HowTo - Swapping Hella EvoX-R bi-xenon projectors into facelft headlights

[mithril]

Ever since I bought my S6 last December the headlights have had condensation issues, especially under high pressure such as automatic car washes. Living in the Pacific Northwest moisture is definitely an issue and something I wanted to resolve before the summer ends and we descend into another 6 months of solid rain.

While many people have quite successfully reused the OEM sealant to reseal and waterproof their lights, The Retrofit Source sells an Oci-Butyl Glue kit for $15 which is perfect if, like me, you have no confidence in your original sealant. As I was going to have the headlights open to replace the sealant, I initially thought I'd replace the DOT spec fresnel lenses in the Hella E55 projectors used in the facelift bi-xenons with a set of clear ZKW-R's. However after some reading and realizing that chroming inside my 11yr old projectors was probably breaking down I decided to replace the projectors as well. The Retrofit Source does carry used Hella E55's but I also discovered in a thread on Audizine that the EvoX-R projector is an upgraded replica based off the original E55's. It comes with a mirror finished bowl (something our proctors never had) and the clear ZKW-R lenses. At only $40 more than a set of E55's + upgraded lenses it seemed like a no brainer.

I won't cover removing your headlights or baking them open as that's been covered many times before, this is just about swapping in the new projectors. For this project you will need:

- Oci Butyl Glue or Morimoto RetroRubber Butyl Glue kit from The Retrofit Source
- Pair of Hella EvoX-R projectors from The Retrofit Source
- long T30 torx screwdriver (to remove headlights from car)
- T20 torx screwdriver
- 7mm and 9mm wrenches
- Phillips screwdriver
- variety of sizes of flathead screw driver
- utility knife
- several 1" spring clamps
- heat gun
- oven
- soldering pencil, solder, heatshrink
- wire cutters/strippers

First you want to remove your headlights and take them into your work area. As you can see, the repeated condensation of my lights had left them slightly cloudy. This was from water staining on the inside of the lens.



The first thing you want to do is prep the headlights for lens removal, this means taking off as much the light as possible such as the ballast and bulb cover door, turn signal bulb, rubber gasket, headlight adjustment motor, bulbs, etc. I put them all off to the side in a small box to make sure nothing was lost.

There are 4 metal clips that help keep the lens attached, 2 on the bottom, 1 on the top corner and one on the side closest to the radiator. we want to pop them off.



Next we flip the light over and disconnect the housing wiring from the ballast by unplugging this 9006 connector.



Then we remove the ballast by removing the single screw (T20) holding the retaining clip and sliding the assembly out.



Pop the retaining wire clips off the bulb cover, disconnect the D2S wiring and the ballast unit is off the light. You should also remove the bulb cover retaining wires by popping them out of their mount holes.



Next we want to remove the H7 high beam bulb, the D2S hid capsule and retaining ring, and the range adjustment motor. The adjustment motor is screwed in by two T20 screws, once removed the ball arm can be easily popped out of the U shaped connector with a flathead. The H7 high beam bulb is also held in the reflector housing by two T20 screws.



Now that we've removed as much as possible, it's time to remove the lens. In order to do this you need to heat the housing so the oci-butyl sealant becomes soft enough to pull the lens apart from the housing. This can be done either with a heat gun or an oven. I chose to use my oven and baked the headlights for 10min at 170F. Place the light housing on a piece of cardboard in the oven so the oven rack doesn't scorch the housing. Once out of the oven I gently pried the housing apart with a large flathead starting on the bottom of the light. It required almost no effort which is likely why I was having condensation issues in the first place. I worked small sections cutting the butyl with a utility knife as I went to prevent it breaking and snapping back onto the reflector.

While the lens is off I highly recommend giving the inside surface a full and through clean and polish. I made the mistake of only cleaning mine with Windex and a blue shop towel :( While it looked clean and removed all the water spotting from condensation, once I reassembled the lights and fully resurfaced and polished them I noticed very fine scratched on the inside of the lens. It's not enough to make me remove and bake the lights apart, but it's still not the completely clear finish it should have been. If I ever do this again I would wash the lens in soap water or dish detergent, then dry and clean the inside with Windex then polish the inside (I've found Meguiars Ultimate Compound is WAY better than Plast-X or the 3M compound that goes in the restoration kit).

