the headlights can be removed without removing the bumper, BUt you need to pry and stretch the bumper a bit and wiggle the headlight quite a bit to do it, with the bumper removed it's easier and less chance of damaging the bumper, cracking/scratching the paint. that said I've removed and reinstalled my headlights countless times without removing the bumper and haven't damaged anything even though my bumper is repainted, which increases the chance of cracking the paint,

there are 4 main bolts holding the buper cover on, 2 in the grille opening and one at each rear corner where it attaches to the fender. I remove the 2 in the grille area, then pry the buper out and wiggle the light in and out. there are 2 bolts holding the headlight capsule, and there is a ball socket on each one that attaches the lower outer part of the light. when the bolts are removed you need to pry the headlight towards the inboard side a bit to pop the ball socket out, then the headlight can be removed

to open the headlight, use a heatgun and heat the whole seal area between the lens and the housing. you need to run the heatgun over this seem for a while, keep flipping the light and try to get even heat dispersion around the whole perimeter of the seal. it takes a bit of time because you are looking for the plastic to get heat soaked enough to transfer this heat to the actual glue that holds the lens to the housing. after about 5 minutes of heating and flipping you should be ready to pry them apart. the glue will become sticky and stringy so be carefull not to let the stringy strands get on the chrome bezel or inner parts of the lens of your screwed. be careful with the chrome finish it damages easily, avoid fingerprints dust or any touching of it as much as you can, trying to clean it can damage the chrome finish.

 

THANK YOU FOR ^THAT POST^

very good detail, and I hear you on the glue strings! Same case too with the mirror finish in my Audi's - do not touch...

Now to see if they're bad enough to go through ^that^... did you have any condensation issues after lensectomy? Figured you heat the glue back up during reinstallation, but I know how that can go 8-/...

 

I was able to pry apart my "dead" lens assembly. On the outside lens there is a quarter inch deep flange that fits inside the black plastic body. Once you are able to get it apart a bit then you can pry it apart. I found that you have to cut the grey sealant as you move along the perimeter. Getting it back together with a proper waterproof seal may be a problem as the old sealant is like stiff gum. It is still sticky but I wouldn't trust it to seal up again.

Mike

 

If you are going to be taking apart the headlight, check out these guys:

http://www.theretrofitsource.com

They have new projectors, lenses, bulbs and even the butyl seal tape for putting the light back together.

I have purchsed bulbs from them. No other association.

By the way, if your bulbs are old it's a good first step to replace them. On my '05 new bulbs were a major improvement.

John

 

OK great detail Mike good to know!

OOooo, very helpful link John - thanks! New butyl tape FTW...

 

I have resealed lights with New butyl tape. you do need quite a bit of heat to do this, otherwise it's just too firm to really fully compress and fill all voids while allowing the 2 halves to fully seat to each other. many guys use an oven method of heating but I don't trust that method, too easy to overheat the lens and it will crack and craze later. heatgun takes a little patience and consistancy but it puts the heat only where needed and doesn't risk heat damage to anything else.

I have also had situations where even with new butyl tape it can still have sepage, problem is after you open it you will have uneven deposits of old residue. water can find the tiniest voids this can create. butyl works great if you clean and remove most of the old adhesive, then lay a nice even bead of the new tape. this is a lot of work. I usually don't try to fully clean the old, if anything is added I just roll out a thin bead of new tape just to add a bit for material displaced in the process, but even so, I've done enough headlights to want to really insure no leaks ever, so what I normally do is heat them very well, compress them back together very well, then clean out the channel at the seem and run a thin bead of black silicone around the seem, forced into the outer seem. this is good insurance and it causes no real issues if you do ever have to open them again. do not use silicone inside the whole seem before closing the 2 halves for 2 reasons, first is that the vapors from the silicone can cause issues inside the headlight if it's silicone 1 (don't use silicone 2). the silicone vapors act almost like the vapors they use to lift prints and it can cause some cosmetic issues and cloudyness. second reason is it won't seal any better and if you ever have to open it again it can really cause issues and make a mess.

thats my foolproof method, use the original material with a good amount of heat to reseal and glue the lens to the body, then a thin bead of black silicone to make it 100% water tight.

also as an FYI, you can pick up butyl tape at your local nissan dealer if you really want it although half the times I don't even bother adding new tape. nissan uses this to seal in and install some of the older nissan tailights and is usually in stock. just tell the parts guy you want the dumdum tape for the tailights


also, since I'm typing anyway and this is relevant to the discussion 2 more things to add. first is that ALL headlights will get some condensation at some point. happens from temp difference between inside and outside the light, same way a soda can sweats when you take it out of the fridge, but this minor condensation disapates easily and the heat from the HID's are usually enough to clear it up in short time. take a car on a warm day or after the headlights have been on a while and warmed up the inside, then hit it with some cooling water and you'll see what would form on the outside of a soda can, only thing is it's reversed with the warmth on the inside so the warm side will condensate on the inner surface of the rapidly cooled lens. this is caused by rapid temprature changes like pulling out of a heated garage into the cold or cooling a warm light with cold water.

second thing is these benz OE headlights have a heavy UV blocking clearcoat. when you buff an area enough to break through this layer you will get the ring burn mark that DRTYLNDY realized. at that point only remedy is to wetsand of all the rest of this coating and repolish. but at this point even though the light may look fine again it will yellow after time because there is no more UV protection. waxes and protectants can provide temporary protection or for a permanent fix the light can actually be reclearcoated. most good automotive clearcoats contain some form of UV blocking to protect from color fade

 

thanks again for your very detailed insight!

I'm quite familiar w/ the dumdumgum... Audi tail lights 8-/

have a heat gun at my ready!

I'll see how bored / motivated I get 8-)

thanks again tho!