John McM

After many years in storage, one of my headlight reflectors was looking worse for wear.

I searched the Web for ways of rehabilitating the reflector, but in the end decided to replace both headlights. What follows is a DIY for H4 lights. It's very easy, but different from the H5 so worth documenting. That way you won't touch the wrong screws or strip threads.

Firstly, park your car in front of a wall and mark the centre of the beams on the wall. You can use these to set the new lights if needed (mine were perfect out of the box, so never had to learn how to set the beams)

Next, unscrew the bottom screw on the headlight ring and gently lift the ring upwards from the bottom.

To remove the headlight unit from the bucket, you need to:

1. Undo the screw at 6 o'clock (same position as the ring screw)

2. Break the seal between the unit and the gasket (not the gasket and the body, unless you want to damage the paint). Do this on the lower third of the unit, as it sits on a tab at the top. Do this carefully and on both sides. I used a screwdriver and had no issues. If yours is firmly fastened then use something strong but more gentle otherwise you may damage the gasket and it will be visible.

The unit should lift from the bottom and you will be staring at the demounted unit and the headlight bucket.

Remove the connectors and vacuum pipe, then fit them to your new headlight. The rest of the installation is a reversal of the removal. However some important notes.

1. Be sure the gap between the headlight and gasket is even on all sides, before you start tightening the main screw at 6 o'clock.

2. Be sure you are correctly aligning the main screw as it's easy to strip the thread.

3. Be even more sure that all is correctly aligned on the fit, gaps etc before putting in the final ring screw.

4. Test the lights to see if they line up with the marks you put on the wall when starting.

The final result is a sharp new set of eyes. It takes a few years off the car's appearance.

C2 Turbo

Hey John,

Lights/car look great So what's the feedback, do it?

Were you able to use your H5 trims?

Thanks

John McM

Hi Yasir, the reference to H5 is that the only instructions I could find related to H5, my lights were always H4.

BTW: The H4 units were relatively expensive.

Cheers
John

hamah

You can't use the H5 trim (the body coloured plastic trim ring) on H4s. The H4 has either a black metal or chrome trim ring that usually comes when the headlight is bought as a complete assembly. The plastic trim ring that fits over the metal ring is optional. Check out the NA and Euro PET to see the differences and get p/ns.

John McM

This is no use to me but may help others. I've just learned that there is a headlight repairer out there. This is likely a lot cheaper than buying new http://www.audettecollection.com/h4-refurbishment/