55 Plate Projector Lens Dirty

[TimboUK]

Hi All,

Had my 54 plate Highline for about 18 months now and love it; except the poor headlights.

I even bought some Philips X-Treme power lamps, they improved them but still not brilliant.

Last night I compared (in the dark) a brand new Audi A6, a 5 year old A4 and mines headlights. All of them have the projector lens. The A6's were very clear and looking at them side on they still looked clear, the A4's were looking a little cloudy, but mine looked worse. You could also see clearly the differences with the beams. They varied from bright with a sharp defined cut-off, to mine that was far dimmer and blurred edges.

Anyone know if the headlight units can be split? I did manage to clean the rear of one of them using a bent coat hanger with some cloth on the end:

This is a picture where I had touched the back of the lens with a screwdriver first, you can see the clean bits just from doing that:


You can clearly see the difference as I cleaned it (you can see my bit of red cloth inside!):


I will test tonight and compare as I have only done one. It does look like there is also a film on the other side of the lens too. Anyone split one of these?

How much would a new headlamp unit cost?

[patzer]

Haven't tried to remove the lens but from reading other posts here, you have to bake the unit in an oven to melt the glue that holds the lens.

Nice one about the wire hanger and cloth, must try that myself. The lights on my (2001) are ridiculous. Am debating as to buy a HID kit or not.

[TimboUK]

I tried it out that night, what a difference just with the one done. I reckon it made a bigger difference than fitting the uprated lamps. Just done the other side now. Ill go out later and see.

I would seriously recommend doing this before even thinking about uprated lamps, especially if your considering the technically illegal HID/Xenon upgrades!

[snapdragon]

Was the cloth dry or did you use windolene? I will have to try this

[TimboUK]

The first one I did I used a solvent based glass cleaner (sprayed on the cloth first so it was almost dripping) , but it evaporated off a little too quick. It was almost dry by the time I had put a piece of dry cloth on to buff it off.

The second one (drivers side) was much more difficult to do, I ended up taking off the M6 screw holding the air filter box out. This allowed me to lift it enough to get my hand under it.

For cleaning this one I tried a spray glass cleaner, this wasn't solvent based so stayed "wet" for a while, but took more polishing off.

I would not recommend any cleaning product that is designed to "dry to a haze" and then be polished off; so I would avoid Windolene!

Good luck; I wish I had taken some beam before and after pictures too!

[macquatic]

Where's the pics gone?

[TimboUK]

Images are hosted on my own server in my cellar; having issues with it at moment. They will be back

[macquatic]

OK, thanks.
I remembered the thread and came back to it as I'm planning cleaning my own lamps.

[TimboUK]

macquatic, how did you get on?

[macquatic]

Great, what a difference.
I also fitted Osram Nightbreakers about a week after and that improved them again. Brilliant lights now!