Ok, I understand that this thread would be better placed in maybe the B5 section, but OT gets more traffic and I'm trying to reach the most eyes possible with this.

I need to take apart my one piece valeos to fix a couple of broken sections and to do a little custom work. I found this thread on audizine that outlines dismantling a set of headlights and covers part of the mod I want to do: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2460439

I bought a heat gun and spent over 30 mins yesterday trying to soften the adhesive binding the lens to the headlight housing and was unsuccessful. I heard a couple of minor pops a few times that I can only assume were the sounds of the adhesive coming loose, but I wasn't able to create any separation when pulling in those areas.

Has anyone else had any success with this? Am I overlooking something? Should I just continue to heat these things up? I'm afraid of melting either the lenses or the housing if I apply heat for too long.

Any tips or suggestions are appreciated.

 

i stuck my tt lights in the oven to do my clear corner mod... popped them in at low heat first, then i think by the time i was done i was up close to 300... took a while, but i kept checking them every few minutes...

i put them on a baking sheet, and on top of a wet cloth...

side note, i didnt check the link, but make sure you take off the clips if there are any holding the headlight together (mine had 4)

also used a flat head as a wedge to help me pull them apart

 

yeah I think I'm going to try popping them in the oven. I'm a little nervous about that, but it seems like that's my only option at this point. How long did you have to leave your lights in there before you were able to separate the lens from the housing?

btw, this is what I'm doing with the LEDs I'm installing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpTFtYjPJm8

I was going to pick these up from that store on ebay, but I don't feel like dropping 400 bucks on them. They have some kind of a funky wiring harness and only have 6 or 7 LEDs in them that have a lot of separation in them. The LED strips I'm adding have a much higher light/length ration so there won't be any separation effect when you get close.

 

its a common thing for the TT'ers. Main thing is remembering to put the light on a damp towel so you don't get any hot spots that melt the light, and so that you don't catch your towel on fire. really shouldn't take more than 150° (usually).

I've pried one of my scrap/spare lights apart w/o heat before too.

 

I am honestly surprised to see this stuff done on Audi's lol. I was going to do this to my RX-7 back when I had it. I wanted to "modernize" them by removing the difuser inside and I also wanted to convert them to LED's just like this

I was too scared to throw them in the oven though as those tail lights are in such high demand for those cars and they are fairly expensive. Glad the PO did clear corners for me :-)

 

150° for about 10 minutes isn't gonna do any damage. Thats not hot enough to melt plastic, hell the bulbs themselves get hotter than that.

 

man I've had these damn things in the oven for at least 20 mins at 300 F, bumped it up to 350 for the past 10, and I've found no give in the adhesive at all. What the hell are these valeos sealed up with? Did they use silicone so you can't break down the adhesive with heat? This is bullshit.

Anyone have any other ideas?

 

ok I've given up on these things. **** it. I have other things to tend to first. I blew my DV valve 10 mins ago. massive boost leaks must be tended to first. on the upside, I have that cool fshhhhh sound of a BOV til I fix it...

 

our headlights have a black gooey adhesive, same as whats used to weather seal ECU's, if you've ever opened one of them up. Does it look like theres something different?

 

it's some kind of black adhesive but I don't know what it is. I've never taken apart an ECU so I have nothing to compare to. this stuff doesn't seem lke it's going to budge. I talked to a guy at the shop I picked up my new DV from and he recommended just cutting them open and then sealing them with an epoxy. I'm going to look into that later in the week.