I didn't change it. It won't get damaged when you remove the metal clamps. Metal clamps I ordered new as mine were a bit rusty. You can go to powered paint people and powder paint them. This is what I will do with the old ones which i removed. Yep, your new LED bulbs are much bigger, so may not fit the hole. Also, be careful with potential heat problems. Let me know how you're getting on with them. Very interesting. I purchased similar LED 'lens' bulbs for reversing lights a couple of years ago. They use CREE leds. They are large and work like a real torch. The fit into lenses without modifications. It created a great difference when reversing. EDIT: Here's the link of what I actually installed, but even better models may be available this days with all the advancements in LED technology. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-PCS-1156...-/271265839796 |
The new bulbs go through the back of the headlight fine - they just catch on the metal forming the reflector bowl so can't be pushed fully home. My original thought was to try installing from the front - there seems no issue with overall length, but I will try it with one and see if there's too much light bleed into the rest of the headlight before I commit to using them.
Think I'll order new gaskets - they're only a tenner each from memory. Better to be safe :) I bought a Meguiar's headlight refurb kit from Halfords to lightly clean up the lenses, plus some very fine microfibre cloths to wipe any residue off the reflectors. That's as far as I'm intending to go in terms of refurbishment as they're not in bad condition by any means. I wish Audi sold the inner plastic cover over the bulbs - that to me seems the most likely part to be broken when dismantling them? Also the part that probably attracts the most contaminants to it from the heat generated off the bulbs |
>> I wish Audi sold the inner plastic cover over the bulbs
if you mean the plastic cover behind the headlight to access bulbs, then it is available from Audi as a separate part. A8parts will have it too i'm sure. I purchased one directly from Audi 4 years ago as the lug was broken and it was cheap. |
I was meaning the 2nd clear lens cover, behind the main one. I gather it has 4 lugs that need to be sprung off the front to get to the reflectors.
This pic pulled from Iyole's thread on refurbing the bi-xenons shows the bit I mean, although the lugs are virtually invisible in this pic! http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps160f8219.jpg The black plastic covers on the rear of the headlight assembly are still available and come with the seals. Just been on to TPS and ordered the new rubber gaskets, which are available from stock in UK. Also 6 clips to replace the rough looking ones on top and any that I break on removal! Also new rubber retainers for the trim under the light where it joins the wing as they're bound to be aged. Also managed to pick up 2 windscreen wiper blade inserts, which are no longer being produced. They had 3 available so I had 2 of them! Hopefully my blades turn out to be the correct factory type that the rubbers can be swapped on and not some aftermarket jobbies! They look correct to me - passenger one has the correct curve to it.... |
Oh I see.
Sorry I have no experience with that second cover as I never removed it. In terms of windscreen wiper blade inserts if you mean the rubbers themselves which scrape the windscreen (part number 895 955 429 A) they are still produced and available. I didn't know it is discontinued -- I just installed a pair from TPS this month. I always ordered them and it is very easy to change them every 6 months or so. They are manufactured for Audi by German company called SWF and it is a premium German brand. Because the same wiper blades were supplied for A6, which was sold on huge quantities I believe Audi just can't discontinue that stuff. |
I was a bit surprised by the TPS chap suggesting they weren't doing them, but he was aware they were shared with the A6 as he mentioned it to me.
I guess the proof will be how easy it is to obtain them going forward? Pretty sure my wiper blades are from 2010 - if not earlier! |
From ETKA:
Part number '895 955 429 A' is used on the following Audi cars: 100, 200, 4000, 50, 5000, 80/90, A4, A6, A8 D2, V8. I've been using these rubbers since 2010 when I purchased the car. I immediately changed the wipers and the arms to brand new and only was changing rubbers since then. They last about 6 months or so if car is used every day. |
Well I've got most of the bits I ordered from TPS. The clips holding the outer glass on are on back order, but got the gaskets for the front cover and the rubber blocks for the trim to go back on when I've finished.
