Toyota Nation Forum banner

DIY: taking apart headlights (56k: 20 low resolution pictures. you decide)

80K views 61 replies 29 participants last post by  Cking 
#1 · (Edited)
disclaimer ToyotaNation may or may not endorse various DIY projects such as this one, but all DIY projects are purely "at your own risk". If you are at all uncomfortable or inexperienced working on vehicles (especially electronics and mechanical), please reconsider doing the job yourself. It is very possible on any DIY to damage your car, void your factory
warranty, disable a safety feature, create a hazardous condition, or harm or even kill yourself or others. Examples would be melting you headlights, the vehicle failing on you, getting an electric shock, or disabling an airbag to name a few.
:)

do you...
  • have a broken headlight housing and want to replace it but don't know how to?
  • have want to take the headlights apart to paint them, add some shit to them, take the amber reflector out, etc.?
  • have some projectors laying around for a retro, but don't know how to take headlights apart?
well, you're in luck (hopefully :lol:). i have a 2003 toyota camry LE, and decided that the chrome had to go, along with the amber reflectors. this diy applies to all 2002-2004 USDM camrys, but may also apply to all gen 5-5.5 camrys (2002-2007). my instructions are for taking the headlights out of the car, and taking them apart for the purpose of painting them black. headlight replacement instructions can be deducted from this diy- just skip the parts where i take the headlights apart. and i'm not doing a retrofit, but taking the headlights apart is one of the steps to retrofitting projectors. maybe in the future.

note: i hope the 20 low resolution pics (@ around 40 kb each) weren't too much for the 56k'ers. if so, please let me know so that i can put a warning in the title.

items needed

^in the garage. the electric screwdriver and masking tape are optional.


^in the kitchen. the electric screwdriver is optional and in place of #2 philips screwdriver in picture.

step 1 - removing headlights from car
disconnect all bulbs (three on each side for 2002-2004 camrys; four on each side for 2005-2007 camrys). remove bulbs from harnesses and keep them in a dry and safe place. be careful to keep fingerprints, oils, dirt, or any other contaminants from the bulbs. keep harnesses from interfering from headlight removal.

in order to remove the headlight housings from the car, you have to move the bumper out of the way a little bit to gain access to a certain bolt on the side of the headlight. before we move on, first study the location of the nuts and bolts holding the upper portion of the bumper on page 1 of the exterior trim pdf and the location of the two bolts and the pin and clip holding the headlight to the body on page 8 of the headlight pdf of camrymanuals.com. then proceed to the first sub-step:


^unscrew the two screws with a phillips screwdriver and undo the center clip/fastener highlighted in red with some prying action from the flathead screwdriver. these hold the top portion of the bumper to the bumper support.


^underneath the car right in front of the front tires, unscrew this screw with a phillips screwdriver. this screw holds the splash guards to the bumper. repeat on the other side.


^at this point, you should be able to pry off the splash guard from behind the bumper with your fingers in the direction noted (the red arrows). if you have trouble, you can use a screwdriver with masking tape on the business-end to prevent scratches. pry enough so that you are able to see the bolt/screw in the picture below:


^unscrew this bolt/screw with screwdriver. this screw holds the corner of the bumper to the corner of the fender. after removing the screw, with some force, peel the bumper from the car. repeat on other side.


^peel the bumper away from the car, outwards, enough so that you are able to unscrew the bolt highlighted in red with a socket wrench with a 10mm socket. the bolt holds the bottom portion of the headlight to the car. notice how the clips of the bumper belong to the space between the headlight bracket and fender (green arrows). be careful around the bumper- do not apply any pressure because it it being held on by the bottom splash guards. if you feel more comfortable with the bumper completely off, then go ahead and take it off.


^unscrew the bolt highlighted red using the socket wrench with the 10mm socket. there headlights are now held on to the car by an alignment pin and clip. simply pull directly forward away from the car to disengage both, freeing the headlight from the car. repeat on other side.


