handling xenons safely?

[mad_mackem]

morning all,

had a minor bump in my z4 the other day and ruined one of the front headlights (the lens was fine but the black plastic around the back was ruined and not repairable) so i bought a pair off ebay installed the replacement stepped back and realised something wasnt quite right. i then realised i had made a rather big school boy error and hadnt realised that there was a difference between 2.5 and 3.0 headlights, so iv currently got one headlight with black innners and one with chrome innners. so iv now got a couple of options,

butcher apart the headlights and take the black out of one headlight and replace the chrome, or vice versa. iv read the angel eyes guide which suggests that seperating the headlights isnt the most simple of tasks.

the other option is as i said i bought a pair off ebay so i have another chrome inner headlight, however on this one the mounting lugs are damaged although it may be possible to adapt them to fit with some glue and washers etc. However on this headlight the bulb housing itself seems to be loose within the lens, does this click into place within the lens or is it broken completely?

when i have googled taking the headlights apart there are some fairly strong worded warnings about handling the xenons as they retain a charge enough to kill you, so im not exactly sure which bit is safe to handle and which bits arent safe to handle.

any advice you guys can give will be hugely appreciated!

 

[cj10jeeper]

Xenons are only dangerous while running as they bump the voltage up to very high levels to trigger the xenon gas. For that reason don't mess with them when switched on.

Once switched off hey are perfectly safe in an instant to handle.

 

[mad_mackem]

thanks for that CJ i can be a little bit more confident in handling them now!

 

[cj10jeeper]

Finished work so can afford a few moments to answer now.

Lights can be split by dremel. You can then take the silver out of one and fit it in the damaged unit. Since you seem to have more than one light you could sacrifice the rear of yours and rebuild properly. The silver inner comes out with a bit more citting of flue around it's legs. Expect this to be a day's hard work first time.

On one of the lights that wobbles I suspect it become dislodged from its adjuster pivots. They are either broken by a crash (given lugs are broken) or just popped out.

Reality is you need to assess what you have to hand and decide from there on the best route.

 

[davegt]

If you do decide to cut and shut the lights, I have a spare set on black inners if you wanted to go that way, happy to let them go for the postage cost.