Has anyone (intentionally) opened a headlight yet?

[das]

You would need to do this modify the internals of the headlight. This @ORACLE Lighting product is one example.

I'm gonna do something stupid and want to know if anyone has opened a headlight yet?

• Did you bake it or cut it?... The Oracle vid above shows to bake it, but looks like the channel gets beat up quite a bit. I have been researching what the JDM guys do () and they bake it when the sealant is butyl. But note that domestic car manufacturers use permaseal, which is 10x harder to remove.
• If you opened it, did you find it was permaseal?
• I'm leaning towards cutting it open. If you cut it, does anyone have a sealant they recommend or other tips?
  
  Yeah, my next post might be titled: "Does anyone have a set of headlights for sale?"
  

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[BlazinGTO]

Maybe try it on headlights off ebay?

 

[das]

Maybe try it on headlights off ebay?

thanks and yep, leaning that direction

 

[Indica]

thanks and yep, leaning that direction

Keep your eyes peeled on eBay for “2021 Ford bronco signature headlights” there are some that have very light scratches or none at all. I managed to get a set from one seller for $600 and shipping a couple weeks ago. I kinda want to test my old headlights with oracles first before I do the signatures haha. I read the cutting option is pretty easy compared to baking them.

 

[das]

Keep your eyes peeled on eBay for “2021 Ford bronco signature headlights” there are some that have very light scratches or none at all. I managed to get a set from one seller for $600 and shipping a couple weeks ago. I kinda want to test my old headlights with oracles first before I do the signatures haha. I read the cutting option is pretty easy compared to baking them.

Thanks I'm gonna do set up a Ebay watchlist.

I found this vid on Youtube which has me headed down the cutting route.

 

[Indica]

Thanks I'm gonna do set up a Ebay watchlist.

I found this vid on Youtube which has me headed down the cutting route.

There’s a video out there of someone cutting a bronco headlight as well!

 

[JohnnyReb68]

You would need to do this modify the internals of the headlight. This @ORACLE Lighting product is one example.

I'm gonna do something stupid and want to know if anyone has opened a headlight yet?

• Did you bake it or cut it?... The Oracle vid above shows to bake it, but looks like the channel gets beat up quite a bit. I have been researching what the JDM guys do () and they bake it when the sealant is butyl. But note that domestic car manufacturers use permaseal, which is 10x harder to remove.
• If you opened it, did you find it was permaseal?
• I'm leaning towards cutting it open. If you cut it, does anyone have a sealant they recommend or other tips?
  
  Yeah, my next post might be titled: "Does anyone have a set of headlights for sale?"

The opening of the headlights is not for the feint of heart. I purchased the Oracle Halo upgrade for my signature lights and have had nothing but trouble. I watched the Oracle video and tried to bake my passenger side housing. At 225, after 9 minutes my housing started to melt. I called them to let them know this happened and their reply was that they use that temp all the time and have never had it happen to them. To add insult to injury, I still couldn't pry the lens off of the housing so had to cut it any way. The cutting didn't go to bad, should have done it that way from the get go.

The next problem was not a problem, according to Oracle. I installed the new LED boards, per the video and everything worked, so I thought. I noticed the DRL bar, the one that is white and turns amber with the turn signals, was no longer working. The turn signals work but the white bar gets disconnected when you remove the OEM LED board for the halo. I called Oracle on that and if you look at their examples, not one of them has the bar working. They said they developed the halo without an actual Bronco, just the headlight. I was supposed to receive a call back if they found a solution. Must not have one yet but this was back in early March. I have since been experimenting with resistors to try and complete the circuit that was left open with the halo kit but don't have any consistency. This experimenting has required me to break my seal at least 5 times to reopen the headlight. I have since run the wires that I am experimenting with outside the housing.

The next problem I had with the halo kit was the control box that came with the kit. It isn't sealed very well and I think it got wet. It was giving me a constantly red halo that I couldn't turn off without removing the fuse from the BC1 controller. I contacted Oracle and they thought it was the BC1 but I tried to insist I thought it was the halo control box. They sent me a new BC1 which didn't fix the problem. Then they sent me a new control box that did fix the problem.

My last problem, which occurred today, is the BC1 controiler has died and I had to use the other one they sent me to get the problem fixed. I was going to use the 2nd one to make it so I could control the color of my DRL bar with a RGB strip that I purchased from Oracle. I am hoping they send me another replacement.

 

[das]

The opening of the headlights is not for the feint of heart...

Thanks for the detailed review. Sorry you had so many problemos.