Finally you're left with a light in two halves and have to remove the reflector. The main reflector is held in place by 3 mounting clips, 2 on the top and the adjustment motor on the bottom. As you've already removed the adjustment motor, you have only to disconnect the 2 top clips. First you remove the corner reflector, it's held in place by 2 Phillips screws you access from the back of the light housing (I forgot to take a picture of this, it will be very obvious when you look for it). The top mount points are the white clips in the housing, they're a pressure fit with a locking tab on the top. You need to pry the locking tab up with a flathead then pull the reflector out.



Finally you can start swapping your projectors!

The pigtail for the solenoid that flips the cut-off shield out of the beam for high beam can be disconnected on both the E55 and EvoX-R, however the plugs are different on the two models of projector so you will need to cut the E55 plug out and splice in the connector for the EvoX-R. If you reading this howto in order to replace your old projectors with stock units you will of course just skip this cutting and splicing step.



Now find pigtail that came with the EvoX-R and clip off the metal connectors from the wire ends, they may be for the connection into the Lancer Evo's wiring harness but we don't need them. Strip and expose some wire to solder this pigtail into the headlight's high beam loom.



Now, splice the pigtail into the high beam portion of the headlight wiring harness. Note that the solenoid on the EvoX-R is non-polar so it doesn't matter which wires you match together. Of course we're using solder and heatshrink because that's the proper way to join wiring, and crimp connectors/vampire tabs the lazy method that's really only good for causing shorts in the long term.



This is the back of our stock E55 projector, it's attached to the reflector by three 7mm nuts, labelled 1 - 3. The threaded post these nuts screw down on is itself screwed into the reflector housing. To remove the nuts you'll need to use a 9mm wrench to prevent the post from spinning back out. I used a 7mm wrench on the nuts as I didn't have a socket thin enough to fit in the space, your results may be different.



Installation of the new EvoX-R is a simple bolt in with one small modification required. The bowl and shield/lens assembly on the EvoX-R are held together by 4 screws and nuts. You have to remove the screw/nut indicated by the arrow as that's a mount point in our cars. Obviously that's not a big issue since the mount post replaces that as a fastener.



Now you've gone from this:



To this:



As you can see there is a significant difference in lens clarity.

If you are going to replace the oci-butyl sealant, which I did, you want to remove all the old gunk BEFORE you start reassembling the light. Removal is a messy job and you really don't want that sealant hitting your reflector. To remove it I used a heat gun and a flathead screwdriver. Work in sections, heat the sealant until it gets shiny then scrape the channel with your screwdriver. Wipe onto paper towel and and repeat until the channel is as clear as you can make it. Be careful not to heat one section for too long or too intensely, you only want to melt the sealant and not the plastic housing. Once your channel is clear, to put new sealant in. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this step, but I followed the instructions (oci-butyl or retrorubber) provided by The Retrofit Source to good effect. Basically I filled the channel to just below level.

Now you just have to reassemble your headlight. Reassembly is effective the above in reverse, I would suggest plugging the solenoid pigtail into the projector before you connect the reflector back into the housing as it can be a bit tight to reach once the reflector is in the housing.

Once you have all the internals back into the housing, you need to reseal the light. I replaced my butyl sealant and therefore followed the instructions that came with the kit, your mileage may vary if you're reusing the OEM sealant. Basically you preheat your over to 265F. While the oven is heating, put your lens back in place on the housing and give it a good press to seat it. As the sealant is cold, you won't be able to press the lens in very far. Once preheated place the light in the oven for 7 minutes, again put a piece of cardboard on the oven rack.

When your timer goes off, remove the headlight (remember GLOVES, it will be very warm) and place it face up on a flat surface. I used a wooden cutting board covered in towels. Now, where possible, put a 1" spring clamp every few cm around the lens/housing seam to hold the lens in place. The pressure from the clamps will force the lens down into the warm sealant creating a complete seal.





Allow the housing to cool completely then remove the clamps. There should have been some excess sealant pushed out by clamping in the lens, use a utility knife to trim off an remove this excess. Then complete the reassembly of your lights, reinstall in the car, aim and enjoy.