This is the trim that needs to come off from under each headlight: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pswtdqxqwf.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psrgl3zzl4.jpg Thought it'd be handy to show where the fittings are. It pulls forwards and out from the end where the screw holds it in. The fitting into the wing was VERY tight! I ended up pulling the rubber bungs out of the wing with the trim, so was grateful I'd seen a photo of the wing so knew which direction to be pulling in! Needed to use a trim tool to persuade it out in the end. Looking a bit sad without a headlight (and apologies for the bent in the bonnet which I still haven't had sorted!) http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps5om7pjou.jpg Headlight as removed http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psvafqkmzu.jpg Plan is to sit down and give it an external clean before dismantling. I'll have a close look at the outer lens as I don't think it really needs much attention. The cover behind it, over the bulbs, is where most of the dullness seems to come from so that's going to get polished with the Megs stuff I bought :) |
Made a small amount of progress with the nearside headlight today - managed to strip it down without breaking any plastic, so that's a major bonus!
Managed to get the rubber trim off the outer edge of the outer lens housing without any dramas - didn't bother taking any pics of this stage as it's well documented elsewhere Couple of my outer lens: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pscd830c88.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pse5600dd0.jpg It looked pretty good on first removal, but with the side on view you can see some milking of the lens which should improve with polishing. I trial fitted my new LED sidelight bulbs and sure enough they fit perfectly when mounted from the front! Having worked out there's enough depth to get them through from the front it's on to deciding how to access them in the future.... The inner lens needed to come off as that was cloudy and I wanted to have a proper go at it. I found the best way to get it off was to start with the upper clips as these were harder to access due to a small gap. I used finger pressure on the front to relieve any tension on the cover and just teased the clip up with a thin screwdriver. The bottom you can get to with fingers and once they're moving they seem pretty easy to remove. Once all 4 were freed off I carefully tweaked the cover off trying to keep it square to the body so none of the clips got too stretched. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps5f4df0fd.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps0777bc6c.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps81a7077b.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps17556296.jpg It's only when you look at it against a white background that the discolouration is fairly obvious. I think I'll be hand polishing this rather than using the rotary tool that came in the Meg's kit. I'm unsure what to do with the sidelight bulb setup - the LEDs I've bought are just under 12mm diameter. The inner lens cover is pretty much 11mm diameter, so literally only needs 1mm of relief to the inner lens cover to allow the bulb to be removed via the normal route. The housing is conical and of decent plastic thickness. If it weren't for the cutout in one corner I'd just run a 12mm HSS drill bit down the hole and open it up a little. My worry is that the drill bit will grab and crack the plastic around the cutout.... My other options are to use a Dremel with a sanding drum on it, if mine will fit in the hole which I think it will. My dad suggested just using the drill bit but twiddling it by hand to see if it's sharp enough to cut away gently at the plastic without grabbing. This is the assembly without the inner lens cover fitted: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps2c7492d2.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps4b6b227d.jpg You can see distinct scoring from the bulb on the reflector above the bulb. I'll have a light rub at that with a microfibre but otherwise will have to live with it. Think that's all I'll do today on it - all the bulbs are safely wrapped in paper towel in a box to keep them safe. Need to find a cloth to stop any dust getting in. Will aim to polish the lenses during the week ready for reassembly on Friday and then I'll do the other side. Any suggestions on opening up the sidelight housing before I dive in?! By the way the bit I'd be opening up doesn't have any influence on holding the bulb in situ :) Adrian |
Progress so far today:
Finally decided to 'bite the bullet' and attack the inner reflector cover sidelight area with my Dremel! http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psmbjdf4nh.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psxtu9vatl.jpg The area where the LEDs are on the side of the lamp are the widest part - needed opening up about 0.5mm all round so I just carefully used a small drum sander attachment on a slow speed and worked my way round, checking the clearance as I went. The inner reflector probably doesn't look a lot different: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psdaoga7rt.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps4ntscu74.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psro9fygzw.jpg I've only wiped around it with a very fine microfibre towel. It's made no impression on the marks above the xenon bulb holder, but a fair bit of muck did come off on the towel so I'm happy it's as clean as it can be. The inner reflector cover I decided not to polish - there's a lot of silvery finish edging to it and held up to the light it's pretty awful quality finish that you can see through. I was concerned polishing the lens would damage the silver finish very easily, so I just used some Autoglym Fast Glass on it to remove dirt. ETA - don't attack this part with anything other than water and a microfibre rag! The finish is VERY easy to remove! The xenon bulbs were replaced with new old stock (allegedly) bought off ebay when I bought the car - they appear genuine, although don't seem to have some marks down the socket end that some sellers claim only OEM bulbs have. I suspect these are actually quite old bulbs in terms of shelf time, as the light up time is very similar to the original bulbs that came out 4 years ago! Takes almost 30 seconds for them to reach full brightness. They don't appear to have aged much anyway, so I'm happy with them. The salts still look an acceptable colour. