Headlight removal

[John Ed]

Looking at removing the headlight from my grancab to address a 'wobble' from the projected beam. Suspect somethings come adrift which'll hopefully be obvious once opened up.

Whats the process for getting out? I assume wheel off, arch liner off then unit will unbolt from inside? is there anything more involved than this?

Thanks

 

[John Ed]

so, got the light unit out. not too difficult, just a number of things to get out of the way first for access.

looking down inside the main inspection hole, it looks like theres a brown plastic frame/chassis the projector is mounted in. And its snapped. May be repairable, may be able to swap part out from a damaged unit. suspect wont be available on its own. Going to have to split the main clear lens from the main unit to get access. anyone know how to do this, as looks like theres a load of sealant in there.

Alternativley, a company I can send the unit away to.



also found a pretty grotty splash guard which took a bit of Dremmeling to get out. Inexpensive from Eurospares to replace so not too bad

 

[IanU]

I've heard of people warming them up in the oven to soften the sealant. I'm not recommending that btw but maybe a hairdryer might be a more gentle approach. Obviously you'll need to stick it back together again too!

 

[lozcb]

so, got the light unit out. not too difficult, just a number of things to get out of the way first for access.

looking down inside the main inspection hole, it looks like theres a brown plastic frame/chassis the projector is mounted in. And its snapped. May be repairable, may be able to swap part out from a damaged unit. suspect wont be available on its own. Going to have to split the main clear lens from the main unit to get access. anyone know how to do this, as looks like theres a load of sealant in there.

Alternativley, a company I can send the unit away to.



also found a pretty grotty splash guard which took a bit of Dremmeling to get out. Inexpensive from Eurospares to replace so not too bad

I'd do the normal searches first for used ones . ebay , (eurospares ask for James pumo) and try David askews , you may hit liucky to get one the right colour , failing that hairdryer ,stanley knife a few blades and a dremmel with a mini saw blade attatchment is what i have used in the past , and you will need to buy the correct sealant for reassembly

 

[lozcb]

I'd do the normal searches first for used ones . ebay , (eurospares ask for James pumo) and try David askews , you may hit liucky to get one the right colour , failing that hairdryer ,stanley knife a few blades and a dremmel with a mini saw blade attatchment is what i have used in the past , and you will need to buy the correct sealant for reassembly

One of these is ideal , using either curring disc or cutting saw blade , worth heavily masking up the headlamp first and work on an old quilt of mattress , they are not the easieat shapes to hold down in one place

 

[Navcorr]

Have no idea if the GC headlight will be at all similar in construction to the Coupe headlight. Anyone know?
Purely for info, re: Coupe, there's a very good thread on Maserati Life for separating the lens from the headlight body:

Headlight polishing inside and out

www.maseratilife.com

 

[John Ed]

Thanks for the advice. Had a go taking sealant out, but access to the whole lot of sealant almost impossible, so will look to use the Dremel to open up a bit to get that hook right the way round. On reassembly, sealant should easily still hold together

For sealant, before on my VY I used Tigerseal. Any reason why not to here, or better alternatives?

So, if Ill call round tomorrow, but if anyone has a spare headlight unit, inoperative, Id be very interested.

Thanks

 

[John Ed]

Got round to finishing headlight. Splitting lens cover off wasn’t too difficult, just took care and quite some time. Dremel off the lip then used ‘pointy tools’ to work under and remove sealant. Not a very fun job.

mechanism inside had cracked in several places so bonded up with Araldite and left clamped overnight.

lens cover went back on with tiger seal after a good clean up.

and, all seems to be working nicely. No errors after switched all on. So happy with that result for the cost of a couple of tools and sealant.

 

[ensignia]

Great thread, hadn't seen this before.

Any idea what projector brand/size is being used in the pre-facelift GT's? I was looking to upgrade it to a clear lens system which provides more light and a nicer colour but my headlight guy (yes that's a thing) started to get nervous as he hadn't worked on them and was reluctant to do so until he found out more.