Hey all, had my first fender bender, wasn't my fault but the guy took off so it's my problem now:( It's minor thankfully, but noticed when I popped the hood that the headlamp assembly was damaged.

One of the arms which secure the lamp to the chassis has snapped. I'm looking for ideas on what to do. Don't really want to spend $$$ on an entire new xenon assembly when my existing one is fine otherwise.

One idea I had was to get a halogen assembly, and use the plastic casing from it on my xenon, which is all I need anyway. From what I can tell it's identical, except for a a small metal plate. (see attachment)

Questions for the experts, can you remove the plastic casing? Anything else you'd try?

Thanks

 

you should take a picture of the broken arm and post a picture (unresized) so it can be diagnosed.

Imageshack works well to upload the photo.

 

I think there is a tab rebuild kit through MINI you can get. Or your idea on the halogen casing swap should work.

 

if you're going to swap for the halogen I would put up a wanted thread in the market. Maybe someone went from halogen to HID and has spare halogens just sitting around.

 

Epoxy saves lives. Find something else that is plastic and epoxy it to the headlamp to make a new bracket.

 

If you take the lamp, car, and the broken tab to a good auto body place they should be able to use some 3M panel bond and glue it together, it wont take just a dab and should set up in 1hr and fully cured in 24hrs. That stuff is used to glue semi truck bodies together.

 

... 3m body panel adhesive = epoxy!

 

You are screwed. You can't get epoxy to hold.

The internal parts of a regular light and a xenon are completely different. You would have to open them both up and swap everything.

When I had a small fender bender, (at least I thought it was small) it ended up being about $4500... A new xenon headlight was about $600

Man up get a new one.

 

Thanks for the replies. I took out the headlamp yesterday, the tab has snapped in two places and there's a chunk of it missing, so I don't think the tab rebuild will work. I still like my original idea... anyone got a spare halogen?

 

I am replacing my halogen with amber headlamp housing with halogen with clear and need direction on removing the headlamp housings. I see the four bolts on the driver side housing but the passenger side headlamp housing has 3 bolts and at far left closest to bumper and a very LARGE nut thing. How did you remove your headlamps?

 

Your old headlight may be repairable with a bit of ingenuity. A good pic of the damage might generate some practical repair ideas.

 

4 bolts in the each of the corners - each looks like this post:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...4-post418.html

 

Sounds like one of your 4 bolts is missing (perhaps lost in the accident). Just remove the remaining 3 bolts and disconnect the electrical connector on the back of the headlight housing and lift off the headlight. If the threaded insert for your missing bolt is damaged or missing, you're going to have to deal with that problem before you remount the new headlight. You can remove the amber turn signal lens and put it on your new headlight (it just snaps on). Post some pics of the damage and you may get better advice.