For anyone contemplating taking apart the headlights, bear in mind the OEM Hella halogen filament-bulb headlights are actually harder to disassemble than the OEM Hella xenon-arc HID headlights ... mainly because the self-leveling motor stalk in the HID headlights provides slightly more freedom of movement than the rigid ultrasonically welded solid immovable stalk of the halogens.
Here is a picture of the moveable motor-driven stalk:
This article tells you the procedure for disassembly of that motor stalk:
"6. Here comes the hard part - removing the metal plate from the plastic housing. The self-leveling servomotor has a metal rod pointing forward hat terminates in a black plastic ball. This ball fits into a plastic socket that has a tab protruding forward through the metal plate. You have to pull the socket away from the ball to get the metal plate away from the plastic housing. I tried prying along the middle with a long flathead screwdriver but was unsuccessful with this approach. Ultimately I threaded a piece of long nylon rope behind the metal housing between the high and low beams, gathered the ends into my fist and pulled -- HARD -- to finally pop the metal plate away from the plastic housing. I had a helper (my wife) hold the plastic housing while I did this. Pretty unnerving because I feared I would break something - but I used this approach without breaking anything for both headlamps. Heard a loud 'pop' - that was the socket being freed from the ball."
However, on my halogen projector Hellas, the stalk is immovable. Here is a view from the rear of the ultrasonically welded plate (which looks like you can twist it out, but, you can't without breaking it).
On the other end of that stalk, here is what is holding it up:
Unfortunately, for me (and many others), when I tried to remove the "glove" around the ball-end of the stalk, the flimsy ultrasonically welded plate ruptured into three additional pieces.
Also notice there is a rubber gasket around that non-self-leveling stalk on the inside of the headlamp:
Interestingly, the hole didn't look broken; just the plastic stalk base:
Here you can see where it looked like the stalk "threaded into" the hole in the back of the headlight (but it was locked solid if it was).
Here I've stuck the broken stalk back into the hole; it looks like it might be glued without detrimental effect.
As you look closely, you'll see that the three "ears" sheared off the top of the plastic knob at the base of the stalk.
This picture shows how one person unclipped that stalk from the white plastic "glove"; but bear in mind, this picture is from an OEM Hella HID headlight which has that stalk for freedom.
Anyway, one BIG MISTAKE I made was not loosening both the headlight adjuster screws BEFORE trying to disengage the non-self-leveling-motor-stalk.
Nonetheless, once I disengaged the non-self-leveling stalk, the headlight easily came apart in my hands (due to the broken headlight adjusters):
Notice that there are a few white plastic pieces that do not generally break and which must be made out of a different (obviously better) plastic than the PBT plastic adjusters themselves.
Here you see both ends of the white plastic headlight adjusters on the drivers' side light:
Here's the long adjuster BEFORE unscrewing it (which I should have done BEFORE I disengaged the non-self-leveling motor stalk).
Here you see me finally remembering to disengage the two headlight adjusters from their steel threaded adjusting rod:
Here both headlight adjusters are unscrewed from their mooring points:
So here are the parts laid out:
And, finally, after gluing together the old broken PBT headlight adjusters, here they are:
Of course, now it's time to select my options for new adjusters.
There are over
twenty options listed in this thread, but the main options appear to be the following:
1. For about $5 USD in materials from Tap Plastics, I can fabricate my own headlight adjusters with a dremel tool (I bought both Delrin and HDPE)
2. For $54 USD + $10 USD shipping, I can buy a set of Delrin adjusters from Palatine on Ebay
3. For $102 USD (includes shipping from Great Britain) I can buy a set of machined aluminum adjusters on Ebay
4. For $160 USD (plus shipping) I can buy a set of aluminum adjusters from EAC Tuning in Ohio.
OPTION #4 above:
OPTION #3 above:
OPTION #2 above:
OPTION #1 above:
OPTION #0 (
discussed elsewhere):