Headlight Removal

[Eldavo]

Want to change the headlight bulbs on my '88 2.7 and research tells me that they are H4 bulbs. When I take the black plastic surround off I don't have the 1 screw at the top and two at the bottom that all the guides say that I should have. There are the 2 adjustment screws and then 4 other screws holding the bulb surround onto a metal sub-frame. Tried removing tese but the back of the connector gets stuck on this subframe and I'm stuck!

Help gratefully appreciated, David.

 

[SteveSJS]

Bonnet open pop headlights up.
On the offside by the motor that powers the raising/lowering mechanism pull back the rubber and remove the relay.
This will then let you turn the headlights off while they remain up - it also protects you fingers while you're working on the headlights.
With the headlights up remove the three screws that hold the trim that covers the headlights when they are retracted.
Gently remove that trim so as to avoid scratching the painted surface.
Access to the headlight bulbs is now relatively easy.
Reverse the procedure to refit

BUT

Turn the headlights back on BEFORE you replace the relay.....

HTH

 

[Eldavo]

Excellent thank you, kicking myself for not thinking of it before. Whilst I was in there I removed the rubber pieces at the front of the light buckets to clean them and condition them and took the badge panel off and removed the badge so that I can machine polish the panel properly and replace the badge. Replaced the badge panel and cleaned out the headlight buckets and waxed them (you can't see them normally, but at least I know they're clean!) and cleaned up the plastic trim pieces with Black Wow. Also Black Wow-ed the rubber strips and replaced those too, I also cleaned the headlight lenses and gave them a quick machine polish with some AutoGlym glass polish.

Finished result:

And a comparison of one of the new bulbs (Halfords Extreme Brilliance +90%) with the old one:

 

[mike220]

black WOW indeed, good job, looks lovely and fresh []

Mike

PS - have you noticed much of a difference in light levels once driving ?

 

[Eldavo]

Black Wow is very very good on plastics but not cheap at circa £20 for 119ml but a little goes a long way. The headlight trims were a dull grey colour before and now they look brand new. It doesn't work as well on the rubber spoiler, I tend to use AutoGlym bumper care on that but it doesn't last very long.

As for the light outputs, I didn't get a chance to drive it last night after I'd done the bulbs but from some testing on my driveway the results seem promising.