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I awoke from a dream this morning…funny thing is, it was two months long. x}

I won’t rant about the state of the world at large, it’s far…too pathetic.

No…what I’ll share with you will be a glimmering moment in DIY performance…but indeed, not a moment wasted.

It dawned on me after not so long ago landing a used 2005 Audi S4 for a decent price, that the headlights had built up a lot of condensation. This water wouldn’t dissipate over time…it seemed to get worse. Some people wouldn’t care, but this problem really irritated me.

This wasn’t my first bout with Audi’s choice in component design. When I lived in New York my 2001 S4 Avant had its lights stolen, twice (once in Manhattan, once in Brooklyn).

I’d like to thank Valeo for giving me this awesome opportunity to highlight uniqueness in their design.

I recently brought up this “water matter” to the dealership’s service guys (it was a Certified buy), their chief mechanic told me “…there’s nothin’ you can do about that” and “that’ll be gone once you have your brights on for a while”. Well, needless to say, I gathered his remarks as total B.S. and did some research. I’d found a few discussion threads regarding an o-ring upgrade to solve this ridiculous water problem.

I’m not suggesting anyone try any of this on their own. I’m only documenting something I took upon myself to do. You would be wise and are advised to trust your vehicle service needs to a trained professional mechanic…which I am not.

First step, and this was a big one…I had to prep the machine. I stopped by the pharmacy to double up on some DIY inspiration.

Then, I bought a set of long Torx wrenches, and some o-rings.

Once the battery was disconnected, I removed the top two screws and only loosened the side & rear screws (they can easily get lost).

Removing the wiring harnesses proved tricky, the plastic snaps were very stubborn (and are delicate)…pushing onto the tab eventually released the securing snap:

The location of the screws on the passenger side are similar (now having seen where they are on the driver’s side), however 2 sections of the air duct had to be removed. Also…two zip ties needed removing.

Once I had the lights out of the car (Eek! What a familiar sight!) I cleaned them off a bit & located the cover for this adjustment screw which had the “evil o-ring” in it.

Carefully the adjustment screw was removed without turning it…just straight up & out.

My foe was wedged out of his harness and replaced by a new/clean/well lubricated o-ring. Then it was on to cleaning up some of the collected dirt (an important move considering the next step).

Before putting the lights back into the car…I used a sophisticated heated-air discharging device to evaporate the excess water buildup. Another amazing sight for advanced component design. x}

Once the humidity was dissipated in both units, the closing of this edition could begin.

Weeks later…the water problem seems to have been resolved (for now). =}