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How To Open Your Headlights (pic)

17K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  TurboMatte 
#1 ·
This will be my attempt to help guide you through opening your head lights and installing brighter LEDs. As always, i am in no way responsible for you destroying your giant headlights and any emotional trauma you acquire. First off i would like to say i was going quick with the pictures so they didn't turn out that good. But this should get you an idea of what you're in for.

Tools: Screw driver of the Philips variety, Heat gun, Gloves, Wire cutters, Wire stripers, Electrical tape, Replacement LEDs.

Time: 2 hours for both headlights unless you want to paint.

Step 1: You will need to take off the bumper and get the headlights out. Refer to other topics on this or ask.

Step 2: Take out the daytime running light and your turn signal light so you don't hurt them when your opening the lights. There are 2 screws holding in a clip like piece of plastic, take this off and set aside, this is the part your bumper clips to and or rest on.


Step 3: Going down the outside of the light there are 3 screws holding the black molding into the casing. remove these and set aside.


Step 4a: Now is the part that takes time and patience. Start at the top of the light and heat the edge with you heat gun careful not to stay in one place for to long. I heated for 10 mins then worked the top open like in the picture. You will need to use some force and stress the black "clips" on the one side of the light.


Step4b: Keep working the light open, notice the clips at the bottom of the light and make sure you are pressing them through the clips to be released. work this area in the picture after you have the top open from the last step. Once you get this side open, the side with the clips will come off.


Step 5: You're in! Spread the lights a little and disconnect the wiring harness.


Step 6: I blacked out my reflectors so i took off the two screws and it pops out.



Step 7: Now you need to remove the "decorative insert" from the clear plastic. There is 4 screws holding this into the clear plastic. A few in the first picture and then one or two in the next picture. After you have those unscrewed you need to lift it up and than out towards the reflector, it will pop in and out.




Step 8: Black LED Cover is in front of the LED bar, you need to take this off to get to the light. It's tucked under the decorative insert, and will pop when you pull it off. There are 3 or 4 screws holding this in place that need to come off then in slides out.




Step 9: Now you can get to the LED Diffuser. I cut the wires coming from the board that went to the 2 leds that currently light up the diffuser. You need to unscrew 2 screws on either side of the diffuser and it comes off. I then placed my new LED strips where the diffuser was. Its's going to be a tight fit, but you can place the led strip and then the diffuser back where it was with a little work.


Step 10: Wire in the LEDs to the white and black wires coming from the board. For some reason the black was positive and white was negative. I don't know if that is just like that or what. Now is a good time to plug the harness back into the first part you removed and go out to the car and test them. If all is good, tape the connections up and make sure you get the black LED cover in right. This is going to be a really tight fit, but it will go where you want it to if you get all the screws back in place. The new LED strip is pushing the diffuser out which is making everything tight.





Done: Once you get it how you want i would make sure and test it before you put it all back together. I reheated the epoxy/seal and have no water in my lights even after the rain. Just to really make the seal, once i put them back on the car i heat gunned them again well pushing the light into place to really get it tight again.

 
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#2 ·
also, in the final picture of my car in the parking lot, the drivers size light has NO diffuser in it, well the other one does. Below is other relevant pictures to help. I did this through out 2 days, drivers side first and kept the diffuser out, and someone on here suggested to see if i could keep it in, so when i did the 2nd light i kept it in. The first light took me 3 hours, the 2nd one took me 30mins since i knew what i was doing, hope this helps someone out.








 
#5 ·
Which led strip did you choose to go with?

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#11 ·
The good news is there is a dessicant bag inside the headlight for the purpose of absorbing moisture.
 
#14 ·
Awesome thanks for the info. I bought some custom painted VT lights but wanted to install the custom LEDs you can get from ExLED. I was worried about opening them for a second time and ruining the seals. It seems from your example it won't be an issue. Cool!. I might put another desiccant bag in there just to be sure though.
 
#16 ·
ah ha! fantastic write up. for anyone else willing to give this a shot. its way easier than you think it will be. just heat them up really well before you try to peel them apart. then when finished I did the same 10 min with the heatgun just to make sure the glue got in all the cracks to enure no water got in the lights. BTW if you paint then there will be some moisture from the paint drying, its ok. after a few days of letting the paint dry inside the headlights, take all the covers off the back for the high and low beams, and remove the blinker bulbs. turn your lights on for about 15 min with it all open like that to let the water evaporate then close it all back up and enjoy moisture free headlights.
 
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