Hey Guys,

My right Head Beam light is dead, it might be because water got in.

The inside of it is all green and such.

Is it possible to get these headlamps out and apart to clean them? I couldn't see any easy way to do it....

 

No; they're light bulbs. You just change em out.

 

 

Sorry, i should have clarified, i know i need to change the bulb, what i mean is that the green gunk is all over the plastic/glass face of the headlamp housing/lens.

Having a quick look yesterday before i went inside, i couldn't see an easy way to dismantle just the lens to try to clean it inside. I'll check my Haynes Manual.

 

you replace the whole thing: it's a sealed piece of glass, it's not coming apart..

they used to be about $5 a piece for stock replacements with halogens being about $10, but i haven't bought one for a while so i don't know what they cost these days. there is nothing special about a Firebird headlight: it's just a standard large rectangular bulb that was used in millions of cars and trucks from the 70's to the 90's..

 

Right: it's a light bulb. You just change it out. Same as any other light bulb. There's no getting inside it.

Go to the headlight store and take your pick.

 

Lol. Sorry guys. You must think I'm a total idiot. You though I was trying to take the bulb apart? I'm surprised you didn't flame me! That would definitely be dumb. I meant this Piece, this is all funky inside, and is the part I was thinking of cleaning... :-) I am obviously bad at explaining...

http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server24...68.168.JPG?c=2

 

Right: it's A LIGHT BULB.

You haven't taken all the pieces off of it that don't belong which is why it looks like something else.

And, since you've taken all that othe rstuff off of the car and disturbed the alignment of it all, now it's going to be that much more of a PITA to change out the bulb and get it back together gracefully. Not impossible or anything, just, ALOT more work than it should have been.

The correct way to change it is, you remove those 2 screws right up there on the top around the edge, and the like ones down at the bottom if there are any (or just tip the trim ring out of its little catchy things if there's no screws down there, can't recall which style it is on your car; and the LIGHT BULB falls out. You unplug it, plug in a new one, and put the trim ring back; and adjust it if necessary. Often it only takes a minor touch-up if you do it with as much finesse as an elephant dancing on tiptoe.

This is the one you need if memory serves. https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=h6054

You're not an idiot; rather, you were born in the wrong century, and don't know yet what was commonplace during the one before that.

 

It's The Headlight.

 

Part of me wants the unit to be a housing with replaceable bulb.

The other part of me wants the thread moved to the right forum.

 

I was completely confused by this until just a minute ago. When you say bulb, i think this



Which is why i was like, "no no guys, you don't understand, i'm trying to clean the housing", which is in this case, the bulb. argh.

 

This is actually why i think there is all of this confusion. The only cars I've ever owned allowed me to pop out just the bulb. I completely assumed it was the same with my bird. My bad.


I did actually try to think about where i should put this. Should i have posted it in Body or Electrical?

 

I haven't actually touched the car yet, so no harm done so far. I think the confusing thing is that what i term a complete headlight, you are saying is a bulb. Most of the sites i've been only call out a bulb specifically when its replaceable. That, coupled with me not knowing that the bulb itself is not removable, leads to... thread warp :-)

 

if you get a halogen replacement bulb, it will have one of those inside it... but it's not replaceable without replacing the whole housing..

i'm going to guess that you are younger- at least under about 30 or so years old... which means that you didn't grow up with cars that had the old style of light bulb, and thus have never had to change one out.. it's really fun when a couple of those little screws that hold the aluminum trim piece that holds the bulb in place are seized in and won't come out... then, when you do get them to come out, you drop at least one of the 4 that are on each bulb down somewhere inside the front bumper and it never reaches the ground, or if it does reach the ground it shoots off in some random direction never to be seen again... good times..

 

Yep, one of my cars has Cibie outer headlamps and uses that type of replacement bulb. H4 halogen, and are they bright.

On our f-body's the stock headlamps are known as a "sealed beam" light. No replaceable bulb, the whole assembly is replaced.

RBob.

 

Some of us on here used two of these!