 

[Defyfate11]

The opening of the headlights is not for the feint of heart. I purchased the Oracle Halo upgrade for my signature lights and have had nothing but trouble. I watched the Oracle video and tried to bake my passenger side housing. At 225, after 9 minutes my housing started to melt. I called them to let them know this happened and their reply was that they use that temp all the time and have never had it happen to them. To add insult to injury, I still couldn't pry the lens off of the housing so had to cut it any way. The cutting didn't go to bad, should have done it that way from the get go.

The next problem was not a problem, according to Oracle. I installed the new LED boards, per the video and everything worked, so I thought. I noticed the DRL bar, the one that is white and turns amber with the turn signals, was no longer working. The turn signals work but the white bar gets disconnected when you remove the OEM LED board for the halo. I called Oracle on that and if you look at their examples, not one of them has the bar working. They said they developed the halo without an actual Bronco, just the headlight. I was supposed to receive a call back if they found a solution. Must not have one yet but this was back in early March. I have since been experimenting with resistors to try and complete the circuit that was left open with the halo kit but don't have any consistency. This experimenting has required me to break my seal at least 5 times to reopen the headlight. I have since run the wires that I am experimenting with outside the housing.

The next problem I had with the halo kit was the control box that came with the kit. It isn't sealed very well and I think it got wet. It was giving me a constantly red halo that I couldn't turn off without removing the fuse from the BC1 controller. I contacted Oracle and they thought it was the BC1 but I tried to insist I thought it was the halo control box. They sent me a new BC1 which didn't fix the problem. Then they sent me a new control box that did fix the problem.

My last problem, which occurred today, is the BC1 controiler has died and I had to use the other one they sent me to get the problem fixed. I was going to use the 2nd one to make it so I could control the color of my DRL bar with a RGB strip that I purchased from Oracle. I am hoping they send me another replacement.

I baked mine and followed the video to a "T" the problem is that the video does not tell you what to do with the side marker light wire harness (which has to remain in order for the side markers to remain operational). I was able to get that figured out with a call to their tech line before sealing it all up. Also I learned from Oracle that you never get the seal soft enough on the first bake, the tech said he has to do it on average about (3) times. I was proud of my work until I resealed the headlight to only discover that I forgot to include the halo light diffuser. I was fed up at that point and left it alone for the night. In the morning I reopened the light and added the diffuser. At this point though, the black housing material was beyond repairable. So I have a perfect new Driver side light and a damaged housing passenger light if anyone wants to make an offer. Anyway ordered the Alpha T-Rex and learned from my mistake.

 

[FstFrd00]

I'll be buying an extra set of headlights if I ever decide to go the halo mod.

The opening of the headlights is not for the feint of heart. I purchased the Oracle Halo upgrade for my signature lights and have had nothing but trouble. I watched the Oracle video and tried to bake my passenger side housing. At 225, after 9 minutes my housing started to melt. I called them to let them know this happened and their reply was that they use that temp all the time and have never had it happen to them. To add insult to injury, I still couldn't pry the lens off of the housing so had to cut it any way. The cutting didn't go to bad, should have done it that way from the get go.

The next problem was not a problem, according to Oracle. I installed the new LED boards, per the video and everything worked, so I thought. I noticed the DRL bar, the one that is white and turns amber with the turn signals, was no longer working. The turn signals work but the white bar gets disconnected when you remove the OEM LED board for the halo. I called Oracle on that and if you look at their examples, not one of them has the bar working. They said they developed the halo without an actual Bronco, just the headlight. I was supposed to receive a call back if they found a solution. Must not have one yet but this was back in early March. I have since been experimenting with resistors to try and complete the circuit that was left open with the halo kit but don't have any consistency. This experimenting has required me to break my seal at least 5 times to reopen the headlight. I have since run the wires that I am experimenting with outside the housing.

The next problem I had with the halo kit was the control box that came with the kit. It isn't sealed very well and I think it got wet. It was giving me a constantly red halo that I couldn't turn off without removing the fuse from the BC1 controller. I contacted Oracle and they thought it was the BC1 but I tried to insist I thought it was the halo control box. They sent me a new BC1 which didn't fix the problem. Then they sent me a new control box that did fix the problem.

My last problem, which occurred today, is the BC1 controiler has died and I had to use the other one they sent me to get the problem fixed. I was going to use the 2nd one to make it so I could control the color of my DRL bar with a RGB strip that I purchased from Oracle. I am hoping they send me another replacement.

 

[Ajax1914]

The opening of the headlights is not for the feint of heart. I purchased the Oracle Halo upgrade for my signature lights and have had nothing but trouble. I watched the Oracle video and tried to bake my passenger side housing. At 225, after 9 minutes my housing started to melt. I called them to let them know this happened and their reply was that they use that temp all the time and have never had it happen to them. To add insult to injury, I still couldn't pry the lens off of the housing so had to cut it any way. The cutting didn't go to bad, should have done it that way from the get go.