And of course, everyone always wants to see output pics. These EvoX-R's are an unbelievable improvement over my stock projectors. Part of that is the fact that the OEM projectors are 11yrs old and the chrome was starting to fade and flake, part of it is the mirror finishing in the Evo's and part is the clear lens. Either way, the difference is dramatic. The Evo's have a much wider beam with a nice blue colour band across the entire cut-off. The underground in my building isn't the best place for pics like this, but it does give a good caparison of before and after. Only the projectors changed, I'm using the OEM 35W ballasts and Phillips 85122+ bulbs with about 600 - 800hrs on them in all photos.





And of course the obligatory full night-time width/beam shots (pardon the iPhone pics, I forgot to put the memory card in my dSLR):

Low beam. The stray light on the roof of the parkade is actually due to the cosmetic design of our C5 lights, it's reflection off the chrome bezel surround in front of the reflector. However, it does serve as a decent "squirrel finder" and helps illuminate street signs. I don't see it sitting in the car and I haven't been able to detect it standing in front so I don't think it affects/annoys oncoming traffic.


High Beam. This pic really doesn't convey just how bright the high beams are on this car now, basically instant daylight.

[JonMS]

Beautiful thank you very much. For your halogen high beam I strongly recommend the osram 65w off road bulbs they'll add more width and vertical light throw as they put out ~2800lm

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 4

[Sparkstack]

Nice write up.
Pretty sure the yellow plug on the back of the OEM unit is removable. Don't recall having to cut any wires when I pulled mine apart to paint, and swap lenses.

That said I can't tell from the pictures if the plug supplied for the new unit is a different design. Obviously if it is you'd need to cut them anyway.

[julex]

I wonder if this is applicable to allroad lights... albeit the only improvement I can think of is solenoid hid high beams. I already did clean lens, 55w ballasts and CBI bulbs.

[mithril]

Nice write up.
Pretty sure the yellow plug on the back of the OEM unit is removable. Don't recall having to cut any wires when I pulled mine apart to paint, and swap lenses.

That said I can't tell from the pictures if the plug supplied for the new unit is a different design. Obviously if it is you'd need to cut them anyway.

Thanks, I looked at it again and you're totally correct that the yellow plug can be disconnected from the E55 solenoid. However it is a completely different design than the EvoX-R plug so you still need to cut and splice. I updated that section of the write-up for more accuracy.

I wonder if this is applicable to allroad lights... albeit the only improvement I can think of is solenoid hid high beams. I already did clean lens, 55w ballasts and CBI bulbs.

The Allroad lights are 2.5" so this isn't a direct plug and play swap, but it can be done: http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...5-gt-FX35-PICS. That said, I think you'll find EvoX-R's would be more than just an improvement on high beam. If nothing else they will not have the 10yrs of use on them and I'm pretty sure the Allroad projectors also got the kind of matte chroming on the bowl as opposed to the mirror chroming on the Evo's.

[redneck truck]

Nice write up, but I'm most interested in the euro corner lights. I want some!!

[mithril]

Nice write up, but I'm most interested in the euro corner lights. I want some!!

Unfortunately we can now definitively say that pre-facelift V6 euro corners do not fit in facelift V8 headlights :( It was a failed experiment so I just did a standard clear corner mod and now need to order some stealth bulbs to complete it. No real hurry on the stealth bulbs since Canada's mandatory DRL's mean the corner lights are lit anytime the key is in accessory or the car is on.

[mithril]

Beautiful thank you very much. For your halogen high beam I strongly recommend the osram 65w off road bulbs they'll add more width and vertical light throw as they put out ~2800lm

Thanks, I'll consider those for next time. Based on what I saw on the bench, replacing the high beam bulbs would be a bitch with the lights in the car. I rarely use high beam so it's not a something I'm going to runout and do. No worries about running the higher wattage bulbs on stock wiring? I remember from my old Corrado days that we always made relay harnesses for running updated bulbs because the stock wiring wouldn't handle the load. Of course we were also going from 55/60W to 100/130W on the H4's and 55W to 130W on the H3's so that's a much bigger jump than 55W to 65W.

