R129 Xenon headlight rubber replacement

[swithin]

Morning all,

Saw condensation on my passenger front headlight and on closer inspection, the thick rubber seal looks to have come away from the headlight. Has anyone fixed this or replaced the rubber? Can’t find anything in this on internet.

 

[Petrol Pete]

It's on the internet . Alex at Legitstreetcars (You Tube) has videos where he replaces faded lenses by heating up the headlamp unit (in a cardboard box and a heat gun !) replaces the seal using Butyl from a roll to make a new seal . He lives in Chicago where they have plenty snow and rain so I guess the repair works in his experience, which stems from the fact that nowadays you can (mostly) only buy a full headlamp OEM , and not parts to repair them.

I have a roll of the Butyl and it come in handy , sometimes just to hold a nut in a socket or a screw on the end of a screwdriver . Recently used it to seal a cut I made in a rear brake disc cover. Handy stuff.

 

[swithin]

It's on the internet . Alex at Legitstreetcars (You Tube) has videos where he replaces faded lenses by heating up the headlamp unit (in a cardboard box and a heat gun !) replaces the seal using Butyl from a roll to make a new seal . He lives in Chicago where they have plenty snow and rain so I guess the repair works in his experience, which stems from the fact that nowadays you can (mostly) only buy a full headlamp OEM , and not parts to repair them.

I have a roll of the Butyl and it come in handy , sometimes just to hold a nut in a socket or a screw on the end of a screwdriver . Recently used it to seal a cut I made in a rear brake disc cover. Handy stuff.

View attachment 140890

Fantastic, I’ll look for that video now. Many thanks Pete. took the indicator lense out and the glass has come away from the body so Gona repair that and lubricate the rubber seal.

 

[Doodle]

If you mean this rubber seal, then that doesn't seal the headlamp unit itself. It's a gasket that buffers between the bonnet and the headlamp, it just pushes into a channel on the headlamp casing.

Unfortunately the video mentioned above won't help here. R129 lenses aren't bonded, they clip on from the front so from your description it's either come unclipped or the hasp has broken with age. The gaskets are available as a replacement part - A1298260780 (I paid £15ea for mine but that was a while ago).

 

[swithin]

If you mean this rubber seal, then that doesn't seal the headlamp unit itself. It's a gasket that buffers between the bonnet and the headlamp, it just pushes into a channel on the headlamp casing.

Unfortunately the video mentioned above won't help here. R129 lenses aren't bonded, they clip on from the front so from your description it's either come unclipped or the hasp has broken with age. The gaskets are available as a replacement part - A1298260780 (I paid £15ea for mine but that was a while ago).

Hi Doodle, took the lens out and the glue holding the clear plastic from the body has perished. An easy fix and I’ve also treated the rubber to the ludicrously expensive merc rubber oil I use for the roof rubber on my money-pit of an R230.

Next problem is that the glue at the top of the drivers door card has also perished. Anybody any thoughts on that?.

Unfortunately I don’t have a garage I can store the cars in so have to resort to very good quality covers which do have their downsides.