Research says the headlamp with adjusting screws in the 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock positions is correct for my car, so I spent a few weeks waiting for the right unit to come up for sale on TheSamba.com. This is what I bought.
When the assembly arrived I was disappointed to see that the lens was heavily pitted and scuffed. You can't see it in the photo, and the seller failed to mention it. I had to tear the assembly down and use the lens from the headlight I was replacing (the lenses are interchangeable). I also didn't notice that the inside of the "new" bucket was painted dark gray. Mine were painted the same color as the car, but I later learned that the correct color for the lights' interior is that gray.
But the biggest surprise was how easy it is to switch out the headlights. There's just one screw at the bottom of the chrome ring, and once you remove this screw and the wires that are connected to the lights, the headlight bucket comes out in one piece.
Behold, the head of Medusa...
Time to head downstairs to my
Once I got my headlight apart, I had to decide how I was going to match the gray paint in the other headlight. I found a lot of suggestions online, but when I brought the bucket to Home Depot I decided that Rust-Oleum's "Smoke Gray" (7786) was the closest color on hand.
I was worried that the difference would be obvious, even colorblind guys like me can see gray. Luckily, I watched the art documentary Tim's Vermeer last week.
In Tim's Vermeer the filmmakers explore the idea that painter Johannes Vermeer didn't have superhuman vision. Instead, he used optics and mirrors to create photorealistic paintings. You might not think Tim's Vermeer would be much help with auto repair, but this narration caught my attention:
"The optic nerve has limited bandwidth, so the signals have to be compressed. One thing we lose in that compression is the ability to record absolute brightness the way a light meter can. When we see two values side by side, it's easy to compare them. But when we split them, that ability goes away." - Penn Jillette, Tim's Vermeer
To prove this, the film displayed two adjacent gray squares on a black screen. One square was slightly darker than the other, but when the squares were separated to opposite sides of the screen, the difference in tone wasn't noticeable.
Those two squares reminded me of my headlights. If I place my buckets next to each other, you might be able to see a difference in their paint, but if the buckets are separated by four feet - as my headlights are - you won't notice it. Man, you just never know where you're going to find help!
Looks good enough to me. Thanks, Tim Jenison!
Say Vee-DUB-yoU out loud.
Now, about those small bulbs near the lenses.
Those are the parking lights, and as I said, they have never worked. But I don't know why. I removed the bulb's holder and attacked its rust with my "grinder's" wire brush. (To quote Rocky, the eco pup on Paw Patrol, "Don't lose it, reuse it!" Yes, I watch a lot of TV with my 4-year old...)
This isn't really an AAA Premier motor. I just like putting free stickers on stuff.
I reinstalled the bulb holder once I had cleaned as much metal as I could reach.
The screws look terrible, but they do their job. The top screw secures the positive wire, and the lower one holds the ground. Originally the holder would have ground itself on the bucket, but I used a wire spliced into the main headlight's ground (the brown wire).
Success!
They get pretty bright.
It's pretty exciting to solve problems that have plagued this car for so long.
(On Sunday morning I dreamt of a small sun shining on a concave patch of gray grass, and when I awoke my first thought was, "I fixed the parking lights last night!" What a weirdo. )
Tim's Vermeer trailer link
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