[JonMS]

Thanks, I'll consider those for next time. Based on what I saw on the bench, replacing the high beam bulbs would be a bitch with the lights in the car. I rarely use high beam so it's not a something I'm going to runout and do. No worries about running the higher wattage bulbs on stock wiring? I remember from my old Corrado days that we always made relay harnesses for running updated bulbs because the stock wiring wouldn't handle the load. Of course we were also going from 55/60W to 100/130W on the H4's and 55W to 130W on the H3's so that's a much bigger jump than 55W to 65W.

No worries on higher wattage but i still wouldn't go over 65w. The high beam bulbs twist out of the socket, no need to remove any screws.

[Widebody4.2]

So the real question is how much to do this to mine? Pm me if interested

[Castor Troy]

So the real question is how much to do this to mine? Pm me if interested

Me too....

[mithril]

I wrote this to make it a bit easier for everyone else who wanted to do this swap themselves and not to try and drum up a side business, sorry fellas Honestly this is very very simple and easy mod to do, this is as plug and play as it gets when you're talking about upgrading lighting systems, there are just a few steps to it. It shouldn't take you much more than an hour per side excluding the time required to remove and reinstall the light. You're looking at about $165 in parts for the projectors and butyl, my heatgun was $8 on-sale and 1" spring clamps are ~$1/ea from most hardware stores. Also expect to want to refinish your headlight lenses if you remove the lights without taking your bumper off as it's a tight fit and you will most likely scratch them up a little bit, taking off the front bumper will prevent the need for that.

[julex]

I wrote this to make it a bit easier for everyone else who wanted to do this swap themselves and not to try and drum up a side business, sorry fellas Honestly this is very very simple and easy mod to do, this is as plug and play as it gets when you're talking about upgrading lighting systems, there are just a few steps to it. It shouldn't take you much more than an hour per side excluding the time required to remove and reinstall the light. You're looking at about $165 in parts for the projectors and butyl, my heatgun was $8 on-sale and 1" spring clamps are ~$1/ea from most hardware stores. Also expect to want to refinish your headlight lenses if you remove the lights without taking your bumper off as it's a tight fit and you will most likely scratch them up a little bit, taking off the front bumper will prevent the need for that.

Yes, you guys should see some of the other retrofits. Talking custom brackets, bastarding the wiring, rigging motors, etc, etc. This is super easy plug-n-play in comparison. I am shocked it fits so easy - mounting points aligning is awesome.

[julex]

The Allroad lights are 2.5" so this isn't a direct plug and play swap, but it can be done: http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...5-gt-FX35-PICS. That said, I think you'll find EvoX-R's would be more than just an improvement on high beam. If nothing else they will not have the 10yrs of use on them and I'm pretty sure the Allroad projectors also got the kind of matte chroming on the bowl as opposed to the mirror chroming on the Evo's.

Ok, looks like it might be a go. The other guy stuffed 3" projectors into allroad housing without ill effect. And yes, you're right. Both of my reflectors bowls are definitely scorched and chrome is coming off. I am amazed at the amount of lights I managed to get out of them after the clear lens mod (this should be #1 thing people do to their lights, cheap and easy to do) and replacing bulb with CBI along with Morimoto 50w ballasts.

The crazy part - I think I can make the swap without opening the lights. At least the original hid light assembly was small enough to come out through the back.

[mithril]

Yes, you guys should see some of the other retrofits. Talking custom brackets, bastarding the wiring, rigging motors, etc, etc. This is super easy plug-n-play in comparison. I am shocked it fits so easy - mounting points aligning is awesome.

I would have been far more shocked if they hadn't fit this easily. The Hella E55 is the most commonly used projector in OEM bi-xenon applications because it produces a decent beam width, but more importantly has the best distance throw on the market so while it's width and cutoff colour it's the best from an "internetz forum test shots against a wall" type scenario, it's functional real world lighting performance on both low and low beam is one of the best. It was used on everything form the Mercede E55 (hence the name) and A6 to various BMW's like the X5 to the Mitusbishi Evo (which is the variant the EvoX-R's I swapped in are based off of) to the Nissan Maxima and Cadillac Escalade.

