i managed to source a set of one piece parabloics from a vic wrecking yard..anyways i just got them and they are in good nick..EXCEPT..one of them(left) has on the lowbeam crome cup lense,a smoked apeaperance,..mainly round the top.its also on the inside of the actual headlight cover...though again only round the top half :confused:

sombody has taken the bulb out and put o finger in there to se if itll come of and its a bit smudged ..so im guessing itll come off :confused:

only thing is i dont know if/how the unit can be dissassembled to clean it all out?

any suggestions? or should i send it back..doubt they would have another left one FLOATING around thou :doubt:

if their anything like the ones in a tr they will be a pain to pull part everything is siliconed in.. im in the process of replacing the glass lens.. ill have a better look at my spares over the weekend!

mmm..ive just had a real good look at it and from what i see, there is fist odviously the clips, THEN there3-4 little screws that actually screw into the cover lense..and they scew into it from inside the case,..only poblem is...how the *** to get at them? :rant:

try some detergent and a bottle brush to reach the spot then rinse out and use a hair dryer to dry it all out see how that goes before you start to pull them apart very expensive if you stuff up.:D

Or you can pull them apart then you can get them really clean. Search for posts by HeathYoung and you will find istructions but basically it involves taking off the clips heating your oven then switching it off. Place the headlight in there for a short period of time and then the glue (silastic?) will be easy to pull apart. Once cleaned heat the oven again and let it melt together again. There are more detailed instructions in the posts heathyoung has put up.

The glue is actually butyl mastic, and is thermoplastic. Hence the use of the oven.

On the 1 piece headlights IIRC, the screws are not into the case, but rather into the surrounding trim (ie the chrome trim surrounding the headlights).

Remember that someone had to put them together somehow :)

Some people suggest the use of a hot air gun, but I feel that this causes hotspots - and causes the plastic front (MR10 Lexan) to bubble up if you are not very, very careful.

Also read my warnings concerning the plastic touching metal parts of the oven - on a one piece, the lens is also plastic so use non-stick baking paper over it when you place it lens-down in the oven.

Cheers
Heath Young

Jo - I really wouldn't recommend this method for cleaning delicate optical surfaces. Apart from the fact that some detergents are mildly caustic, and the reflectors are vacuum deposited aluminium - add aluminium and a caustic solution and urk. Matt white reflectors.

The cause of the discolouration is I bet either:

1) Someone used what I affectionatly call a rice-light - blue bulbs, the coating was of poor quality and outgassed, depositing itself onto the reflector.

2) The bulb was not clean when it was inserted into the housing.

3) The bulb was not UV-cut quartz, or was an overwatt bulb.

Cheers
Heath Young

I should really edit posts instead of keeping replying to them, but anyways - if you get really, really stuck, you could always drill small holes where the screws are, and plug them with 3mm irrigation plugs when you are done (look in the garden watering system aisle of your harware store. These are really really handy little buggers for all sorts of applications).

There - I promise no more replies to my own posts :) Maybe...

Cheers
Heath Young

mmm....just had a go with the oven and yes theres some goey **** holding it in..had it in for a while ,whole thing pretty hot and still dosnt really wanna come out, and im not game enough to put it back in the oven :shock:
so imay have to send it back :doubt:

You give up to easily :)

You do need quite a bit of heat - try preheating the oven to about 160-180 degrees.

It need to cycle twice (ie thermostat clicks on and off) and the elements should NOT be glowing when you put it in the oven. Leave it in there for 10-15 minutes.

You need to prise the front lens off gently with a paint scraper or the like, and cut the strands of butyl mastic (it will be like mozarella cheese on a really hot pizza) with a razor blade or stanly knife.

If you let it cool, it will set again, if it gets too hard, wedge the piece you have started with pieces of timber and throw it in the oven again.

It needs to be as hot as a ba$tard when you get it out, if you can hold it without oven mits comfortably, it is far too cold.

It does take time. You need to start at a corner, and work around slowly.

Cheers
Heath Young

i think we should send a firebridgade around just for precautionary measures. .. :\

i think we should send a firebridgade around just for precautionary measures. .. :\

..yea i may need it !...serious :shock:

Heath ; so none of the assembly will warp right :doubt: even when its so hot you cant pick it up barehanded??....

another thing i noticed is they seem to be different lights(obliously one is left the other a right lol )spot the diffence the left one is the cloudy one in question.

Nylon's melting point is 263 degrees.

Unless your oven's thermostat is very wacky, this shouldn't be an issue.

I have removed the lenses off my headlamps about 5 times each. No problems encountered.

The headlights are different series - the left hand side is painted over more. These are older than the ones on the right which were fitted to 2002 on models (final revision).

To clean your lowbeam reflectors, you need to use optics tissue (lens tissue), and the breathe, drop and drag method.

That is, breathe on them so that they get a light condensation fog, and run the optics tissue over this section. Only go in one direction, use a different part of the tissue each time. Don't ever scrub, or you will scratch the hell out of your reflectors.

You don't need to remove the reflectors, if you do you will need to relevell them - you should level them when you fit them anyway. I would make your life easier by removing the glare sheild, its pretty easy. (unscrews at rear).

Oh yeah - for the best results with your 'new' headlights, use new vision plus H7's and H1's - the osram bulbs suck, and you should also replace halogen bulbs every 25,000K - reason being is that they lose light even though they are still working by filament material deposition.

If you don't believe me, have a look at the old H7 bulbs filaments vs new ones - the old ones have 'crystalline' deposits - these don't really produce much light, and are kind of 'along for the ride', so to speak.

If you are really worried that the lights look different, you could always mask off and spray the LHS - the masking only is designed to reduce light spill upwards - this is only into the bonnet, so not important at all.

Cheers
Heath Young

i asked this question a while back and got this top website hope it helps!

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

My only comment is not to use silastic - you will never get them apart again.

This method of repair only is temporary - once you break the UV coating seal of the MR10, you will find that you have to polish the front quite regularly.

Cheers
Heath Young

You give up to easily :)



ok so i gave it another try and it worked a treat..the clouding comes off to...looking smick again :cool: :D

thanks mate

ok now, how to we wire up 1 piece paras? :D

haha that will be his next question....

OR is that what you want answered???...... COS USE THE SEARCH BUTTON!!!!! :rant: lol

Cool somone else asked before me!

you think yours are bad?

http://www.iinet.net.au/~simonrod/AM-pics/parabolic.jpg

thats the worst of the 2, i will be taking them apart giving them a good clean, repainting the plastic thats meant to be black (unless a plastic/trim restorer works) back to black and hoping that is all goes back together nicely

this thread has helped me too :)

they are bad :shock:

Rick - glad I could help you with this.

Looks like you have a moisture ingress problem.

Once you clean it up, you should probably think about throwing in a few silica gel packets to try and stop it from happening.

Cheers
Heath Young

haha that will be his next question....

OR is that what you want answered???...... COS USE THE SEARCH BUTTON!!!!! :rant: lol



used search button... seems everyone that has fitted them wants to keep it a secret... all i wanna know is what wire to snip, and where it should go?

i've got the fitted now, just have to wire em up (NOW!) if anyone reads this soon and knows the answer feel free to message me