The next problem was not a problem, according to Oracle. I installed the new LED boards, per the video and everything worked, so I thought. I noticed the DRL bar, the one that is white and turns amber with the turn signals, was no longer working. The turn signals work but the white bar gets disconnected when you remove the OEM LED board for the halo. I called Oracle on that and if you look at their examples, not one of them has the bar working. They said they developed the halo without an actual Bronco, just the headlight. I was supposed to receive a call back if they found a solution. Must not have one yet but this was back in early March. I have since been experimenting with resistors to try and complete the circuit that was left open with the halo kit but don't have any consistency. This experimenting has required me to break my seal at least 5 times to reopen the headlight. I have since run the wires that I am experimenting with outside the housing.

The next problem I had with the halo kit was the control box that came with the kit. It isn't sealed very well and I think it got wet. It was giving me a constantly red halo that I couldn't turn off without removing the fuse from the BC1 controller. I contacted Oracle and they thought it was the BC1 but I tried to insist I thought it was the halo control box. They sent me a new BC1 which didn't fix the problem. Then they sent me a new control box that did fix the problem.

My last problem, which occurred today, is the BC1 controiler has died and I had to use the other one they sent me to get the problem fixed. I was going to use the 2nd one to make it so I could control the color of my DRL bar with a RGB strip that I purchased from Oracle. I am hoping they send me another replacement.

I should have read this before installing, but I'm glad to know I didn't do anything wrong because I just finished install today and my signature bar was not lit also.

Overall the install was not bad, I looked up a general video on how to remove the lens because 225 for 12 minutes did not cut it for mine. I ended up doing 250 for like 20 minutes where things were soft enough from me to work it loose. I connected the lights with the trail sight deletes so I guess that's the tradeoff.

I got the Oracles as a gift so thankfully I don't have as much invested. I'll run these until they have an issue and then I'll go get alpharex or morimoto I guess. I appreciate the thorough review of your experience!

 

[GroovyGeek]

All this for a halo light... Nope, thank you very much.

 

[JT58Bronc]

I would leave them sealed for life. A story for anyone who wishes to read it......I replaced the headlight covers on my past C6 Corvette. Replacement covers were not that expensive and I thought it would be fairly simple. Wrong. A nightmare and did not turn out well in the end. I tried baking the lights to get the factory sealant soft to remove the factory covers, didn't work. Then I used a heat gun to loosen the sealant and had ty pry the old covers off. They came off hard and the track around the base of the lights became chewed up from all of the prying. And I broke one of the mounting posts on the bottom of the housing on one side that I had to JB weld back on, sand and paint with the factory Victory Red paint. With the covers finally off, it was time to clean up the tracks and it was more heating and scraping with a screwdriver and chisel. Once clean as I could get the tracks, I put the new covers on and used special automotive seam sealer I bought from a Corvette specialty shop. I had to come up a clamping method, I used C Clamps and towels so the new covers did not get scratched. It was not easy keeping the seam sealer off of the covers. Once done and the seam sealer set the covers did not look that bad.... for about a month. Both sides started developing a haze inside the lenses, it got progressively worse. Probably inferior lenses or outgassing of the sealant or poor sealing, who knows. The labor was about a hard 35 hours, $150 for the covers and $40 for the sealant. I will never, ever do anything like this again. I would buy new headlights, or aftermarket lights no matter the price.

 

[das]

I did end up doing this. It's been about a year now and NO problems.

I cut the lights. Since the lights have a permanent plastic bonded sealant, all the recommendations (primarily from asian cars communities) lean to cutting the lights. Do not bake, you will just goo it up.

The best way to cut is with a special plastic cutting tool. But an oscillating saw works well too (and better than a Dremel).

You have to be careful about not cutting thru the wires near the light cover at the housing seam. You can see them through the clear plastic, you just need to take note and be careful.

Then pull them apart. Make bad art on the inside and glue them back together.

Here is what you need:

• 2k Clear Coat - last step over what paint (and wear a mask, I've seen cans of this stuff in back alleys left by the goofballs)
• Sealant
• Oscillating saw

 

[67BroncoG1]

You would need to do this modify the internals of the headlight. This @ORACLE Lighting product is one example.

I'm gonna do something stupid and want to know if anyone has opened a headlight yet?

• Did you bake it or cut it?... The Oracle vid above shows to bake it, but looks like the channel gets beat up quite a bit. I have been researching what the JDM guys do () and they bake it when the sealant is butyl. But note that domestic car manufacturers use permaseal, which is 10x harder to remove.
• If you opened it, did you find it was permaseal?
• I'm leaning towards cutting it open. If you cut it, does anyone have a sealant they recommend or other tips?
  
  Yeah, my next post might be titled: "Does anyone have a set of headlights for sale?"

The juice doesn't look like it is worth the squeeze.

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