The design hasn't really changed appreciably in the 12 or 14 years since it was designed, including the potential mount points. The EvoX-R's made a few tweaks to the design to appeal to the tuner market and increase the beam's output (mirror finish on the bowls), width (much more convex curvature on the low beam shield) and cutoff colour (clear lens), but other than that it's exactly the same size and shape as the OEM facelift projector. Makes the installation so easy-peasy I wouldn't even call it a retro-fit any more than I would replacing a spark plug or timing belt with an OEM+ replacement part.

Ok, looks like it might be a go. The other guy stuffed 3" projectors into allroad housing without ill effect. And yes, you're right. Both of my reflectors bowls are definitely scorched and chrome is coming off. I am amazed at the amount of lights I managed to get out of them after the clear lens mod (this should be #1 thing people do to their lights, cheap and easy to do) and replacing bulb with CBI along with Morimoto 50w ballasts.

The crazy part - I think I can make the swap without opening the lights. At least the original hid light assembly was small enough to come out through the back.

I'd probably still bake the lights open. I recall Vinchenzo51 tried to remove the projectors in his facelift lights the way 8520 did in his pre-facelifts to paint the cuttoff shield and discovered he couldn't, that's why he wrote a second shield painting howto for facelifted lights. Add in the complexity of having to epoxy in a mount plus extend 2 others and redrill a mount hole on the projector to make the 3" projectors mount onto the 2.5" projector reflectors and I think you'll want all the space you can get to work in.

Also, just as an aside. premature chrome degradation and scorching is one of the side effects of running 50w or 55w ballasts. The bulbs throw off way more heat and projector bowls aren't designed for that. I briefly considered going to 55w ballasts in the "since the lights are going to be out..." process and realized it just wasn't worth it for the additional 20% that the extra 15w increases your lumen output. Just something to think about.

[estomax]

wow i really want to do that on my car now. saving this thread.

[julex]

stuff

Roger. I will report back sometime in the future to update allroad specific procedures...

[Widebody4.2]

I wrote this to make it a bit easier for everyone else who wanted to do this swap themselves and not to try and drum up a side business, sorry fellas Honestly this is very very simple and easy mod to do, this is as plug and play as it gets when you're talking about upgrading lighting systems, there are just a few steps to it. It shouldn't take you much more than an hour per side excluding the time required to remove and reinstall the light. You're looking at about $165 in parts for the projectors and butyl, my heatgun was $8 on-sale and 1" spring clamps are ~$1/ea from most hardware stores. Also expect to want to refinish your headlight lenses if you remove the lights without taking your bumper off as it's a tight fit and you will most likely scratch them up a little bit, taking off the front bumper will prevent the need for that.

So . . . . . how much

[redneck truck]

Is nice! How much?

[mithril]

eleventy-billion dollars

[mithril]

Hmmm..... Vancouver had a torrential thunderstorm pass through yesterday afternoon allowing me to test the main reason I cracked the headlights in the first place. Condensation fail :( While no water is entering the housings they are still building up fine condensation in humid conditions. Having done some more reading on the interwebz, looks like the housing vents may be blocked or otherwise inadequate to allow enough air transfer leading to a temporary fogging similar to a mirror in a poorly vented bathroom after a shower. Looks like I get to pull the headlights again.

[stef2.7t]

Awesome Write Up! This will be an indoor winter mod for me!

Sorry to hear that it didn't clear up your fogging issue.

[julex]

Allroad lights seem to be held by some ungodly unyielding glue. Even after baking in 250F for extended amount of time the glue is nowhere near yielding... at the same time the housing can be molded by hands, it is so soft form temperature. The glue is still of solid rubber consistency. You can forget about doing this to allroad lights without damaging them...

Having said that I eventually separated them but the frame is all mangled etc... Not something I would consciously recommend doing to fellow allroad owner. Made the mod to the lights, I had to do some drilling, tapping and made my own little bracket for bottom mount point, we will see how it goes with butyl seal kit (forget about reusing factory glue on allroad, it is not butyl so no go on this).

[durfA4]

Allroad lights seem to be held by some ungodly unyielding glue. Even after baking in 250F for extended amount of time the glue is nowhere near yielding... at the same time the housing can be molded by hands, it is so soft form temperature. The glue is still of solid rubber consistency. You can forget about doing this to allroad lights without damaging them...

