Taking headlights apart

[Spod]

Any idea how much of PITA this is?
Mine are a mess internally from water ingress, at some point the previous owner had a go and there is what looks like a paper towel bit stuck inside one of them.

Seen a few videos on you tube where people oven bake them and pull them apart.
Is it as easy as that with reverse pliers or is there another method/access?
From what I can make out they are not 'sealed' but there's no way I can see of you getting you, your hand or anything to the front inside of the lens to wipe it clean properly.

They are this 'style' but really wished they actually look as clear as this.

 

[OceanJack]

Find a retrofit service, or you'll need to cut them open and reseal.

Plenty of videos on how to open permaseal lights, I've contemplated doing it to upgrade my projectors but ended up bringing them to a retrofitter shop.

 

[Spod]

Find a retrofit service, or you'll need to cut them open and reseal.

Plenty of videos on how to open permaseal lights, I've contemplated doing it to upgrade my projectors but ended up bringing them to a retrofitter shop.

When you say 'cut' do you literally mean cut? I thought they could be prised apart as just glued and the oven bake part loosens the glue.

 

[OceanJack]

When you say 'cut' do you literally mean cut? I thought they could be prised apart as just glued and the oven bake part loosens the glue.

Cutting along the seam will be quicker and easier, if you think it can be easily removed like butyl headlights. I strongly recommend you bring them to someone and pay the 600 bucks to have them open them up for you.

 

[Spod]

I think I'll have to live with it, expensive to fix a cosmetic issue to be honest.

 

[Maiden69]

Find a retrofit service, or you'll need to cut them open and reseal.

No you won't. While cutting is easier, it is also harder to seal back together without a glob of epoxy or silicone. They are not easy to open, but has been done plenty of times. Also, replacing the permaseal with butyl will allow you to open them in the event you need to get inside of them again. There are replacement lenses for sale on AliExpress, that's where I bought mine. I didn't get to work on them because the body shop was able to include them as part of the damages from the accident I had.

Also, there is a liquid sold around that somewhat softens the permaseal, making it considerably easier. But you still need to heat them up a little bit to "crack" the seal on one side before using the liquid on them.

 

[Torrid]

No you won't. While cutting is easier, it is also harder to seal back together without a glob of epoxy or silicone. They are not easy to open, but has been done plenty of times. Also, replacing the permaseal with butyl will allow you to open them in the event you need to get inside of them again. There are replacement lenses for sale on AliExpress, that's where I bought mine. I didn't get to work on them because the body shop was able to include them as part of the damages from the accident I had.

Also, there is a liquid sold around that somewhat softens the permaseal, making it considerably easier. But you still need to heat them up a little bit to "crack" the seal on one side before using the liquid on them.

I wondered how bad it would be to replace the lenses. I was contemplating going that way until I hit a deer 2 months ago which insurance supplied me with new headlights.

 

[Maiden69]

I wondered how bad it would be to replace the lenses. I was contemplating going that way until I hit a deer 2 months ago which insurance supplied me with new headlights.

The first time you do it is a PITA, especially if you have not done some butyl headlights before so you know kinda what to expect. Permseal is a rubberized epoxy, and very hard to separate, not impossible. When people have problems is when over heating the case, as it will distort. The ones on my 2011 Camaro where permaseal, took me a few heating cycles to get them fully separated. I did a full projector retrofit on those with S2K projector replicas. I plan on opening the ones they body shop took off, they handed them to me. I'm going to polish the lenses, since the projector on these ones are almost impossible to replace with better ones.

 

[OceanJack]

Here's a good guide to use for those interested in opening up their lights, I had a service do mine and upgrade the projectors on the AFS motors.
I've retrofitted before but permaseal is just so annoying and time consuming, again I'd just pay for it to be done.MK7 Upgrade Lighting package

 

[OceanJack]

The first time you do it is a PITA, especially if you have not done some butyl headlights before so you know kinda what to expect. Permseal is a rubberized epoxy, and very hard to separate, not impossible. When people have problems is when over heating the case, as it will distort. The ones on my 2011 Camaro where permaseal, took me a few heating cycles to get them fully separated. I did a full projector retrofit on those with S2K projector replicas. I plan on opening the ones they body shop took off, they handed them to me. I'm going to polish the lenses, since the projector on these ones are almost impossible to replace with better ones.

You can buy AFS adapters from china and upgrade to G5 Hella 5 Projectors. If yours is the Hella housing, they use Hella 3. The G5 are a drop in with the afs bracket.