^closeup of the pin insertion point on the car's left side. (phone's marco did not work well this time)

step 2 - baking the headlights


^preheat oven to 200 degrees using bake function. if you know your oven temperature control is inaccurate, then compensate and lower the temperature.
note: other instructions say anywhere from 150 to 400 degrees, but 150-200 degrees allows the oven to remain on/heating without damaging the headlights by melting it. it is scientifically proven that the melting point of the Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) plastic (the part of the headlight with the lowest melting point) is usually around 230 to 250 degrees fahrenheit depending on mix. in addition, the melting point of ABS is not sharp- you can bake the headlights at 300 degrees easily with no visible harm, but the headlights might get slightly warped. the melting point of the butyl adhesive is far lower than that at around 150 degrees. i chose 200 degrees to prevent melting of the headlight and to promote relatively faster melting of the butyl adhesive holding the headlight together. furthermore, i make no guarantees- 200 degrees may still melt the headlight... cuz ain't no scientist, hence the disclaimer :lol:


^unscrew the two small screws highlighted in red with a phillips screwdriver. remember the pin mentioned in the first step? it's highlighted in purple.

is your oven preheated @ 200 degrees fahrenheit yet? if so, then you can move on.


^stick the headlights in the oven. make sure that there is plenty of space around the headlights, and use the rack positions to position the light so that there is plenty of space between the heating elements and the top and bottom of the headlight. one tip i've seen is to put the headlights on a brick or tile, to prevent metal-to-plastic contact.


^close oven. bake for ten minutes. (oh... now my phone's marco works well...)

step 3 - taking apart headlights


^carefully and slowly pry the headlights apart, making sure that the butyl adhesive is pliable enough. if you're having trouble, you may have to put the headlights in the oven one or two more times to soften the butyl adhesive. once you have the headlights apart, let the adhesive cool and harden a little bit so that it doesn't get all over the headlight assembly, especially on the lens.


^unscrew the small screw at the top. this small screw holds the shroud to the lens. the shroud is further held to the lens by clips at the bottom. slowly pry them off, removing the shroud from the lens.


^remove the amber pieces (if your own plan requires the removal that is). the circular amber refractor was a bit hard to take off, i had to grind at the refractor's clips behind the housing a little bit using a fine file.

step 4 - painting time


^now that the lens and housing are apart, do what you want with the headlights. i painted the shrouds black myself.

step 5 - assembling headlights


^reinsert the amber reflector and amber refractor on the housing... or whatnot. make sure the clips are securely fastened and not loose. also make sure that all parts of the headlight assembly are clean. when assembling the headlights together, it is good practice to apply extra adhesive/sealant to make sure that there are no leaks in the headlight assembly seal. i personally use black RTV silicone because of its sealing abilities and similar properties to the OEM butyl adhesive that was already on the headlight. i used black, instead of clear, so that i can see it better. be a little bit liberal with the extra sealant/adhesive- since water entering the headlight housing equals a shitty day and shitty light output. there's nothing wrong with sealant overkill.

step 6 - baking the headlights again


^the headlights may not be properly sealed and aligned- the heat will fix that. heat for ten minutes, then push the lens and housing together to tighten the seal. repeat until it looks flush as before, if not flush'er. again, nothing wrong with sealant overkill.

repeat steps 2-6 for the other side if you already haven't done so. ;)

step 7 - reinstall headlights on car

^reverse the first step. reinstall headlights bulbs.

step 8 - final check
make sure that the headlight assembly, bumper, fender, splash guards are all flush with each other like before. aim headlights according to page ten of the headlight pdf of camrymanuals.com. store all tools. consume beverage of choice. recycle.

