My driver side headlight is damaged. Actually, it's only the lense cover, nothing wrong with the unit itself. The driver side lense is chipped, and now has a small hole. Whenever it rains, water would sometimes get it in. My question how much would the dealer charge me to replace that? Can I do myself? Is it easy to do it myself? And lastly, how much would it cost me? Thanks!

 

go to a junkyard and get a set of 97+ headlights. they look alot better than the 96 - 96 (imo anyway) and this just gives you a reason to get them.

chris

 

Do the 97+ fit without any modifications? Do I need a whole new front end or grill? A junkyard? If I do find it, wouldn't it be in pretty bad shape, since it's a junkyard?

 

Cumalot, try this, if its a tiny little hole that you can't see too well, I'd dry out the headlight and put a piece of clear packing tape over the hole.

Jack

 

Dry out the headlights? How? Also, there are some chips of broken glass inside the housing. How can I get rid of these?

 

Well, you can TRY to remove the glass with a rubber hose fitted to a vaccuum cleaner, go in the hole where the light bulb goes. Then to dry it, try to hold a hair dryer to the lens with the bulb out. Wait for an hour or so. Should be dry soon. Keep at it with the hair dryer.

You might need to remove the headlight from the car. I assume that thats a bigger job. If you can, then removeing the glass and drying it should be easier for you.

Good Luck! (and try for another handle!! <grin>)

Jack

 

Thanks for the tip. And no, I will not use another handle.

 

After this, try using clear epoxy. After you clean out the particles and let dry the interior of the lamp, go to your local hardware store and buy the two part kind. Usually made by Devcon, you can mix the two parts and carefully slather some of it on the hole. Be careful not to let it run into the lamp. Before the epoxy starts to cure, place a piece of clear packagin tape over the hole, so that when the epoxy cures, it'll have a semi-smooth surface finish on the outside. Bear in mind, the repair will be visible, but at least you won't get anymore water inside the lamp housing.

 

Your vacuuming solution is a good one. However, I took a look again today, and found out that there are not only chips of glass, but there is also one big piece of glass broken too. It's not really big, but big enough that I think I need to take out the lense itself to get it out. Oh, how do I remove the headlight? Also, it seem the lense is attached to the headlight, can it be open, so I can access the broken pieces of glass?

 

I'm not positive, but I'm near certain that the lens and the reflective back are all one unit that you wont be able to seperate [and if you can, you'll have water in it all the time] My experience with them in the past is that they all are. And as to how to remove it? I'd have to say it bolts in there somehow. I have a '96 GXE, I'll look at mine and LYK tomorrow.

Jack

 

Ok, Cumalot, heres what to do. First, remove the light next to the headlight, the corner light. To do it:

1. open the hood and remove the phillips screw thats right in between the headlight and corner light. It points straight up.

2. pull the corner light back carefully with your fingers. Get a straight blade screwdriver and locate the snap post at the lower part of the corner and carefully nudge the snap out with it. The corner light should pop out. Be careful and take your time. Mine was stiff and I hear most of em are.

3. Remove the bulb from the corner fixture and set it aside.

Now, you see next to the headlight two 10mm screws with phillips tips on them? They face the side of the car. Remove these.

Now locate a tab that attaches the headlight tub to the grille, remove it by pushing the small round plug out of the large round washer shaped thing. (I took my whole grille off, it was easy, 5 points hold it in)

Now, look inside at the headlight from behind. Remove the HL bulb if you havent yet. See a long screw sticking out on the inboard side of the headlight? Thats the adjuster to aim the HLs. Dont turn it, but look where it meets the headlight. Near there are two bolts with a nut behind them. See em? They stick out toward the back of the car. Remove both of these nuts.

I *think* that that should do it. The HL and bucket around it should come out. I didnt take mine out, but I did remove my corner light and grille to look around on mine. I have a '96 GXE and it should be just like yours. LMK how it goes.

Jack

 

JacksMax: Thank you for the tips. I really appreciated it. I'm going to try it out tomorrow after I get off school. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

First, there is tons of good, and sometimes very cool stuff that can be had at the junkyard. It is a great place to scout for those options that your car came without. Second, it would be cool to replace the lights with the 97s, and i've heard that you can do it with no mod, you could even get the 97 grill. The worst i've heard is that you need different mounting bracket which is like 30 bucks, but several peeps say you don't really need this. If you want to remove the light, the procedure listed above is correct according to my haynes manual. By the way, if you are serious about your car, a manual is a must. Tells you how to do anything. Saves lotsa money in long run. Costs about 15 bucks, but you'll prob have to order it. Not that many people with our cars work on them themselves.

 

I want to learn more about my car. Thus, I ordered a Chilton's manual for the Maxima. I normally don't work on the car myself, but if it's easy stuff like this, I should be able to do it myself. My goal is to able to do everything myself if that's possible. Save a lot of labor cost.