This DIY is for all those who have dirty headlights on account of missing dust covers i.e. due to these missing seals, dust finds its way into the interior of your headlights turning it brown. It does not address the cleaning of "yellowness" on the glass itself

Stay tuned for the complete DIY procedure I love DIY!


Tools Required (Must)

1. Flat screwdriver
2. 10" wrench or spanner
3. Jack
4. Support stands

Optional required tools
1. Replacement bumper fasteners (You will understand why as we go on)

First, to bring down your headlight for cleaning you will need to remove your front bumper (Do not fear, its not hard!). In my case the dust covers on the right front headlight has been missing and dust had collected and made the light less desirable

I had been postponing but finally decided to take the bull by the horn!

Lets go there!

First Since you would be removing the front bumper, you will need to jack up your 2003 Honda Accord.

Please never work under a vehicle supported by jacks alone! I know of a patient that died from working underneath a car supported by a jack. Unfortunately, the jack failed and...You can imagine. Enough said.

Next you would have to remove plastic fasteners and bolts, both above and beneath the front bumper. The fasteners are marked. First the ones above...

To remove, use the flat tip screwdriver to pry the inner portion of the fastener and then the whole piece.

After removing the fasteners on the top and lifting off the plastic covering, your car should look like this...

Next, you would need to remove the fasteners and bolts beneath the front bumper. The plastic fasteners are marked in red while the bolts(4) are marked in blue. 2nd pic is a different view

Emperoh: Reporting for class!!!

Good evening Uncle Piyke. . . . .You are welcome to Class N. . . . .
Akwukwo mgbede!!

Honourable, I salute! Have benefited in no small way from your contributions here on NL. Welcome bro

Piyke: This DIY is for all those who have dirty headlights on account of missing dust covers i.e. due to these missing seals, dust finds its way into the interior of your headlights turning it brown. It does not address the cleaning of "yellowness" on the glass itself

Stay tuned for the complete DIY procedure I love DIY!


Tools Required (Must)

1. Flat screwdriver
2. 10" wrench or spanner
3. Jack
4. Support stands

Optional required tools
1. Replacement bumper fasteners (You will understand why as we go on)

Now here is why I recommend that you get plastic fasteners before commencing this job. My car is 10 years old, and over time these plastic fasteners have hardened and become brittle. Thus as you try to pry them out, many will break. All the plastic fasteners you see in this write-up are the ones I replaced as I didn't snap before-pictures of the old fasteners. I only have a picture of the "wounded soldiers" already out of the vehicle.

The wounded and battered soldiers. The flag is at half mast as I doff my hat for these 10 year old generals...The brittle and broken OEM fasteners. My flag goes up to full mast immediately with the arrival of the new fasteners

Following.....................

After these fasteners and bolts are off, unscrew each screw at each wheel well shown below. Shown is the left side, do the same on the right side...

With the above screws out, pull each end of the bumper away from the vehicle sideways. After the 2 ends have come off the vehicle, stand in front of the vehicle holding the bumper pull away from the vehicle. The bumper should now come off without any stress. Set the bumper aside.

Now lets remove the headlights. In my case, I removed the left

For now, have to hit my bed. zzzzzzzzzzz. Would continue tomorrow.

Reporting for class, abeit late but better than never.

Resuming...

So with the bumper off, depending on the headlight you want to bring down you will need to remove the following bolts from the front of the vehicle. This will be the same bolts on either side.

NB: The headlight you see here has already been cleaned. Didn't take a before cleaning picture ..my bad. But it was visibly dirty, the reflector had a serious layer of dust!

After removing the above bolts, remove this one from the side. Once you do so, you can now remove the metal rail just beneath the light (Its marked in blue and would just come off on its own). With the rail off, remove the headlight.

With the headlight out of its socket, disconnect the electrical connectors to the 3 bulbs. This is done by twisting the connector anticlockwise. Here's the car without the right headlight and the front bumper

Now, the cause of my dirty headlight were 2 missing dust covers. Here is a shot of the rear of the headlight showing the absent dust covers...

Note the empty positions for the dust covers marked by red arrows

The replacement dust covers which I got from the parts market. They pulled them off from "tokunbo" headlights and sold them both sold for N800 or so

Following with rapt attention.

However, before you install the dust covers or fix a crack, you will need to wash the headlight.

Washing
To do this, simply pour soapy water into the holes for the bulbs (I used car wash fluid, but was later told that I could get better results using Klin detergent, Please do not use Hypo ).
With the soapy water inside, shake vigorously and empty the water. You may need to do this many times, afterwards, rinse off with clean water. Rinse many times too to ensure that all the soap goes off.

Drying
Make sure you dry the light thoroughly before re-installation. For mine I did this by bending a standing fan directly over the openings of the light and leaving the set-up overnight.

lomomike: Following with rapt attention.

You're welcome bro! Me too dey follow all those your insightful posts!

Headlight dry, dust covers installed

Job done! All you need to do to re-install is follow the reversal of the dismantling procedure. Picture is of the finished job. What a relief! The headlight looks good and the beam on that side at night is now fully restored, plus aesthetics is now on point (not the previous brown eye light )

Very nice to have done this. Just love car DIY

Tip: You can easily get plastic fasteners by taking out one and taking it as a sample to your local parts market

you mean klin can make my head lamp shine again?

JUO: you mean klin can make my head lamp shine again?

That would depend on the actual problem causing the dirty headlamp. You may post a picture here.
If the problem is from yellowing of the glass itself klin will not help, you would rather need toothpaste...You can Google cleaning headlamps with toothpaste to get a headstart.

Also if you've been having dirt, water and murk enter the light then klin may not do a full restore without disassembling the light. But the difference would be remarkable.

Nice job man.
Some bastards at one of the Marina car parks proffered to clean up my 'yellowing' head lamp for me, only for them to take it out and sprayed one useless varnish on it.
I usually avoid those guys, but just decided to give them a chance but they still confirmed my fears. I'll check out the DIY with tooth paste.