i bought a pair of H4 Headlights, the ones with a flat front and the bulbs plug in and out.
They are new but must not have been stored and sealed well. They seem to have a haze or sticky dust insid them on the reflector and on the inside of the glass.

The opening is a little small to get my hand in there to clean.

Can I put these in the dishwasher, opening side down and wash? use heat dry?

Im right there with ya, I have my original set in a box because I couldnt figure out how to clean the inside.

I have H4s on all of our cars. In the past I've pulled the headlights and carefully cleaned/polished the inside of the glass with a piece of soft lint free cloth wadded up and clipped at the tip of a long pair of curved hemostats.

Made a big difference . . . I didn't use any type of cleaning fluid, just the dry cloth (a friend had tried using windex and it discolored the reflector on his). I've also found that the reflectors scratch VERY easily.

I seem to remember somebody using denatured alcohol as a cleaner, but have never tried that . . . .

Hope this helps!

Steve A-

DO NOT put in dishwasher!!! I did that the other week for the very same reasons and it washed all the silver reflectant material off the inside of the lights. Expensive mistake. Good intentions.....

You are all voicing my concerns. Maybe a little soapy water and the hemostats...hmm, where does one buy hemostats?

Denture cleaner. The stuff in a dissolvable tablet... Do you have that over there?

Perfect for cleaning glass in hard to get to places.

I would have never thought of that. Looks like I need to make a trip to Grandma's house to pick up Denture Cleaner.

So fill it up with water and plop, plop, fizz, fizz?

Ok, here's another detailed approach from the ALFA forum--please note, I can't verify this one way or the other, so it's kind of "try it at your own risk". . . . .

HTH,

Steve A-

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Hi Group:

I took the plunge and attempted cleaning the inside of the Bosch and Hella H4 headlights on both of my Spiders. The interiors of both were coated with a thin, white/gray film of mysterious origin.

For each lamp, the first thing I did was to warm a pint of distilled water, in the microwave, to about 120 degrees, after which I stirred in 3 drops of Palmolive liquid dishwashing detergent. I poured about a cup of the soapy solution into a headlamp, and using a wadded up piece of plastic wrap to fill the bulb opening, I gently shook the lamp for a minute or so. I then poured out the soapy water, and holding the lamp under the tap of my kitchen sink, rinsed the inside with warm water for a few minutes more. Next, I flushed the lamp three times with distilled water, and then a final time with 91% isopropyl alcohol. The last step was to shake out the excess alcohol and bake the lamp in a 140 degree electric oven for about 30 minutes to fully dry.

The results are absolutely pristine lamp interiors, although I should say that there wasn't any corrosion inside the lamps, just that weird film. Corroded reflectors are another matter, and restoration requires polishing, brass plating, nickel plating, and then another polishing. I'm about to have that procedure done to a set of Marchal Amplilux lamps I've had for 20+ years.

Anyone know what the film might be? I'm in S. Florida, but do you guys in dry climates get the film? It seems to be similar to what's inside the lenses of all the gauges on my '74 Spider, too. And no, I wasn't planning to wash the inside of my gauges with soapy water.

Regards,

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You swipe a pair every time you go to the ER

T.C.

Yarr exactly, then leave overnight. I use it to clean cut glass decanters, so I dont see why it wont work on a headlight

I used the method above with warm water and dish detegent. Shook the hell out of them and then hit them with an air hose to get the water out. The results were beautiful like new lamps.

Ok so I want to try and clean these but I have one question. How do you get the bulb out? I put a pair of sylvania silverstars in because I didnt want to break want to yank and break the bulb. The back of my H4 has a orange rubber boot seal over the back of the bulb and thats where im stuck. How does this come off?

Boot comes off and there is a clip that holds in the bulb.

Will the denture cleaner work on the rear lenses??

Had the same problem. I cleaned my H4's by removing the bulb and adding warm water with Dawn dishwashing detergent. I had a bottle brush, the old style with a twisted wire shaft with a mop-like head of soft string, which I used to gently scrub the inside of the glass lens. I avoided the reflective surface as I was afraid I might damage the coating. I rinsed and let air dry. They came out very clean and clear.

Since we are talking about H4 headlights...
How do they wire in?
White, Yellow, Brown.

What wire goes to what terminal on the light?

*edit* I think I got my answer. So long as they wire in like the stock lights.
Zach

I would recommend distilled water

Here is how we clean coffee pots that have either been stained or have burned coffee in them. Warm water, salt, and marbles. Put them all together and swirl the marbles in the solution. Rinse very well. The salt provides the abrasive, the marbles move it around.

Mike