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pszmuugebv.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psznmxoajz.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps4tmruryp.jpg The main beam support/flash bulb is a Philips X-Treme Vision +100% bulb - they work well enough and a reasonable xenon colour match :) their life is about half that of a stock bulb, as you'd expect when they burn twice as bright, but for the application that's fine. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pswmxywdve.jpg And now with the inner reflector carefully put back on and all the clips engaged, and bulbs refitted: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psxycoxfk8.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psfyir0k67.jpg The sidelight LED sits nice and central in the housing, so that's good. It's designed to take a very lightweight filament bulb so I was concerned it would 'hang' a bit in the housing. A tip for anyone doing similar - DO NOT be tempted to try and tweak the 2 plastic barbs that hold the bulb holder in situ to try and get them to grip a bit better. They just snap......you can guess how I've found that out :rolleyes: Just spoken to TPS and the wiring for the sidelight bulb is available from stock in Milton Keynes (8 on the shelf!) so I've ordered one to replace the one I've snapped and if they're more pliable I will order one for the other side. It comes as a wiring kit for the headlight but I'm hoping I can just persuade the wires out the back of the bulb holder and just change the plastic part. I'm not convinced until I see the part that it's possible to change in situ if it comes with all the wiring back to the plug! http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psxycoxfk8.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psfyir0k67.jpg I now need to attack the main lens with the polisher so that's ready to go back on the car when I collect the new clips tomorrow, plus hopefully the wiring. I'll try and grab a pic of it reinstalled with the old one for comparison. Will be very interesting to see if there's enough light coming out of the sidelight now to illuminate the main reflector, which I think is the purpose of the cutout in the sidelight reflector. The old filament bulbs didn't stand a chance of doing that, they're so weedy! |
Beautiful write up.
The good thing is that you decided to widen the hole so that the LED bulbs are exchangeable without having to put the headlight into pieces again. I'm going to do the same mod when I dismantle my headlights again for the major service. Will change xenon bulbs for new OEM ones and will install LED lights like yours Adrian. |
Well that's one finished and back in the car! All I need to find are the pack of 4 rubber grommets for the trim under the headlight, which I appear to have hidden.....
My earlier mentioned cockup with the plastic barbs holding the sidelight holder into the headlight: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps5tnvm6eu.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pst7tc13rq.jpg Audi will sell you what they describe as a 'bulb carrier with cables' which is what's pictured above - I thought it might go back to the flash socket and then to a plug, but no it just has repair wires attached.....don't know what I must've been expecting for £12.69+vat :rolleyes: TPS recommended some repair connectors (000 979 940) for crimping the repair wires to the existing light loom. I did think about trying to separate the plastic housing from the terminals and just swapping that, but no amount of gentle persuasion seemed to be releasing any hidden tabs so I just decided to go with it and chop the wires. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psqu7gk0pj.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psk6rvces1.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pseyh6menu.jpg You only need to trim a small amount of insulation off (I did a bit too much) as there's a 'dead end' in the middle of the connector. Quick squeeze with enough force to clamp it, but not so much as to tear through the insulation (I used standard crimping pliers for insulated connectors) and then get the heat gun out to shrink down the outer barrel, which helps support the wire in situ. I fitted a new gasket between the body and lens - they're about £10 each but given how compressed the old one was they're worth doing. It didn't look like the clips were going to go back on very easily, but tucking them over the lens and then pushing on the centre of the clips will stretch them out enough to clip back over the ribbed plastic. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps1gnre0vf.jpg New (on the right in the pic if it's not 'blindingly' obvious vs old :D http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psygmsabct.jpg Up close http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pswlsvxbcr.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pscvrcx6kw.jpg The alleged colour matching old bulb for comparison! http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psin10odvq.jpg It's a lot of aggro to go through but if your headlights could do with a refurb, or you just like a 'little' project it's not so bad to do :) I'm really pleased with how it's turned out - will have to wait and see what they look like in the dark with the headlights on as well! Adrian |
Some comparison shots in the dark!
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psqnpexmjv.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psk0stte5k.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps6xua90ku.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pss7vlotg0.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps8izuo6ir.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psx2wauiyp.jpg Quite noticeable how much better the illumination of the nearside of the road is with the cleaned up lens and reflector :) |
Great job and write up Adrian there's something very satisfying about taking somethg like that apart and refurbing it, the results are so much better!
