momo

Well I had my OEM HID headlights for sale, in the for sale section and because I had no takers I decided to bake them. And I baked them with great success and commenced to dissect them.

It was actually relatively easy. First I pre-heated my oven for six minutes at 225 degrees, and then I took about a minute to wrap the entire headlight with foil paper. I put the headlights in the oven for six minutes. I set my alarm for six minutes so that I would not over do it. I had the light on in the oven and I was anxiously watching them and taking in deep breaths in hopes that I would be able to keep on top in case of anything going wrong. My alarm goes off and I pulled the headlights out and to my surprise they were coming apart. I worked on them for @ maybe 5 minutes and I noticed that the glue was cooling down, so I put them back into the oven. This time the oven was turned off. After 10 minutes I took them back out and finished taking them apart.

One word of advice for anyone attempting to repeat this, do not use anything sharp like a flat head screen driver or you will damage the black plastic casing of the headlight. Use something dull, I used a toothbrush once I was able to stick it in to continue to pry open the headlights slide the toothbrush from time to time.

I took plenty of pics. You will see why the RX8 even with HID’s has poor light output. I plan to mod the shield and swapping out the fresnel lense with a clear lense. I have not had a chance to mod the shield but I did swap in some clear lenses. You can see the results for yourself. I will updated this thread when I mod the shield.

Enough writing I’ll let the pics do the rest of the talking.



http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/d...kedheadlights/

Spinning Sushi

iTrader: (21)

Here ya go, I hope this helps some people out

Spinning Sushi

iTrader: (21)

momo

Thanks guys. I'm not the most computer literate person.

I had a friend come over who has a his Mazda6 with an after market HID kit and I just used his car to power my HID's. As as can see in some the pics the RX8 with the clear lense is brighter than his hid kit.

NgoRX8

iTrader: (1)

that's awesome man. i would like to do bake my headlights if i ever get a spare set.

momo

This is my spare set as I no longer have my RX8. I've never told you guys publicly, but my 8 was stolen and torched. It was found on some back road looking like some burt toast. All my chit was gone, I had a very nice system in there. That is why is was selling all my left over stuff in the for sale section. It gets worse my insurance didn't give one fricking penny for the car. It was one of the first 2004 to hit the shore, it was fully loaded, Navi with all the goodies. At the time I was not even aware that Mazda hit with an extended warranty which was never realized, the car bare broke the 30k on the odo. Reviewing the contract that was an extra 2 grand. And they did not give me chit either. I only had about 8 gran on left to pay.

rx8spiritR

is there a reson why the insurance didn't pay you? i don't understand, if so, what are we buying insurance for?

paulmasoner

iTrader: (1)

and why did your insurance not give you a penny?

momo

I don't know. I'm guess that they looked at the kelly blue book value? The car just a little over 30k on the odo, I had scheduled it to it 30k service right before this happened. They don't cover aftermarket stuff, unless you add it to the insurance, which I never did. I looked into getting a lawyer, but in the long run it would have cost me more $$.

tjbourgoyne

Sorry about your loss. Could you elaborate on the stealing part and was there anything removed before it was torched?

momo

Well I had the aftermarket stuff that allowed my Navi to play dvd's/ reverse camera. I had replaced the front door speakers with Focal KP 6.5. For bass, I had an Eclipse SW8200 12 sub powered by an JL Audio 500/1.

I never saw the car, I just could not bring myself to seeing it in person. I called the towing company where is was being stored and I talked to a gentlemen who specifically asked me if I had an aftermarket system and said yes, why. He said that he could tell that the car had been stripped.

chrism

did you not have full coverage?.....theft?

momo

In the state of CA. full coverage is mandated by the title lein holder/bank. I also had GAAP insurance, and extended warranty. The insurance paid off the car but that was about it. I spent a few hours trying to get some money back from the extended warranty company since my car had just hit the 30K mark, thats when the extended warranty part kicks in. In essence I should have recieved some money back from them since my car had just ran out the factory warranty, but nothing there either? **** I miss that car it was always babied. Even though it wasn't my daily driver it provided alot of fun on the weekends and driving up and down Highway 1, for those who are Cali and know that I'm talking about.

momo

I knew I should have kept my mouth shut about my 8. Hopefully I will get a chance this weekend to mod the cut off shield, along with the clear lenses. I will post updated pics once I finish up with this project.

Then will these headlights will go up for sale again.

chrism

i know the cali laws in regards to coverage because i used to live in la jolla....and i sold cars in mira mesa.....but if you had gap it should have given you your DP back and you should be able to call the dealer and have the extended warantee refunded....that is usually handled by an outside company not the manufacturer.....so persue them because you are entitled to something back......it should cover some of your losses at least

BigRed

momo sorry to hear that your car was stolen nice bake job though