Cleaning the inside of DOT headlights

[Ingo Rautenberg]

I have experience with this.  Be quite careful and your headlights will be
so clear you'll think you bought new ones.  I removed the headlights, took
some lukewarm water and mixed in some commercial glass cleaner and poured it
in through one of the bulb socket holes, with the lenses facing down,
swooshing the mixture by tilting and moving the assembly back and forth and
side to side, later rinsing with distilled water.  Then I'd lean a hair
dryer to force-dry the mixture with the headlight in the regular vertical
position.  It's also a good time to check and make sure the breathing holes
of the the lens unit are clean and don't have any blockage.  They prevent
headlight fogging.

Important: Do NOT even THINK about touching the mirrored plastic surface
with anything but lightly sloshing water.

Here's my before and after pics from my first V8:

http://www.pbase.com/ingor/image/43288557/original


HTH and good luck

Ingo



Original Message:
-----------------
From: john at westcoastgarage.net john at westcoastgarage.net
Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 17:10:11 -0700
To: quattro at audifans.com, audi20v at reutterwerk.org
Subject: Cleaning the inside of DOT headlights


While prepping for a brake and light inspection to revive a salvaged CQ,
I've been informed I'll have to clean the INSIDE of the headlights.
They're fogged (not moisture) and the result is they're not emitting
enough light to allow the test equipment to operate properly.   Looking
for BTDTs, cleaners, techniques, etc.  I'm guessing they have to come
out to do this, but maybe one of you knows otherwise.

TIA!  John