{"id":3655,"date":"2019-12-18T22:08:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T22:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/?p=3655"},"modified":"2019-12-18T22:11:21","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T22:11:21","slug":"x5-headlamp-refurbishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/x5-headlamp-refurbishment\/","title":{"rendered":"X5 Headlamp Refurbishment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve recently acquired an X5. That decision and outcome probably deserves a blog post in itself, but for now I’d like to focus on the only MOT minor fault noted, which was “Nearside Front Headlamp lens slightly defective (4.1.1 (b) (i))”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally I don’t have a great photo of the issue, but both headlamps were certainly ageing following 80,000 miles and 15 years of battling with the elements. As a result they looked a little misty and marked, so I can see where the MOT tester was coming from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The problem was most apparent when viewed from above:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Autoglym headlamp restoration kit was recommended to me by Ste Nelson. His post on this matter probably makes much of my post superfluous, and he certainly did a better job than me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.pistonheads.com\/gassing\/topic.asp?t=1794455&i=33<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first step is to prepare the headlamp for treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The second step is to take 800 grade sandpaper to your headlamps via a drill attachment. It seems to immediately ruin the lamps, and it feels like the only option is a \u00a3xxx fork-out for a new set. Imperative to hold one’s nerve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With hindsight here I can see that I needed more nerve – I needed to go at my lenses longer with this more coarse paper to really remove all the worn outer layer. One day I may get another kit and go over them again to get them looking pristine, but even so, this procedure has certainly taken years off the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process involves using finer and finer grades of paper and ends with a polish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The results are most satisfying!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I then tackled the car’s left lens a few nights later. As Ste mentions – it is a messy business!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overall, I’m dead chuffed with the outcome of this process. It is very rewarding to know I’ve already dealt with the main MOT advisory without resorting to a new part; extending the life of the old headlamps with a bit of graft instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’ve recently acquired an X5. That decision and outcome probably deserves a blog post in itself, but for now I’d like to focus on the only MOT minor fault noted, which was “Nearside Front Headlamp lens slightly defective (4.1.1 (b) (i))”. Naturally I don’t have a great photo of the issue, but both headlamps were […]  Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3655"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3669,"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655\/revisions\/3669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mukerji.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}