I'll add this to the section sticky when I'm back on my laptop +++ |
Well I pulled the drivers side light out in the week - started working on it last night and polished the outer lens while it was still assembled on the body of the light.
This morning I've got it stripped down and so far it's not going so well! The clip holding the outer lens near the indicator was holding onto thin air due to the lens end of things having parted company at some point.... Rung TPS (the outer lens has a couple of big chips in it anyway) and there's no replacement lens in the country, so I'm looking at waiting for stock from Germany in a week to 10 days :( so now the car is off the road until I can get that. Also found on dismantling that the trim under the headlight has previously been gorilla'd off the car and 1 of the 2 mounting barbs was snapped clean off. It was still sitting in the rubber grommet so there's a small chance I might be able to glue it back in place! Bit annoyed at that.... I'm not sure whether to admit defeat today or push my luck and remove the inner reflector cover. The way I'm going there's every chance one of the 4 clips will shear off! I've also found a rubber grommet floating about in the headlight body which I've no idea where it came from. It's possible it's nothing to do with the headlight I guess. Will post a pic of it later and see if anyone recognises it. Time for coffee and a think |
I've got various bits of headlight in a box in the garage, including an outer lens IIRC.
I'll have a look at the weekend and let you know. In the meantime, if you can let me have a list (with photos preferably) of the bits you need, I'll see what I can find. |
Cheers for the offer - I've ordered a new lens which will take about a week to arrive from Germany, allegedly. Cost was just under £75
This is what's broken off the original: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ps3idkd01h.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psniwrzhzm.jpg and this dropped out of the headlight when I took the lens off! Not even sure it's from the headlight! http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pst60lmdln.jpg Condition is much the same as the other side, although I can't help thinking that the exterior condition of this one suggests the nearside one has been replaced at some point http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psqvbnsbfb.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pswaag5rhm.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psyu1w0b1i.jpg Inner reflector has come off OK again (phew!) http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psifs2q0zx.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psu7uddbom.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psxuywxfdb.jpg The hole for the sidelight bulb was a fair bit smaller than the other side, so required more material removing to allow the LED sidelight bulb to fit. That's all done now (no pics) but think I'll leave any further cleaning until I have the new lens to fit. Would rather not spend time cleaning the reflector up only for it to get dusty again! |
Finally finished! Well nearly.....still got to repair the broken plastic barb on the trim under the headlight, but I'll do that after writing this!
I collected my new driver's side lens yesterday, so this morning was all about cleaning the reflectors, replacing the outer lens with new gasket and getting the bulbs fitted, then back in the car and off down to my local indy who then checked and adjusted the beam alignment for me (drivers side was low but otherwise all good) New lens fitted and reassembly on the bench done - the box for the lens was dated January '14 so pretty recent stock, so they're still making some stuff! http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psyhjrrqct.jpg Both LED sidelights now fitted http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psqpq2ol7j.jpg and with the headlights on you get a nice white light, rather than a tinge of yellow courtesy of the old school sidelights! http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...pstsvoic59.jpg I'll see what it's like to drive at night (probably tonight as I'm off to Surbiton karting) and I might order some new xenons - although these are 4 years old I know they were old stock from when the cars were current, so I think more modern bulbs will give a better light output. |
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Haha Sergey thats a new one!
Good job Adrian. That's the first time I've thought a set of xenon pluses actually look good on a d2 because the little piddly sidelights don't ruin it! One of the reasons I went for Xenons rather than Xenon Plus on mine was for that very reason! |
Thanks Sergey - that's brilliant! May have to take you up on the offer as I do glance at my sunroof panel when I'm up in the loft and think it'd be a lot better in the car!
Neil - they do make a big difference, but it's a risky job to do if you do manage to break something that's part of the main headlight assembly. I'm convinced my driver's headlight is as old as the car but the passenger side one is newer - it has a lot less wear and tear, less rusty clips, better condition painted plastic on the inner reflector etc etc. I followed up the headlight refurb with changing the offside outer rear tail light as well! It's had a crack in it since I bought the car and I came across one recently for £20 which had only had a couple of years use, at most. Getting quite good at boot trim removal now lol |
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From memory just detailing spray and a micro fibre cloth. Be careful attacking it with anything stronger, as the ‘chrome’ finish is VERY fragile to chemicals (avoid getting any on it and mask off for preference - just dry wipe the chrome finish)
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