tonyb635

I believe you still have a channel left. The top of mine was removed when i cut open my lights. The sealant you posted looks like it would work well in you case.

BuddyB

Hi all,
Has anyone been successful in removing the old butyl rubber from inside the channel?
I ordered new Halo bulbs for my repaired headlight so I have not yet put the front lens back on.
I am thinking about ordering a roll of butyl rubber sealant shown in my previous posts.

Also, if anyone is thinking of using the oven method to heat up their headlight and either remove the lens or in my case put the lens back on,
it would probably be a good idea to remove the Ballast and Controller from the bottom of the headlight.
Just a few screws and they pull off.
There is no need to heat them up and you would hate to melt or damage any of the components inside.
Not to mention that it is a few hundred dollars to replace them.

Later,

Bud

ucsbwsr

The oem E6X lenses are not sealed with butyl so heating them up and pulling them apart will not work, nor is it a good idea to use butyl for resealing. The housings must be cut open with a dremel or similar non-intrusive cutting wheel. I would recommend silicone for resealing.

It is not a fun project but the results are certainly rewarding.

Evan

umnitza

We would caution people strongly about using any old generic silicon. Over time, silicon will "set" differently and have pockets that basically eliminate a tight seal. Butyl has proven to work effectively in conjunction with other adhesives including Silicon to prevent moisture from forming.

tonyb635

+1 One would be rather foolish to use silicone. You might get lucky with it, but if you're not and have to go back and repair something, the silicone is just too dangerous to get anything else to stick to it. I used a body sealant that can also be painted. It hardens up well and holds the lens very strongly in place. In thins case, you could go back and re-seal if you had a problem. I'm sure there are plenty of other things available rather than silicone. I have a picture of the 3M product that I used in #55.

ucsbwsr

The first time I used butyl and it was messy and things were sticking to it as you said they would the silicone. I think on the E60 headlights, at least in my case, there wasn't enough surface area between the lens and housing to make the butyl effective. I certainly get my it is used on resealable headlights when the lens often is sandwiched between the two ridges of the housing.

I used Silicone Adhesive not standard silicone, and the results are great, certainly better than butyl for my headlights.

Evan

umnitza

+2
great idea on the body sealant. Also recommend if you have access to it, windshield sealant as well, though a bit more expensive.

545iMike

No go on the windshield urethane. I used it to do my headlights. Works great for about a month. After that you can just peel it right off. When they do windshields they use pinchweld primer for maximum adhesion. If you could put the pinchweld primer on the headlight before the urethane it might work, but I'm not sure what the primer would do to the plastic.

Waiting for my butyl to come in the mail. I only have access to foam cored butyl at work. Otherwise I would have used it.

tonyb635

You guys are cracking me up... Why don't the experts like Umnitza, Chris and Simon chime in on what they are using. I am sure their work is well tested now to know what works and what doesn't. From a common sense stand point, you really need to avoid anything with the words silicone. This stuff can be very annoying if you have to remove it and apply something else or make a repair. It's nearly impossible to get it all off of a surface. So forget trying to get something else to stick afterwards... Infact, silicone is absolutle forbidden at the automaker. It's very disruptive to paint as well. Find something that has good adhesion and is strong. Consider what the product is used for and if it makes sense to use it in this application. The 3m body seam sealer I used is designed for sealing seams just as the name says. It has no silicone, it goes on like caulking would and dries quickly. I believe the next day you can sand and paint it. Not that you would need to, but that should give you an idea. It's becomes very firm, but not hard. I know, someone is going to say, thats what she said... I simply applied a bead in the channel area, set the lens into the housing and applied presure and tape to hold. Then wiped the exeess off, but leaving a little behind. The next day I removed the tape and re-taped the area and applied a light coat of satin black plastic spray to hide the beige sealer. This thing has not even thought about leaking! There are a ton of options to seal it back but again, avoid silicone, you would be better off using elmers school glue!

So in the end, the actual product that is used is a SIKAFLEX 630HD. This is robotically applied hot, so this actual producuct would not work for us. You could could probably go to their site and view another alternative...

THE LINK IS NOT WORKING BUT IF YOU GOOGLE SIKAFLEX 630HD YOU WILL SEE A NICE PDF.

HERE IS THE LINK: http://fin.sika.com/dms/getdocument....20brochure.pdf

545iMike

I use seam sealer at work all the time (autobody tech). Its made for exactly what its name implies, sealing out body panels. Door skins edges, frame rails, 1/4's, basically anywhere a panel seam will come in contact with the outside elements. But its made for that. Not joining parts. But if your having success with it then great. I might try it if the butyl thing doesn't work out. There are a few plastic repair products I have at my disposal, but they all set rock hard and I don't know if I want my headlights permanently sealed again.