Having said that I eventually separated them but the frame is all mangled etc... Not something I would consciously recommend doing to fellow allroad owner. Made the mod to the lights, I had to do some drilling, tapping and made my own little bracket for bottom mount point, we will see how it goes with butyl seal kit (forget about reusing factory glue on allroad, it is not butyl so no go on this).

did you have to cut the allroad projector opening or did the new projector fit right in? pics would be helpful I have a couple sets of lights to try this with.

[julex]

have to cut the allroad projector opening or did the new projector fit right in? pics would be helpful I have a couple sets of lights to try this with.

I put it in without tinkering with that. Following the hidplanet thread above, I concur that there is very little of lens that is not making it through opening. So long you float the assembly over the frame and its opening and you should be fine. So it is fine to just install itthe way it is.

Although I have one comment. Or two. One, output from evox and allroad is exactly the same... And my other side light which is still ar has some burnt off chrome on it too. Burnt chrome on top of bowl doesn't affect anything but the area hitting directly in front of bumper, like 5ft in front of car, nothing you ever see peeking from above the hood. The actual usable light come from a very small area from bulb itself and directly surrounding the bulb, like 0.5in ring arround it. Rest ia fluff and stuff that flies into the trees and pavement feet in front of car. The finish on both reflectors is exactly the same, hence I guess ar is already "mirror finish".

Would I go in and waste so much time again with railroad? Deffo no. Do what I did, which is a clear lens mod, CBI bulbs and you will be amazed at how much brighter the setup will get with laser sharp cut off. Throw in higher wattage ballast (i have trs morimoto 50w in), and it is insane. All this doable without a need to open lights which is a mjor pita.

[julex]

Ok, I admit I like one thing. High beams are total killer now. Reaction time of solenoid is about 0.1s and the amount of light thrown when high are on is amazing. Simple as that. I left my normal high on too since with hid highs you cannot flash when main headlights are not on. The solenoid will still move but since the low bids are off, nothing flashes. Wiring high to low hid is pointless too since it takes time for them to fire, you won't be able to flash anyway.

[Widebody4.2]

Hmmm..... Vancouver had a torrential thunderstorm pass through yesterday afternoon allowing me to test the main reason I cracked the headlights in the first place. Condensation fail :( While no water is entering the housings they are still building up fine condensation in humid conditions. Having done some more reading on the interwebz, looks like the housing vents may be blocked or otherwise inadequate to allow enough air transfer leading to a temporary fogging similar to a mirror in a poorly vented bathroom after a shower. Looks like I get to pull the headlights again.

Sounds like discount on eleventh billion

[mithril]

Lol, not really given that this is normal according to Audi. The reseal worked perfectly, no water is entering the lights at all. Unfortunately they're just not venting quickly enough :(

[julex]

Lol, not really given that this is normal according to Audi. The reseal worked perfectly, no water is entering the lights at all. Unfortunately they're just not venting quickly enough :(

Make sure your tabs are not cracked at their base. One of mine was. It was fogging up. The cracks allow the water to enter in and cause fogging... I RTVed the tab inside and outside and that cured the problem for about a year now. I chose RTV as at lest it is flexible. You can plastic weld too I guess. If tabs are ok, water enters some other way. Lights should not fog up all by themselves. Vents either allow air freely in, in which case it should equalize the humidity or they don't, in which case you should not have any moist air in there to begin with if the light is sealed right

Regarding sealant, allroad lights must be different. The sealant is nice, sturdy, silicone it seems - it doesn't get phased by heat. There is another anomaly I noticed with allroad lights. Where sanding and polishing most if not all headlights and leaving at that would cause them to quickly degrade in the sun, mine were never UV sealed and two years later are still relatively crystal clear (I wasn't very aggressive with sanding at the time so I allowed some wear and tear pitting and stress marks to remain)... coming to think of it, when I bought my car they were like that to begin with. I though the OP did some refinishing on them but now I think that just the ploycarbonate used on them must have the UV inhibitor incorporated into plexiglass itself.

