Removing the glass(?) lens from facelift headlights

[voteforpedro]

Got a pair of genuine facelift headlights from eBay for the bargain price of £40.

Unfortunately the goon had left them somewhere damp and they both have some nice yellow residue on the inside of the lens. It won't be very noticable once fitted but I'm a perfectionist so I want to mint them.

So I popped them in the oven for 20 minutes, as you do, but there's no separating the lens from the housing. I don't know what glue/adhesive they used, but it's fecking tough.

Any thoughts? Any better way of cleaning them? Someone said distilled water and pipe cleaners (through a bulb hole) but I'm not so sure that's going to work.

Maybe I can pour some sort of fluid in there, let it settle for a while, then pour it back out let it dry? Don't want to pull the reflective paint off though...

 

[Siena]

Not sure there's any easy way to remove the polycarbonate lenses from the main body.

Too much heat, and the lenses would probably warp.

 

[Blue_Thunder]

There was a link to a 'how to open up the headlights' in a similar thread, but believe me, you don't want to go there!

Give it a go with the pipe cleaners or a flexible brush.

Were the lights you've got xenons?

 

[Fraser]

use some GT85 spray in there?

 

[Blue_Thunder]

use some GT85 spray in there?

Wouldn't use that as it leaves an oily coating which could leave worse marks when the bulbs heat it up.

 

[Broken Byzan]

I would use hot soapy water and a bottle brush, then rinse with distilled water to prevent water marks etc
Then dry in the airing cupboard or similar

 

[aragorn]

i opened up mine to paint the insides

http://lr90.org/Audi/lights

I used a guide for B6 lamps which worked fine on the B5 ones, basically i used a combination of a hairdryer (not a heat gun) and screwdriver to move all the way along the edge of the casing bending it upwards, then once its all upright, you can squeeze the screwdriver round the back of the lens to unstick it from the other side. Once youve gone all the way round it comes apart with a bit of prizing, also the lens is extremely tough, i had it bent to rather extreme angles at certain points and nothing happened!

http://www.a4mods.com/#index.php?page=webcontent/pages/joey.html

Thats the guide i used.