Clearing the Headlights

Clearing The Headlights

1.okay, first you remove the front grille. this is done by taking off the 2 pop- its, pushing on the little tabs, and finangling the grill until the lower clips come off. (no pics of this)

2. remove the bumper by taking off all the popits under the car connected to the bumper, and the 1 in each wheel well that you can find by pulling back the fender liner. i was pleased that these pop-its were MUCH easier to remove than my WRX's. (no pics of this either.)

3. here's the front of the car with the grill off.

and, with the entire bumper off. looks scary, but it isn't 8)

4. okay, now we take out the light itself. there's 2 bolts on the top of the light housing (one black, one silver, the silver is the one closest to the one you had to remove to get the grille off) there's also 5 gold colored bolts that are holding the light's bracket in. here i am pointing to one of them on the side. There are also 2 under the light.

5. and 2 more gold ones that are on the inside of the light bracket. 6. Remove the 4 torx bolts that hold the housing together. you can try a 2.5mm Allen key, but i found it better to use a needle nose vice grip

Close up: 7. once you have the torx bolts out, MAKE SURE you take the turn signal out, i forgot to do this on the 2nd light, and broke the bulb in the housing. anyways, you can either put the lights in the oven for (i think) 250F for 20 mins or so, or you can use a heat gun, which is the method i prefer. much safer and easier i think.

8. if using a heat gun, you just heat the biatch up until you can gently pry the light housing apart with a screwdriver and your strength. here's the lights once they are apart. 9. you can see in that last pic there are 3 more torx bolts holding the housing to the lens. again, i used a needle nose vice grip to undo them.

10. Once you get the housing from the lens, you can remove the orange part by unclipping it from the rear. (no pics)

*it is at this point that one could paint the housing black. i did it on my WRX and it looked AWESOME. this time i elected not to do it.*

11. Put the lens part of the housing back together with the 3 torx bolts.

12. Put some waterproof silicone in the housing crack, and heat the goo with the heat gun again for a few minutes. this will make a better seal when you put the housing back together. 13.then you slap the housing together again, make sure all the clips are in their respective places, and SQUEEZE it back together with all your might, the result? PROPER. here's the modded light next to the stocker. 14. at this point, you can either replace the stock turn signal bulb with the stock, or an aftermarket one. i originally wanted one that looks clear but blinks amber, but i'd have to wait for them to come in. i'm not patient and wanted to get this done today, so i used this one. Autozone, $2 each. clear bulb that blinks clear. hope i don't get pulled over for this one. if you re-use the stock bulb, i feel it kinda defeats the purpose of clearing the headlight, as it will still look orange inside.

here's the housing mounted in the car. looks so SEKSY... 15. Then you go about putting the bumper back on, pop in all the pop-its, screw down your lights, put the grille in, and you're good to go! all in all, this took about 3 hours, taking my time and snapping shots. hope this helps out some people, i like to contribute.

Fun Notes: turn signal bulb is a 3157A

Baking Temps and times: 280 for 8 minutes... then before you put it back together, 280 for 5 minutes then seal back together

Oven Pic