update: other users have reported that using the more popular heating method (higher temperature pre-heat and turning off the oven before putting the headlights inside) worked for them quite successfully. here's what they said...
this is an old post.....but a little hint if u have a hard time on the seperation stage try heating your oven to about 385 turn it OFF then put the lights in for 2 minutes....less time in the heat it worked for me better that way but it prolly depends on your oven, and your prying techniques... use like a cookie sheet thats NOT in to start its the best way to prevent any accidents, i did 4 i had 2 old ones and 2 new ones and took all 4 apart fine with the 385 method the first one i used was 200 for 10 minutes and it didnt wanna come apart.
this process is almost exact same as the skafia/integra-r writeup - the trick with that (and it works very well as i've done a few retrofits in my time) is you preheat the oven to 400 degrees then TURN OFF the oven and put in your lights for 7-10 minutes. when you pull the lights out, the lens comes off very easliy without prying. as long as you have a good set of gloves to keep your hands cool you're set.
their instructions, as well as mine, fall under the disclaimer at the top of this thread.

update: the link in step 8 regarding headlight adjustment may be dead at this time. for now, i'll whip up a quick instructional on headlight adjustment...
behind the headlight assembly, do you notice a screw attached to a washer that seems to have teeth at the edge of them pointing to the headlights? it's situated between the low and high beam and it's an 8mm bolt. that screw is the adjustment screw. don't screw this bolt too far in or too far out- it might get stuck, rendering the beam permanently misaligned. if you're looking at the screw, screwing it in clockwise will lower the beam and screwing it out clockwise will raise the beam.

find a very flat surface with a light-colored wall (behind supermarkets or industrial areas work well). park next to a wall with the headlights on (low beams only), facing it with your car. you want to be as close as possible. mark the low beam's cut-off line with masking tape or a marker.

reverse the car,perfectly perpendicular to the wall, 25 feet away from the wall. adjust the beams so that the the low beam's cutoff situates 2.1 inches lower than the mark on the wall.

http://www.modifieda4.com/web/tech/h...ht-aiming.html
^one of the sources i looked at.

note: there is no horizontal adjustment/alignment screw on the gen5 camry's headlights, nor is it necessary.


feedback and corrections appreciated.
 
See less See more
20
#35 ·
I know that this is old and all, but will the steps be somewhat the same for the GEN6's? I couldn’t find anything in the search except for this.
 
#38 ·
^are you talking about the light-beam alignment? if so, i would normally tell you to follow the link in step 8, but i noticed that camrymanuals.com is dead (exceeded bandwidth), nevertheless the link that shows how to align the headlights.

behind the headlight assembly, do you notice a screw attached to a washer that seems to have teeth at the edge of them pointing to the headlights? it's situated between the low and high beam and it's an 8mm bolt. that screw is the adjustment screw. don't screw this bolt too far in or too far out- it might get stuck, rendering the beam permanently misaligned. if you're looking at the screw, screwing it in clockwise will lower the beam and screwing it out clockwise will raise the beam.

find a very flat surface with a light-colored wall (behind supermarkets or industrial areas work well). park next to a wall with the headlights on (low beams only), facing it with your car. you want to be as close as possible. mark the low beam's cut-off line with masking tape or a marker.

reverse the car,perfectly perpendicular to the wall, 25 feet away from the wall. adjust the beams so that the the low beam's cutoff situates 2.1 inches lower than the mark on the wall.

http://www.modifieda4.com/web/tech/headlight-aiming.html
^one of the sources i looked at.

note: there is no horizontal adjustment/alignment screw on the gen5 camry's headlights, nor is it necessary.
 
#42 ·
spots on the outside of lens: plastix and microfiber applicator pad and microfiber towel should to the trick. directions are on the bottle, and they are quite easy. better yet, ultra-fine sandpaper and a good detail/buff with an orbiter should do the trick, but i'd ask someone else about the exact process for that one.

as for mixing the two methods together (plastix as polishing agent applied on buffing wheel of orbital)- some are against it, and some are for it. plastix is designed to be applied by hand, and there are no instructions for use as a polishing agent. some even claim potentially worse results. so i have no clue on that one, but i'd go for not using plastix with orbital buffer.

spots on the inside of lens: there is no easy way to remedy this. you have to bake and disassemble the headlights to have access to any imperfections inside the lens. sorry if this is the case.
 
