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MG TD TF 1500 - Cleaning headlight

One thing to say about the TD. It always comes up with something new to work on. Coming home yesterday one of my headlights (not a sealed beam) burned out- well blew out might be a better term. The bulb broke and sprayed a white haze all over the inside of the glass and the reflector.

Anyone had this happen and have a good way to clean out the haze?
Bruce Cunha

A friend recently told me that he's had success with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, pour some in and slosh about. Possibly use a soft cotton ball on a bent stick to very gently wipe the surfaces. I haven't yet tried this, but with water I dry thoroughly, using a hairdrier with a tube which goes into the light but does not totally block the hole, so air can get out.
FRM
http://www.usachoice.net/gofanu
FR Millmore

The silvering on the reflector surface is very soft. I haven't found anything that doesn't leave scratches. Cotton cloths, cotton balls all leave scratches, and any type of solvent leaves a film. In a situation with a lamp unit where you don't want to separate the lens from the reflector I'd suggest distilled water using a dish or car wash detergent that doesn't leave spots. Imerse the entire unit in the soapy water to clean and then rinse away all traces of soap with more distilled water. The hair dryer drys it all off. You will have a few water spots and some scratches but this sounds better than the present conditin.
Martin Straka

Martin

That was my primary concern. I did not want to use anything that might damage the reflector. I am going to work on it today and will get back with results.
Bruce Cunha

Here are the results of my cleaning of the lamp. The powder that came off the blown bulb really coated everything inside the globe. Soaked in in mild dishwashing solution and warm water x 30 min. Rinsed well with distilled water. Glass cleaned right up, but a film was still present on the reflector. Used alcohol and still had a film.

Ended up using a eyeglass cleaning cloth and wiped the reflector off. This took care of the haze. I did note that there were rough spots on the reflector, I assume these are particles from when the bulb blew. Things look clear in the globe now.
Bruce Cunha

Bruce,

Did the eyeglass cleaning cloth leave any scratches? I've used turpentine as a cleaning agent followed by soap and water. This is when the lens was removed from the reflector. As the turpentine is oily this produced less scratches.
Martin Straka

Kind of hard to tell looking through the front of the glass, so I took a dental mirror and looked in the bulb hole. Eyeglass cleaning cloth appears to not have left any scratches I could see with the small mirror. I used one of the eye glass cleaning cloths that looks like it is made of silk.
Bruce Cunha

This thread was discussed between 06/08/2004 and 10/08/2004

MG TD TF 1500 index

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