Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

hi

That thing is GLUED like you will never know. The glass fits into a slot in the plastic and BLACK siliconed to form an airtight seal. the vent is at the back.  It is possible to remove the glass but it might break in the process. Mike replaced his broken glass with a perspex 'replica' from War Eagle Racing or someone.  Getting it air tight again was a mission (Only success on the second attempt. 

Cant help you with cleaning though.

Adie

Laat ons Stof maak

rockfox.co.za

Adie is right, you'll have to fight to get the glass loose.

The milkyness is caused by dirt (or anything that has touched the bulb) burning off and adhereing to the reflector. Mine is a little milky too from using a bulb I had lying around in a drawer (emergency measures)

The reflector to the best of my knowledge is mirrored and any attempt to clean will damage the reflector. Sorry, I cannot offer a solution to the cleaning.

You can try and obtain a 2nd hand unit from Acme in Johannesburg.

The main beam on my 800GS is also milky, I was hoping someone had a solution to clean this. Seems like I will have to buy a new headlight

Do any of you chaps have HID kits fitted, or Osram nightbreaker globes?

I'm running Ring Xenon lamps in mine. I only fitted them in March and one of them popped last week and has now been replaced by a normal lamp that I had lying in my garage as a spare. That was the low beam that popped. The high beam is still a Ring Xenon. That's the milky one. My lamps do very similar duty as I ride with an orange cover on the high beam and ride with high beam on permanently, day or night, for visibility. So,in terms of burn time, it's about the same for both lamps.

watching this thread.

Cheers

Chris & Team

I fitted HiD's on the low beam, that was when I noticed that the milkyness can be wiped off (if you can get your pinky in there) and figured it was the residue from the old bulbs.

My wife has smaller pinkys than me so I'll ask her to try get her finger in there and wipe it clean.

on another note: I wonder if there is an LED conversion available for the 800? Does anyone know?

That would be a worthwhile conversion, no more blown lamps!

I read thi spart of the post with 'no context' to hang it on, and boy, did I ever wonder about the subject...??!!

Then read the subject, all sorted!

Chris 

You are rather funny, Chris!

Hi Guys,

there is a company Metglo Metallizing in Brackenfell. The do an excellent job in re-coating reflectors, metal and plastic.

They are in 13 Goud Street, Brackenfell. Tel.: 021 981 9804

The owner has also got a BMW bike. Very nice and helpfull people.

Just for info and those that want to try clean their reflector/lens on the inside, when we Bought my son Neil's F800GS privately a month ago, it also had a very dull look to the complete headlight interior.

I decided to first go the pooratech route and removed the headlamp unit from the bike and firstly cleaned the whole exterior with a soft paint brush, as it had accumilated a lot of dirt over the years.  I then removed the bulbs and used a soft artists brush to clean the inside of the glass lens, from corner to corner.   Then used a normal toothbrush from my growing collection in the garage, which had a nice curved bend in it, put an offcut of the softest velvetty rag I could find over the brush and used it to gently clean the lenses of both lights (dry), through the largish bulb holder openings.  I actually managed to get all the way into the corners and  crannys and came up with a nicely improved clean look!

Just be careful that you don't wipe too much and too hard over the reflective finish, as it will start rubbing off and reveal the dark background.  Take some care here and you should get a cost free, satisfying result.

The lights actually shine way brighter now too!

Well, after much procrastination, I bought a set of night breakers and tried to fit them last night. I struggled to get the high beam bulb out and struggled even more to fit the new one. I cleaned the inside of the glass quite successfully, but that revealed that the reflector has actually MELTED and is beyond repair. Never in all my years of motoring have I seen this on any of my bikes or cars!

The  low beam is still okay and easy to get the bulb in or out, but the glass needs a clean. The reflector looks a bit tarnished, but could probably be cleaned.

What could have caused this? The bulb that just failed was a Ring Xenon that I fitted about a year ago. Do these bulbs burn hotter than standard bulbs? Hot enough to melt the reflector? Or is it that my headlight covers reduce the cooling airflow and allow the lamp assembly to overheat?

I will phone Donford today and take this up with them. Although my bike  is out of warranty, we may be looking at faulty or unsuitable materials here and it looks like I will have to replace the entire assembly.

Or perhaps they will turn around and tell me that I should be using BMW approved bulbs .

Unfortunately, with the F800GS, if one uses anything more than a nightbreaker globe in there, sooner but usually later, there's a good chance that the reflector will suffer in some way. 

Thank goodness I caught it just in the nick of time and removed the HID kit that I had, because it was starting to cook the reflector.

I believe the headlight assembly is shockingly expensive.

It seems I am not alone. Check out this thread. Some folk are having similar issues even with the stock bulbs.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=887887

R5145 for a new headlamp assembly from Donford. Three to four weeks on back order from Germany. It seems one can't repair such damage and the whole assembly will need to be replaced.

There are alternatives on EBay for half the price and that's where I'll be looking if I have to foot the bill myself.

IMHO this should not happen just from using Nite Breaker or in my case Ring Xenon bulbs.

Good News! I got a replacement headlight from GS Traders in Okavango Junction. Cost me R2200 and it's the genuine article! The guy that helped me was Jaco and he also had some very clean used bikes for sale there. I think it's worth checking out. His cell No. is 083 261 4514. They also have a guy who can do servicing and diagnostics.

I found headlights available on EBay for around R2200, but then I still would have had to get it here, so I was very happy with this deal.

Won't be fittting the Night Breakers though, I've learned an expensive lesson and will only run stock bulbs from now on.