Cleaning euro ellipsoids... best procedure?

[TC535i]

Gonna be swapping my euros from the white car to the blue car tomorrow. Any tips/tricks on cleaning them? I'm gonna pull it apart, clean the glass inside and out, clean the ellipsoid lens, and inside the reflector. Probably use windex and a terry towel.

Any suggestions?

[Paul in NZ]

i have heard a spell in the dishwasher will clean em up,or a mixture of dishwashing liquid and kerosene.dont touch the reflector with any kind of cloth or towel,you will scratch it.

[Bill R.]

Courtesy of Waybackmachine. He pulled his page a while back. The pics don't show up but the text gives you the general idea. I had saved the entire site somewhere on one of my hard drives but i can't find it right now.
(http://web.archive.org/web/20021205011340/maxf.freeyellow.com/headlights.htm)



Gonna be swapping my euros from the white car to the blue car tomorrow. Any tips/tricks on cleaning them? I'm gonna pull it apart, clean the glass inside and out, clean the ellipsoid lens, and inside the reflector. Probably use windex and a terry towel.

Any suggestions?

[TC535i]

i have heard a spell in the dishwasher will clean em up,or a mixture of dishwashing liquid and kerosene.dont touch the reflector with any kind of cloth or towel,you will scratch it.

I'm kind of afraid of losing the silver reflector, a bit wary of tossing it in the dishwasher. I'll use windex/paper towel on the glass bits, and water or rubbing alcohol (testing first) on the reflector with cotton balls or something.

I'll definitely take pics!

[TC535i]

Courtesy of Waybackmachine. He pulled his page a while back. The pics don't show up but the text gives you the general idea. I had saved the entire site somewhere on one of my hard drives but i can't find it right now.
(http://web.archive.org/web/20021205011340/maxf.freeyellow.com/headlights.htm)

Gotta love that Wayback Machine! Thanks Bill! Nice to be under your tutilage again... I missed me some E34. :)

[fkong777]

There is 3 screw that holds the fisheye lens assembly. It is a funny square shape head tho you if you get a correct size torx bit you can get it loose.

once you remove the assembly. you can remove the ellipsoid len and clean it. I wouldnt clean anything else. chrome coat on reflector will flake right of at any touch of it. The light blocker plate gets dull due to heat. will not get much better each if you clean it. Pretty much you can only clean is the ellipical lens.

[TC535i]

There is 3 screw that holds the fisheye lens assembly. It is a funny square shape head tho you if you get a correct size torx bit you can get it loose.

once you remove the assembly. you can remove the ellipsoid len and clean it. I wouldnt clean anything else. chrome coat on reflector will flake right of at any touch of it. The light blocker plate gets dull due to heat. will not get much better each if you clean it. Pretty much you can only clean is the ellipical lens.

Wow... is the chrome THAT sensitive? Maybe I'll just lightly dust it off with dry cotton balls, didn't realize it was that bad!

[Dave M]

Wow... is the chrome THAT sensitive? Maybe I'll just lightly dust it off with dry cotton balls, didn't realize it was that bad!

Yep, just made that mistake trying to use a soft cotton cloth on one. The most i'd use is air or a pink featherduster :D

OOOopps. Luckily, I have a spare.

Dave M

[TC535i]

Yep, just made that mistake trying to use a soft cotton cloth on one. The most i'd use is air or a pink featherduster :D

OOOopps. Luckily, I have a spare.

Dave M

Wait, wtf... I can't even DUST them, but throwing em in a dishwasher is okay??? Something's wrong here...

[Dave M]

Wait, wtf... I can't even DUST them, but throwing em in a dishwasher is okay??? Something's wrong here...

I wasn't pressing very hard, and just the fibers in the cloth I used were able to scratch the surface. I would rekon that even a cotton ball pressed hard enough would leave a mark. However, a wet noodle travelling 200 mph in the dishwasher may be OK?? :D

[schnell944]

I've only cleaned my US ellipsoids....not sure how different they are in construction. The reflector wasnt really dirty so I just swished some water around on it. Worked fine. I found that using pliers to remove the tamper proof screws to open the unit up worked quite well. Just get a good grip on the top of the screw and twist. I also seperated the chrome reflector part from the glass ellipsoid to get more space for cleaning the glass. Paper towel and windex worked fine. It really was worth it.