Headlight mod, my turn

[TriX5]

Today spent a little time on the headlight mod. Had a humidity issue happen in a severe rain shower and took them out of the car a few months back. The AE rings from China never made it to my mailbox. So, have to find a different set.

Today I cleaned the sealant off the lenses and painted the reflector with some mat black. Much better I think. Still have to clean the sealant off the housing and get some butyl rope for the next try. Here is a picture after applying the paint.

[miloh]

Hey TriX5, excellent thread and wow a 10 year project!

I wanted to ask how you seal them with the butyl rubber. I read after applying it you need to heat it in the oven at 250F. Do you do this or do you use a different method?

[TriX5]

Yesterday went to the local DIY store in it and I realized that I have owned my e53 for almost 15 years (longer than any other car I have had!!!) and it is still fun to drive it! Pretty much now it is the kids' runabout and grocery-getter.

Ten year project! Yeah, this AE stuff is not much of a priority and it takes quite a bit of free time just to maintain the fleet. Also, I built a house in the interim, lived/worked overseas for a couple of years....., so yeah. I am on round 2 of the headlights, installing better AE rings and just about to reseal them. First time used gasket maker and I purchased butyl rope for this round. Not aware it needs to be heated unless one wants to soften it and make it easier to press the lenses in?

When the second set of rings arrived they turned out to be the wrong size so I mounted them to the inner reflector rather than the bezel. Also, eventually decided to paint the indicator reflectors black as well, taping them for a partial paint job messed up the chrome. Taped the upper part of the rings to get a diffent effect similar to what I had done initially.

[miloh]

They look excellent! I was reading from morimotos site about their butyl, so maybe theirs is different

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by miloh

They look excellent! I was reading from morimotos site about their butyl, so maybe theirs is different

No need to heat up the butyl, though as TriX5 said, it might help ease the process of getting the lenses back on. I haven't heated any of the ones I've done.

[miloh]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

No need to heat up the butyl, though as TriX5 said, it might help ease the process of getting the lenses back on. I haven't heated any of the ones I've done.

Ok awesome. Also, is it hard to de-adhere the butyl if you need back in the headlight?

[TriX5]

Yesterday decided to get these lights finished.....again. Crystalworks' tip of slightly stretching the butylrope worked a charm. As you feed it in to the channel in the HL housing, stretch the butyl slightly (about 30%-50% I think) so that it slips in to the channel. Then pushed it down with a paint remover blade. Pushing the lenses in left about 1/8" gap and it was very tough to get them to close all the way. So, cooked them at 200F for 5 minutes and that was enough to pop them shut all the way.

Waiting for a replacement ABS module as the one I got previously was throwing persistent code 15 each time the car warmed up and left parked for a few minutes. Clearly a case of heat soak. (Last Friday with the cold snap it did not happen.) So, going to replace the module again and see if the problem goes away. If not, the ABS pump will likely need to be refurbed.

Once the ABS module arrives I will put the modded headlights back in while replacing the module. Then I need to give them a bit of a final polish and they'll be good to go :-)

I love the light output of the Audi bi-xenon projectors which made me want better light on my 2016 Tundra. Another headlight project!

My Tundra is great but the H4 headlights are rubbish. So, I got a set of 2017 lights off Ebay for very little money and I think I will put Morimoto projectors in them using D2S bulbs. Problem is getting them open given Permaseal..... but it looks like 3 or 4 sessions at 250F is enough to get them open.

[crystalworks]

Bravo. Bravo.

*Insert slow good clap gif*

Did morimotos on an e46 m3 that was not xenon optioned. Came out pretty nicely and are still kicking to this day. Installed them about 10 years ago so I'm sure they've improved even more since then.

... And Happy Easter.

[TriX5]

Received the replacement ABS module few days ago. I started by removing the LH headlight and putting the ABS module in. Coding it to the car and calibrating the SAS was a breeze as I had the correct sequence from the last time a few months ago.

Then on to the headlights. I put the wiring for the new AE rings in and put both units on the car. Polished them best I could with a Turtle wax kit (which is pretty good) but ultimately I will sand them with P600 or P800 and hit them with Eastwood 2k Clear. Here is a picture. I really like how they came out with the reflectors painted black.


Now just need to connect the 12V to the AE relais harness and find a lighting wiring inside the cabin to trigger it with the parking lights.