Here's my formal contribution to the existing clear corner mod write-ups out there for the B7.

[Gorobei]

First off, read at least the following three links before starting. I based my entire procedure on what these folks did and owe my success to them. What I have tried to do is give you lots of pretty pictures and add some things that I learned along the way. As a first timer to this mod, there were a few things not spelled out explicitly in the other FAQs that would have saved me probably a total of 45 minutes over the course of the project. All in all, a huge thanks to those who went before me and shared their knowledge and helped when I got a little off track. And, we used 170*F for 5 minutes both before we opened up the housings and again when we resealed them. I have omitted some other details because they are in the existing writeups already.
Audiworld Tech Article
Sozdemir's Write-up
Eddie Man's Write-up
CanuckRS4's RS4-Specific Version

A few before shots:





In the next two shots you will see a red box and a yellow box. The YELLOW box is TWO 10mm nuts that run HORIZONTALLY and must be totally removed. On the driver's side, we ended up unbolting all four bolts that retain the washer fluid reservoir so we could rotate it out of the way for easier access. Be careful when you do this. We weren't, and the upper portion of the tank rained blue alcohol down all around us when we jostled it loose. The RED box are the TWO TORX that caused the most consternation. Maybe I'm blind, but I didn't see any of the write up mention that these two are VERTICAL and must be accessed from UNDERNEATH where they are located. In other words, they aren't the square nuts you see from up top. You really have to get very low and look up to see these guys. These do not need to be removed, only loosened enough to pull the tabs loose. This is where we employed what I would call the all-star tool of this project, which was a 10+" inch slotted screwdriver with a very narrow blade. Probably like 3/16". This blade width will also work on the tricky to reach T-30 Torx like the ones I'm talking about here.



This pretty much sums up how Dan felt about the project:


In this picture, we are looking at the bumper mount. DON'T FVCK WITH THIS GUY. In 4RINGS4's write-up, it is suggested that you loosen this, but it doesn't appear to be mentioned anywhere else. We did not loosen it in order to get the bumper off, but then afterwards, not realizing what we were doing, we started playing with it and marvelling at how it worked. There is a Torx (yellow box) surrounded by a threaded plastic barrel (red box). The Torx seems to control how tightly the mount grips the bumper, while the black threaded barrel apparently controls the positioning of the bumper. We didn't even realize what kind of trouble we had caused by messing with it until the car was all buttoned up again and we closed the hood, only to discover that the gap between the hood and the grill was now larger AND uneven. It broke my heart to tear the thing apart again so I gave my dealer $80 to realign. It's probably a good idea to loosen the Torx a little to give you some room to put the bumper back on, but I'd suggest you minimize how much you touch this thing.


One last before shot:


Here we are gently prying the face apart with a slotted screwdriver. Once you get it started, it comes right apart with very little effort.


In this shot, the red box is supposed to show how solid the glue is at the temps we used. Someone has called it a thermoplastic, actually, meaning it's pliable when heated but very solid when cooled. Dan had the great idea of using a utility knife to cut the glue as we separated the face from the housing. This proved to be perfect because the glue was very elastic and it just shrank right back into its channel without dropping into the face of the light. I wish I had a better picture of this.


This was the first method we tried to use for getting the reflector out. Eddie reported great success with this but it was NOT working for us and we opted to go with the "from behind" method instead:


For this we used an aluminum rod since it had a thicker face than a screwdriver and thus was less likely to punch through the reflector. Two moderate whacks and it was out. The second one came out on the first hit. Dan held the part of the reflector that the orange cap connects to in order to minimize the risk of damage to that area.


Once again, the red box shows the cooled "glue" staying out of the way:


Here, Dan uses channel locks to pull the housing back together while I reattach the retaining clips. After this, it's back into the oven:


Finished product:


FVCK YOU DOT!!!


Back in one piece:




All in all, not a TERRIBLE job, it just sucks getting the damn bumper off. We elected to fully remove it and that took most of all the time that the project spanned. The amber covers are the least stressful part of the whole thing by far.

Finally, a few post-wash glamour shots from today. The VERY observant will notice I ditched the gold BBS logo caps for silver ones





That last shot is probably the closest to the actual color of the wheels.

Hope this was helpful for someone! Oh, and don't forget to reattach the Homelink and foglight harnesses. DON'T FORGET.

[VenTTed]

Oh, and the car looks hawt.

[Big D]

Great write up. I would love to do it, but it seems like I don't really care enough to go through all that.

[MAC159]

I love it but can I do it if I leased????

[Gorobei]

[Gorobei]

[Gorobei]

[B_S373N]

[Gorobei]

BUT, assuming you did, I think it's probably doable. The caps don't seem to sustain any damage from the procedure and are apparently just friction fit in there. You could probably cobble it back together well enough.

[98]