#43 ·
Restoring Worn/Yellowed/flawed headlights:


(sometimes you'll have to do the process twice or more)

800GRIT
2000GRIT
Chrome Polish/Headlight restorer
Wax
Water

Wet sand the headlight horizontally good with the 800 GRIT (if lights are really bad spend good time on this process too)

Then switch and do circular sanding with the 2000 Grit, the more time you spend the better the outcome, keep it WET.

Clean it off good with water and paper towels. (i used windex here, dont know if it matters)

use orbital buffer with cotton terry cloth and apply the headlight restorer or chrome polish buff until clear

wax the headlight afterwards

my recently restored lights:





this was an 02 sentra
 
#49 ·
white housing

I know a lot, well like almost everyone that has done black housing on their camrys did it...in black. :chug:

Now having a white camry, I want to do something different and do white housing, like those new corvettes with matching housing that comes stock :thumbsup:. But I have a few questions and they are

-Since white is not as dominant as black, will the original housing show through or something?
-Where can I get white paint that can withstand some heat, cause I'm sure they don't have white engine enamel paint. :disappoin

Or since its white, it might need more coats/primer/sanding to prime it??

I'm not sure but I'm definitely down to do this and be the first one with white housing :p (i think, if not the person that has white housing can show me :naughty:)
 
#50 ·
was thinking about doing the same for mine until i saw a white tC with whitehousing. didn't like how it looked. was a bit girly. so i just did a unique black. try to just mask of the ends of the chrome rings on the low beam and turn signals. sand, primer, and paint the rest. use duplicolor adhesion promoter and duplicolor engine enamel or high heat paint. both you can find in white.
 
#52 ·
is there a DIY for this for the Gen6?

I just took the headlights apart but I'm having trouble/not certain

on how to take which parts apart like the shroud where to painter's tape seal it off and where to actually paint :headbang::ugh3:
 
#54 ·
word of advice dont paint everything....im talking about the inside rim of the housing...i jst finished mine and its not as bright as before, it looks great but yea.....if u look at an actual blacken housing from an XLE ull know what im talking about...campare it to anotherasian's diy and ull see ....
 
#56 ·
^agree. what i did was paint it all-black. the black housing on the gen5 SE aren't fully black (ring and signal reflector left chrome). a full-black housing is a substantially different look imo.
yea u should mask off the tips of the rings on the headlights and don't paint the back. u should though paint behind the orange reflector. it will make it a bit darker. looks great on my car.
^painting the housing behind the orange marker lens (different from painting the back of the marker lens- just in case someone thought it was that) would essentially give it a deep-smoked look, while preserving the transparency of the lens. if i were to do it all over again, i would do this.

i painted the marker. i knew it would totally black-out the housing, but it looks awkward to me sometimes- large area of black-painted surface on the side. lol :facepalm: :lol: oh well.
 
#55 ·
yea u should mask off the tips of the rings on the headlights and don't paint the back. u should though paint behind the orange reflector. it will make it a bit darker. looks great on my car.
 
#57 ·
this is on my things to do list. I just want to know whats up with using engine enamel. is there something special about it. I see alot of people using krylon fusion i guess cuz it sticks better to plastik. whats the difference? oh and the cvt silicone adhesive the chemical vapors dont affect the lens inside what so ever especially when bakingto reseal?
 
#58 ·
i used engine enamel because i was concerned about the higher temperatures with the headlights on and during daytime, where there would be a greenhouse effect going on- that and they didn't have krylon fusion at the time i did it. :lol: in my experiences, the krylon fusion bonds better to plastic, but there is no wear and tear inside the housing, so the advantage is only found when handling the painted pieces before reassembly. that's just my opinion.

i have no clue about the chemical vapors, but when i sealed it back up, i did not experience any visible residue.
 
#62 ·
Anywhere from 4-6 hours depending on how fast you work. and how many layers of paint you put own and you have to wait for it to dry etc
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top