Step 2: Teardown of the headlight
First, remove the 4-5 clips (can’t remember how many) that surround the perimeter of the lens. A flat head or needle nose will work fine here.
This is the step where a heat gun is optional. You can also set your oven at 225F and bake for 5 minutes to loosen the headlight tack. I recommend a heat gun because the bezel paint can bubble if it exceeds a certain heat. With the heat gun, you choose what areas get heated and which do not. If using a heat gun, heat around the entire perimeter shown in red. After the perimeter is HOT, begin to pry from the arrowed direction. I use a flathead to get it started then an old sock (because it’s HOT) to pull once I can get a grip.
As you are pulling the lens off, it is critical to make sure none of the tack touches the bezel. Tack can only be removed from the bezel by heating it and this can cause bubbling of the bezel paint so try to avoid by all means. As you are pulling the lens off, it will look like the picture below. The “strands” of tack can easily be dealt with by hitting them with the heat gun. The heat will make the strands snap and curl up much like spider legs when you hit them with a blow torch. F*** spiders.
As soon as the lens is removed, the bezel needs to be removed. Once again I use the heat gun to loosen the tack at the arrowed directions below. The bottom of the bezel has three locations which need to be heated and the top has two. Make sure to not hold the heat on the bezel for too long to avoid paint bubbling.
Now that the tedious processes are done, we just need to take apart some inside components. Remove the cap behind the headlight assembly to gain access to the HID bulb. Start by removing the metal clip completely (looks like a bent up paper clip). Then twist and pull out the HID bulb. Be sure to pull straight out because the bulb is made from a very thin glass that will easily shatter if it contacts anything while being removed.
Disconnect the connector and place the HID bulb and socket aside.
Remove the four arrowed screws with a small Phillips head screw driver. These screws hold in that HID bulb’s housing thingy. Pull out the thingy.
Here is a picture of the thingy and the HID end cap. It’s a good idea to hold all the screws in the end cap so you cannot lose them.
The following circled screws are T10 size. They hold the reflector in place on the dynamic bracket. I call it a dynamic bracket because it moves when the high beams are activated.
As soon as the three T10 screws are removed, the reflector should simply fall out.
The next step requires locating the three circled pins. They have a center piece which needs to be pulled out with needle nose pliers. Just give em a yank.
Even after the pins are taken out, the dynamic bracket will not release. The housing the pins were in needs to be squeezed with the needle nose to allow them to fall through and release the bracket.
After pushing all three through, the bracket will come out. This is what I am calling the “dynamic bracket” for future reference.
To remove the pins completely from the headlight, they once again need to be pinched and pushed through. We will not be using these again because we do not need to dynamic bracket to move back and forth to actuate the high beams. The projectors have high beam capability but it is internal to the projector.
The next piece to remove is what I call the “geared wheel”. After the dynamic bracket is off, this just pulls out. This will also not be reinstalled.
Now all we have left is a nice circular cavity to install the projector lens.
For those interested in the operation, this circular cavity is the back-bone of the old reflector assembly. It has the ability to rotate to adjust headlight level but besides that you can think of it as “fixed”. Remember that geared wheel which was sandwiched between this back-bone and dynamic bracket? When high beams are activated, that geared wheel rotates. Because of its design, it acts a lot like a cam and forces the dynamic bracket away from the back-bone when spun. When the high beams are released, the wheel spins back to its original position and the dynamic bracket is pulled back towards the back-bone by those pins that had the springs around them. Looking at a cross-section from the side, it’ basically three layers with the geared wheel determining the distance between the outer two layers. Hope this helps people understand how the headlight works and why we no longer need the geared wheel and dynamic bracket.
If you choose to cut out the reflector and use it around your projector shroud (some people like this look better) then you may want to keep all your components so the reflector will have something to screw into (the dynamic bracket). You could also attach the cut out reflector to your projector shroud using a glue and not have to worry about the geared wheel and dynamic bracket. This is just an optional step you may choose to attempt if you want to keep the reflector look.