Cleaning the inside of headlights????

Snwwlkr7

Snwwlkr7

New member
I'm doing the 99+ headlight mod on my 1997 because honestly mine SUCK!! So I found 2 excellent condition headlights off a 2000 a few days ago at a salvage yard for $60 each. They look great but appear to have a very slight film or haze on the inside. I've searched the forums much and I've read about putting them in the oven so the covers can be removed but I am trying to avoid that. I also read were someone said to put a cleaning solution such as windex or ammonia and water solution inside and slosh it around.. Any good ideas on this subject???
 
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defintely don't take them apart;use hot water and slosh it around and then use rubbing alcohol or windex and let them completely dry and you should be ready to go.
 
i would also recommend just sloshing it around and maybe taking a blow dryer to dry up whats left to avoid water spots. If all else fails or your a perfectionist, you can bake them and seperate the glass off and clean them and put them back together.
 
No... Not a perfectionist.. Just thinking while they are removed if I could clean them without it being a major ordeal that now is the time..
 
Mine has one headlight with water/moisture in it. The glass appears to be attached with metal clips. Does this mean I can remove the clips and take it apart to clean? Do I simply need to put a new gasket in it to restore it's water tightness?
 
BTO said:
Mine has one headlight with water/moisture in it. The glass appears to be attached with metal clips. Does this mean I can remove the clips and take it apart to clean? Do I simply need to put a new gasket in it to restore it's water tightness?
Click to expand...

Thats what I thought when I first saw them but upon further investigating apparently thats not the case. From what I've read the front glass has a sealer/adhesive that is pretty heavy duty and the basic method includes heating them in an oven until the adhesive gets soft and the lens can be pulled loose. The same goes for re-assembling. I didnt want to go that route as mostly I was worried about the re-assembly not 100% sealing back together.

I've done a good bit of searching about headlights and from what I've read in your case BTO the one headlight with moisture could also be related to a leaky, loose, cracked boot over the bulb socket..... I would check that out before I took the lens off to re-seal it..
 
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It's not to hard to do but i would try the other options first. If your not sure about the re-seal and u think it's going to get moisture in it, go to a hardware store and get a all purpose seal.
 
i have done headlight restoration on a few crx's and on my bmw 750il.i used a heat gun to seperate the housings from lense assy b/c u can be more precise with the heat rather than baking the whole goose.plastic tends to get brittle after extreme heating throughout the whole piece.as for re-sealing i like to use a tripolymer sealant called pro flex rv made by geocel.its a clear rv seam sealant.why rv sealant u ask.it tends to resist discoloration better than regular sealants.
 
WARNING!!....

How to screw up $120 worth of headlights in 3 mins or less. For those who are ammonia challenged.

So I went with the ammonia solution. I mixed it to strong apparently. I did probably a 20% ammonia to water solution. Poured it inside the headlights and sloshed it around. Waited about 15 secs then started refilling with fresh warm water, sloshing and dumping it out.. Repeat.. It ended up eating a good bit of the reflective finish off of the inside of the light. It also bubbled up a good bit of it.. TRASHED!!..

I have never used ammonia much before. I didnt realize it was so strong.. Oh well.. It Happens!!!

If you use ammonia, mix it VERY weak....
 
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I'd just use a diluted mix of Simple Green then a good rinsing with cold water. I have to clean and check my passenger side lamp as it's getting a little dirt buildup along the front and sometimes foggy.
 
How much do you want for the damaged headlights?
To seperate the housings you bake the lights for 10 mins at 250 degrees in the oven.
 
Bringing an old thread back up.

My '99 headlights have dust and haze inside of them. The reflective 'sticker' on the bottom near the glass is also peeling up. I'd like to remove the lights and clean them.

I was thinking soapy water or simple green or windex but am wondering how well of a job it will actually do. I'd hate to destroy the lights as they work fine now, they're just dirty. I know just a little dust and a soft rag can scratch the reflective coating on a Maglight reflector so who knows what can happen with these.

I'm thinking about starting with just soap and water. No harm right? Just looking for a little follow up on this older subject. OP, what did you end up doing?
 
Don't stick them in the dishwasher. The reflective finish will be gone.

The silver trim was coming off in my headlight. While in the 4runner, I took compressed air (blow nozzle) and blew the silver trim peelings out of the headlight housing. Blasted air in for like 20 seconds.

Looks much better.
 
4x4mike said:
Bringing an old thread back up.

My '99 headlights have dust and haze inside of them. The reflective 'sticker' on the bottom near the glass is also peeling up. I'd like to remove the lights and clean them.

I was thinking soapy water or simple green or windex but am wondering how well of a job it will actually do. I'd hate to destroy the lights as they work fine now, they're just dirty. I know just a little dust and a soft rag can scratch the reflective coating on a Maglight reflector so who knows what can happen with these.

I'm thinking about starting with just soap and water. No harm right? Just looking for a little follow up on this older subject. OP, what did you end up doing?
Click to expand...

mine are peeling too. but i haven't found a nice set to replace them with. they too are foggy, dirty, nasty.
 
I ended up removing the lights and dunking them in a 5 gallon bucket of hippie natural soap. It's very mild and figured I'd start there. I let them sit for a bit them would empty the housings then fill and dunk again. I did this for about half the bucket for each light.

Only one light had the reflective sticker at the bottom peeling and it came out easily. Both got most of the dirt and dust out and while full of water I was able to determine that the seal with the reflector and lens was fine.

Before setting these in the summer sun I sprayed in some windex and sloshed it around. It didn't seem to do much and still require water to rinse clean. There is a still a bit of haze on a portion of the reflectors but the only thing that would clean that would be a wiping which would probably scratch the surface and or wipe it off.
 
Mine peeled as well. I pulled them off, baked them, separated and cleaned the insides really good. Heated them again, put them back together and ran a nice layer of silicon around the housings to keep water out. Have been fine and look great for over a year and half. Took about an 1.5 hours total.
 
Hate to dig this up but my driver side bulb burned out, so I figure I might as well give my headlights a good washing while I am replacing the bulbs.

So... you guys just poured water/soap/windex/whatever into the housing and sloshed it around, then empty it? It's that simple? And the watermarks can be taken care of by using windex?
 
BrianSD_42 said:
Baking them is pretty easy.

All the details on how to can be found in this link -----> http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...it-97-4runner-project-toyota-4runner-org.html


Code: 
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/133400-brians-fx-r-3-hid-retrofit-97-4runner-project-toyota-4runner-org.html
Click to expand...

168981 said:
Hate to dig this up but my driver side bulb burned out, so I figure I might as well give my headlights a good washing while I am replacing the bulbs.

So... you guys just poured water/soap/windex/whatever into the housing and sloshed it around, then empty it? It's that simple? And the watermarks can be taken care of by using windex?
Click to expand...

Wonder how well this worked out for you?

And the baking option, do you have to mess with the alignment screws for the beam height width? Mine are perfect. Hoping not.
 
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Repaint!

Snwwlkr7 said:
WARNING!!....

How to screw up $120 worth of headlights in 3 mins or less. For those who are ammonia challenged.

So I went with the ammonia solution. I mixed it to strong apparently. I did probably a 20% ammonia to water solution. Poured it inside the headlights and sloshed it around. Waited about 15 secs then started refilling with fresh warm water, sloshing and dumping it out.. Repeat.. It ended up eating a good bit of the reflective finish off of the inside of the light. It also bubbled up a good bit of it.. TRASHED!!..

I have never used ammonia much before. I didnt realize it was so strong..

If you use ammonia, mix it VERY weak....
Click to expand...

If you take them apart you can repaint the inside with chrome spray paint...
 
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