Anyway, I applied spar urethane last night just to see what it can do and now the light look factory new, wow, it filled these remaining artifacts very nicely. Good stuff. In the absence of mineral spirits I just used medium base lacquer thinner so it dried quicker than just mineral spirits but no complaints. Good stuff.

[mithril]

Make sure your tabs are not cracked at their base. One of mine was. It was fogging up. The cracks allow the water to enter in and cause fogging... I RTVed the tab inside and outside and that cured the problem for about a year now. I chose RTV as at lest it is flexible. You can plastic weld too I guess. If tabs are ok, water enters some other way. Lights should not fog up all by themselves. Vents either allow air freely in, in which case it should equalize the humidity or they don't, in which case you should not have any moist air in there to begin with if the light is sealed right

By design moist air can always enter the light housings as a vented housing intentionally allows that air exchange to handle heat induced expansion/contraction, what you don't want is water entering the housing leaving a standing puddle in the bottom. My housings are (and probably always were) completely sealed, there is no water entering the housing. Rather the condensation is occurring purely as a result of humid air combined with a temperature differential (ie. lens cooled by ambient air and housing/air warmed by the engine). The vents simply aren't able to cycle air fast enough to prevent the fogging. It's exactly the same thing that happens to your bathroom mirror when you have a shower if your fan doesn't move enough CFM.

Regarding sealant, allroad lights must be different. The sealant is nice, sturdy, silicone it seems - it doesn't get phased by heat.

From what I've read Audi changed the sealant on factory replacements after the production run had stopped, possibly to address heat related failures. Mine came apart with effectively no effort after 10min @ 170F and 170F isn't that far off the temps the lights will be exposed to regularly from the engine bay, especially in stop and go traffic in the middle of summer. Perhaps your lights were replaced at some stage so you have the "upgraded super sealant" ;)

Anyway, I applied spar urethane last night just to see what it can do and now the light look factory new, wow, it filled these remaining artifacts very nicely. Good stuff. In the absence of mineral spirits I just used medium base lacquer thinner so it dried quicker than just mineral spirits but no complaints. Good stuff.

Spar is a great option for resealing and providing some UV protection. Like you noticed it's also self-leveling and fills in a lot of small imperfections, a lot of guys who use spar to seal lights they're refinishing for clients don't bother with the polishing phase of the refinish and instead just apply it after the 3000grit sanding step. Kinda makes sense given that spar will fill the fine sanding marks and those marks give a little more purchase for it to set onto. I used it on my old A6 lights when I refinished them a few years back, one think I will say is that even fully cured it's much softer than either polycarbonate or the factory UV seal. I scratched the bejesus out of mine using a gas station squeegee to clear caked road salt and crap off the lenses on a skit trip into the mountains. Also, depending on where you live and the UV exposure, spar will breakdown in 6 months to a couple years requiring another round of sanding and resealing. Your mileage will probably be much better given your past experience.

This time around I'm trying Opti-Lens instead as it's supposed to be a permanent and completely optically clear replacement for factory UV. No idea if the claims are true yet, I'll probably apply it this afternoon and see how it goes. These pics are from a thread over on AutoGeek and they're what sold me on Opti-Lens instead of using spar again. 5 months is a bit extreme, but given Hawaii's high UV index this is more of an accelerated wear test for everyone else. The Opti-Lens definitely seems to have stood up much better plus there is a pretty obvious difference in clarity, the spar's yellow colour definitely tints the clear by comparison.

Spar on the Left, OptiLens on the right:




After 5 months of constant exposure to Hawaiian sun and weather:

[julex]

Good stuff. Considering my car is essentially a garage queen most of year, I expect it to last a while... If it fails, I will investigate the other compound.

[mithril]

Ya those pictures are a pretty extreme example, most places don't have a UV index of 11+ for 12months of the year. The spar coating on my A6 lights was 1.5 yrs old when the car was killed and written off, other than the scratching from the road grime I mentioned above the spar held up pretty well. OptiLens also doesn't fill marks nearly as much and needs to be applied to a fully polished surface so, like painting, the quality of your prep work directly affects the quality of the finished product.

