Finally Cleaned - The Manky Headlight.

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yippeekiay

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
6,685
Location
Up North i.e. 100+ Miles Above Manchester!!!
When I bought my Puma in October 2008 I noticed that inside the drivers headlight was absolutely pitted in mud right at it's most awkward point i.e. in the very top left hand corner.

As I have just bought some new bulbs I was changing them and thought sod it, I'll have a go at cleaning the filthy thing. I was concerned it might leave water marks when done as I didn't have any distilled water but thought what the hell, anything will be better than it was. Someone had clearly had a go before and made a mess of it (and scratched it a little as I found later).

Anyway, light off, stripped ready for cleaning and this is what I was confronted with as some of you may have seen....
View media item 1590
Firstly I filled it with water and sloshed away at it like mad but could see this wasn't shifting any of it as it was greasy as well as muddy. I noticed that water was coming out from the mucky area and thought the unit had a leak somewhere thus the reason for dirt getting in but then noticed a clip with a filter on which must be to allow the flow of air through the light. This I took off and then tried to shove a bit of kitchen roll in, moving from side to side to try and clean it, unfortunately this was only getting a bit here and there so wasn't really working, plus I couldn't get to the very top corner of the light or get my finger in from the light openings as the room was only millimetres deep at the dirty area....
View media item 1591
Luckily I had a Eureka moment and thought I'd fill the unit with water and let the kitchen roll fall in from the air opening. Then as I sloshed it about it started to clean to my relief. It actually did a bloody good job and got into every corner and crevice....
View media item 1592
Once I was happy with it's cleanliness (what, me, happy with something being cleaned!!!...lol), I then had the problem of drying the bugger, after numerous attempts with a little fan, then a big one, I realised these were'nt going to do diddly squat so I went back to shoving kitched roll through the air hole which is extremely tight and then managed after a while to get hold of one end through the light holes with the other end still sticking out of the air hole and basically manoevered it around to dry it. The muck in there was everywhere but I'd finally got it to where I was EXTREMELY happy with my work....
View media item 1593
If I say so myself, I think I did a damn good job...especially for me...lol.

I'd noticed that there was a few surface scratches inside where the previous 'cleaner' whoever it was tried cleaning it with something hard or abrasive (you can see his/her attempts in the first photo) but you can't really see them too much and they're nowhere near the actual lighting area.

So, fitted 2 new bulbs and 2 new ones to the other light (which luckily didn't require a clean), took off the indicator covers for when I finally decide to get some Diadem indicator bulbs, gave the 4 lenses a good clean as they had a little crap on them, then fitted the headlights back to the car. Couldn't sort my drivers motorised headlight adjuster as it seems kaput but at least I now have a full complement of working lights....that are clean too ;)
 
I didn't Vix, there's a small opening that I refer to as the air hole that's covered with a plastic clip. It's about 50mm long by about 10mm wide but it's only about 2 or 3mm deep, luckily that was enough to wiggle a piece of roll in at the top corner ;)

EDIT:- To get the roll out I just let it fall to the bottom where you can get your finger in one of the light openings to easily to pull it out.
 
That's a solid piece of work right there, best possible motivation I could have asked for!
 

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