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Old 03-29-2005, 11:37 PM
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bhensarl
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Default How to clean your headlights

Step 1. Remove the painted trim ring by removing the phillips head screw at the bottom of the ring
Step 2. Remove the headlight and headlight adjusting assembly from the bucket. Four phillips head screws hold them in place. If the headlight was a clock, they would be located at 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, and 10:30. Unscrew them, and don't worry about them falling into some abyss if you let them out too far, they have little plastic washers that are supposed to keep them from falling out, and there's nowhere for them to go even if they do.
Step 3. Disconnect the headlight from the wiring harness. Pry the two little white plastic arms up and pull the harness free. If you're having trouble getting your fingers in there, tighten the adjusting screw at 12 o'clock on the headlight adjuster to give you a bit more room. Now pull the headlight and adjusting assembly out of the headlight bucket. In so doing, you should have made yours look like mine.
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Old 03-29-2005, 11:53 PM
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Step 4: Remove the headlight from the adjusting assembly. (Okay, this probably isn't necessary, but I did it anyway to clean out the entire thing. I don't think it had been removed in 15 years.) Remove the 3 phillips head screws located at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. Once I had the two pieces separated I took the opportunity to grab a rag and wipe off both of them and also the inside of the bucket. There was about a pound of dirt, leaves, and grime inside there, and I wasn't about to miss a bit of weight reduction.
Make yours look like mine.
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Old 03-29-2005, 11:56 PM
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Step 5: Remove the light bulb. Rotate the piece of white, hexagonal plastic counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise if you're across the pond) and remove it. The light bulb element then pulls straight out.
Step 6: Remove the stopper on the drain plug. Remove the phillips head screw and simply pull the entire piece straight out.
Now, once again, yours should look like mine.
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Old 03-30-2005, 02:01 AM
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Step 7: Cleaning the glass. Pour a bit of rubbing alcohol into the large hole left by the missing light bulb. Holding the light up so you can see it, slosh the alcohol around inside. Don't miss any spots if you're a perfectionist because after you've poured out the alcohol and dried the glass you'll force yourself to pour more alcohol in and get that spot! Another tip is to use a baby bottle brush to get any hard to reach spots (LT1's tip). Once you're finished, pour the alcohol out either the drain or the light bulb hole. Get as much as you can out because it will decrease the drying time.

Step 8: Drying the glass. Alcohol will dry fairly quickly on its own, but to speed up the drying time put the lenses over a heater vent in the house, or use a hairdryer (garrett376's tip). They'll be dry in no time.

Step 9: Putting them back in. And so end all good DIYs: Removal is the opposite of installation. Just do everything you did to pull them out, but do it in reverse. It's not exactly rocket surgery, and I really think most everybody can do this DIY and have good results. I've been thinking about going to silverstar bulbs, and I think now I may have to to fully realize the potential of my new clear headlights.
Brian
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