Another Quickie

[steviegp]

How exactly do you de-tango new age head lights?

Apologies if i'm a mong for not usingsearch properly

[jimser]

http://forums.sidc.co.uk/index.php?showtop...&hl=detango

[steviegp]

Cheers

[stubaroo]

Hi Stevie,

I just done the de-tango thing recently and it is well worth it.

Make sure you have enough time to complete the job in one go, 3 hours is about the average time taken.

Take your time throughout and you can't go wrong.

Have some mastik handy for when you go to re-seal the headlight unit. You wouldn't want to go to all this effort and then leave the unit not sealed properly. Another tip, if you want to change or need to change any headlight bulbs (obviously you will be changing the orange indicator one for a silver bulb) this is the time to do it as you need to remove the headlight unit to do so anyway!

1. Remove plastic grille and air intake duct on the L.H. side of engine bay as you look at it. Easy.

2. There are now 3 bolts securing each headlight in place, 2 are on top and the other is hiding on the inner side of each headlight. The 2 top bolts are easily removed but the other one is a little bit fiddly because of access, carefull you don't drop that one!

3. Pop all your bolts into a cup or cups so they don't go missing.

4. Now you have to start wiggling the headlight unit to get it out, it is now only held in place by 2 location pins which are attached to the rear of each unit and they locate into 2 location holes on the car. This is a wee bit tricky and requires a combination of persistence and 'balls'! Be firm but very carefull not to mark the bodywork around that area as the unit comes out.

5. Once the unit is free of the location points unclip all the electrical connections for each bulb. It is very usefull to have another set of hands to help at this point and throughout to be honest. The battery can be removed for the passenger side headlight for ease of access but I didn't bother.

6. After the connections are off then simply and carefully manipulate the headlight to lift it free of the car. Watch that bodywork!

7. Get the oven on at around 80 degrees. I went for the oven method as I felt that it evenly heats up the whole unit in one go.

8. When working with the headlight out off the car make sure it is placed on a very soft surface, like a towel, as the outer lense is very easily scratched or marked.

9. Remove all the little screws holding the 2 halfs of the headlight unit together. There are 9, but 2 are discretely hidden, 1 is under a sticky flappy bit and the other is under a plastic bit held with another different screw, holding that in place. So thats 9 of the same type of screw and 1 of another type.

10. Now pop the headlight in the oven and make yourself a cup of tea. After about 5 - 10 mins the mastic holding the 2 halfs of the unit together should be plyable enough to pull them apart, again carefull as you go. If it is not soft enough then just pop the headlight back into the oven and keep an eye on it. The headlight will not get hot enough so that you can't handle it with bare hands just incase you were wondering. I was using white cotton gloves so that I didn't mark anything.

11. Once the unit is split there is one more screw holding the orange lense in place, so remove that and the offending tango wedge of doom and frizbe it straight into the bin. Plastic recycle bin of course. Carefull not to touch anything else inside the headlight unit.

12. Now apply your fresh line of mastic and squeeze the unit back together.

13. Replace all screws that you previously removed.

14. Change any bulbs that require changing. Do this with a clean cloth or clean cotton gloves, do not handle bulbs with bare fingers or anything dirty.

Only split one headlight at a time so the other one is handy for a reference in case you get stuck. Re-fitting into car is simply a reverse of removing. Be very carefull not to damage any bodywork as you go. I thought the re-fitting was easier than the removal bit.

Any hoo's that pretty much how I did it and it looks fantastic.

[steviegp]

Thanks very much for that

Something to keep me busy for a few hours when i'm home next,cheers!