I bought my 2006 MC a few months ago and noticed the headlights were not as strong as I thought they should be. I tried replacing the bulbs but that didn’t really help.

I took the car to a place yesterday for polishing. The guy there said the lenses were fine but the reflector inside the passenger-side headlight was dirty. I know the previous owner replaced the bonnet and (apparently) the windshield after an accident, so I guess something also happened to the headlight.

How difficult is it to open the headlight to get to the reflector? I’m no mechanic by a long shot but I think I could handle a minor task like this.

 

no need to open the headlight

remove the headlight from the car
remove the bulb
pour some cleaner into the headlight, swish it around and pour it out
reinstall

scott

 

On a gen1...
Look up the instructions for the "joey mod".
It is s full diy to open them up....

 

That's very unusual. I haven't seen anyone mention a dirty reflector before. How does it look to you, and is it in fact dimmer than the driver-side headlight?

Another possibility is that the silvering on the reflector is corroded, and cleaning won't help in that case.

 

How? Is it is simple matter of a few screws?

 

It does look dimmer. I'll have to give it a closer look to try to see if it is in fact dirt or corrosion.

 

Pics would help too. My first guess is just yellowing or hazing of the plastic lens but if your guy said it wasn't the lens than you have something different going on. A picture would help us see exactly what is going on and how much dimmer it is to know what's wrong.

 

I have the same condition on my 03 MCS. The lens on both sides have been polished and the haze is on the upper half of the light. My thought was the same as above, remove head light and use a cleaning solution. The pre face lift lights are a lot harder to split at the seam.

 

Read this:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...od-how-to.html
It's a very simply process, just a little scary the first time, gives you access to clean or paint most of the areas inside the headlight, once you have it apart & see the simplicity of it, it'll take most of the apprehension out of it.

I can litterally have a light out & apart in less than 30 min.