[Sparkstack]

From what I've read Audi changed the sealant on factory replacements after the production run had stopped, possibly to address heat related failures. Mine came apart with effectively no effort after 10min @ 170F and 170F isn't that far off the temps the lights will be exposed to regularly from the engine bay, especially in stop and go traffic in the middle of summer.

You're forgetting the clips. Having the sealant become compliant at these temps is not really a problem, as the lens is also held on security with clips. It's not like it starts to drip out.

[mithril]

You're forgetting the clips. Having the sealant become compliant at these temps is not really a problem, as the lens is also held on security with clips. It's not like it starts to drip out.

I know, I wasn't saying the lenses might fall off. However repeated heating and cooling cycles over years could allow breaks in and/or degradation of the sealant to form and therefore the possibility of leaks. VAG used the same butyl sealant in all their VW and Audi headlamps for cars the age of our C5's, in the next generations (C6, B7, B6 (Passat) and A5 (Golf/Jetta)) the sealant changed to the much more heat resistant glue julex encountered. There had to be a reason for that design change and I'm sure it wasn't to prevent the relatively small retro-fitting market from being able to easily bake the lights apart.

[mithril]

I applied the OptiLens this evening, goes on exactly like advertised. As instructed I gave the lenses a final buff with a polish (Mequiars Ultimate Compound applied by drill with buffing pad), then a wipedown with 15% iso-propyl alcohol and finally the OptiLens itself. It does take some practise though, the first light went on very heavy as I wasn't sure exactly how to apply. The second one was much much easier, however it doesn't really matter if you over apply as you're just going to wipe the excess that hasn't bonded to the polycarbonate surface after 5 min.

Gave it a light buffing and am now letting it cure for 24hrs as recommended, but the coating just fades away into the light. After the initial buffing you wouldn't be able to say visually that anything had been applied at all, although you can definitely tell as the lens doesn't feel as slick as it did immediately after the polish and IPA cleaning. It also definitely does not hide finishing sins like spar, my lenses look good but if you're right up close and shining a light on them you can definitely see all the microswirls that I didn't get polished out. They don't affect the performance of the light and therefore aren't really that big a deal, but they're still there.

[julex]

it wasn't to prevent the relatively small retro-fitting market from being able to easily bake the lights apart.

[tin hat mode on]

That's exactly why they did it!

[/off]

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[julex]

I drove around a little more last night and my passenger side lighting grows on me (left is still stock). Some douche bag, naturally, had to high-beam me thinking I had highs on so once I engaged all three lamps (I left halogen hooked up with evox bi-xenons) in high, the guy politely turned them off. Ha!

And I go to great lengths to adjust lighting so that the step up is on my side of the road and I don't beam oncoming traffic. But there is always some idiot who ends up in my beams due to hilly road combination that thinks I have highs on and goes all macho on me with his puny lights. With the new projector I can really punish these idiots.

[mithril]

(I left halogen hooked up with evox bi-xenons)

Can't imagine why you wouldn't have. No need the change the stock configuration just because you added a projector with a solenoid shield, after all Audi didn't ;) As for aiming, I just aim mine to the 2.1" over 25' drop that DOT spec calls for and have never been flashed

[julex]

Can't imagine why you wouldn't have. No need the change the stock configuration just because you added a projector with a solenoid shield, after all Audi didn't ;) As for aiming, I just aim mine to the 2.1" over 25' drop that DOT spec calls for and have never been flashed

That would be hard to measure for me, I arrived at a reasonable alignment for lights both vertical and horizontal and placed permanent marks on my driveway and garage door for that. I know they work ok since I spent a lot of time to find a level that provides max coverage, preserves separation between step up and oncoming traffic etc. With numerous engine pulls and other stuff I do to the car, the core support and lights are constantly displaced and alignment is off everytime.

What do you use for high beam bulb? The stock ones are so yellow in comparison to hids....

[mithril]

I've always used parkades to do my aiming as they're usually pretty level with conveniently placed walls. As long as you put your aiming pattern up with painters tape so you're not making any permanent marks security generally doesn't have an issue with it. As for high beam halogen's I honestly don't know what's in there, whatever 55W H7's were in the car when I bought it. There is no real way to change the colour of halogen without colouring the bulb and doing that decreases lumen output so it seems pointless to me.