RMcQ procedure - Clear Corner Mod

[RMcQ]

There has been quite a bit of content developed across Audiword on this mod (specifically the A6 forum), but I am such a nice guy that I thought I would document my procedure as it may be more specific to the allroad.

Overview: The idea is to get the orange reflectors out of the headlight assemblies. There are two ways to do it: 1. Break the reflector into bits with long needlenose pliers through the blinker bulb mounting hole or 2. Remove the clear plastic covers off the front of the headlight assemblies and easily remove the relector intact which is also nicely reversible if the need should ever arise. I went with #2.

Before you think about getting started you will need to get a T-30 torx that is somehow long enough to reach the elusive 3rd fastener on the headlights. It is well down inside a hole near the fender. My T-30 torx hand driver (shaped like a screwdriver) was nowhere near long enough. My T-30 torx socket driver was too big to fit into the hole. I luckily had a multi-tool set that had a long flexible extension which took a small T-30 torx bit.



So the idea here was to get the lights out of the car, do surgury on them on the workbench, and then put them back in the car. I know now that the only way to get them all the way out of the car is to remove the bumper. I wasn't going to deal with that so I just did the surgery with the lights 'loosened' from the car.

The lights are held in by 3 T-30 torx fasteners. Two are obvious on top and the 3rd is down in this hole near the fender. To effectively work with the 3rd fastener and not loose it into the blackness below I had to get a hand in there. This required removing the air box on the passenger side and moving the power steering fluid reservior on the driver side.



Using my long Torx tool:


With the 3 fasteners out the light will feel very loose, but doesn't come right out. On the inboard side of each housing there is a pin that engages a small bracket. You have to work the pin out of the bracket to be able to move the light housing very far.



At this point I was planning to take the lights out, but they simply don't fit (I'd love to have someone prove me wrong.) So I pulled them out as far as I could to continue the job. At this point I removed the 4 metal clips around the perimeter where the front clear plastic cover is connected to the black housing. Also, I didn't get it in this picture but there is a rubber sealing strip that goes around the top of the assembly. It engages into the housing with clips into the circled slots. It is easy to pop it out and peel it out of the way. I didn't totally disconnect it. It hung down outside of the car during the procedure.



The only thing holding the clear cover on now is some black, sticky adhesive. You could probably fight it open without heat, but if you warm the black stuff it gets much easier to pull apart. I used a simple hair dryer and patience.







Once the clear cover is off simply pop the orange reflector out from the inside.





And I am going to stick you at this point with the dreaded "installation is the reverse of removal" instruction.

Now I am turning my attention to the corner bulbs. The OEM bulbs are dual filament amber bulbs. This means that they have two separate "lights" inside. One is for the blinking blinker. The other is not as bright and is used as the running light when headlights are on. To make the corner fully clear we can't have that ugly orange bulb in there so we have a couple options. Osram/Sylvania make a "silverstar" bulb which is somewhat expensive (>$20/set) that some have used, but it is single filament. You have to take additional steps to get it to fit.

What I decided to do was to "silverize" some OEM bulbs myself. I bought a pair of new ones in case I botched it.



Masked the bases and hung them in my paint booth.



I tried to put a very thin, very even coat of silver paint on the bulbs. In hindsight I might have gone a little too thick with paint as the running lights are very dim but I must evaluate at night to know for sure.



If you are going to replace the amber bulbs it is much easier to do it while you have the airbox and power steering fluid reservoir removed. Once I got the ghetto painted bulbs in there it looked like this.



The bulb still illuminates amber so functionality is retained and it doesn't look ricey.

[pyite20v]

How hard is it to take out the power steering resivoir?....

If all you are doing is ungluing the cover do you think it might be possible to get the cover off without taking the light out? Maybe just getting the top part unglued and opening the light enough to get to the reflector?

Also a tip, when painting the orange turn singnals, cover up the bottom 1/4 to 1/2" (by the screw in part) with tape so it doesn't get painted. This will help the bulbs to glow orange.

[RMcQ]

I did not completely remove the power steering reservoir. Just 1 10mm nut to dismount it an push it out of the way.

It would not be possible to remove the lens covers without taking the assembly partially out as shown for numerous reasons. The biggest reason is that there are metal clips holding it on that you have to get to and remove.

[arob]

[RMcQ]

[gragravar]

[XYTOPOK]

What about others who will be blind when paint fall down and you finally find time to fix it.

I plan to clear 2 lights above rear lic. plate and point them to a face of car driver behind me. Gonna be some kind of fun to see my mode against his.

[mk4=audi?]

[TeddyBGame]

[RMcQ]

If the paint comes off it is still the same amber OEM bulb that was in there in the first place. Taking the side reflector off does nothing to increase the light output of the bulbs - especially to cars in front.

Maybe you don't understand the mod. If you need me to clarify anything in particular let me know.