VW Atlas headlight DIY. Am I crazy?

[HawkeyeScott]

Buddy has a 2018 Atlas. One of the headlight LED strips is out. Everything is pointing him towards a $1000 assembly. The unit is sealed and individual headlight bulbs don’t appear to be a thing for this vehicle.

$1000 is obviously ABSURD for to fix an issue with one set of lights.

I am wondering this: Could we remove the assembly, Dremel open the back, identify the faulty strip, replace it and then glue the assembly back together? A few things have to go right here, bit I gotta think in this economy we could source the actual faulty part and make the current assembly right.

Am I crazy?

 

[eljefino]

Replace it with what? How are you going to get the correct part?

 

[JavierH19]

Led strip? you mean those daytime running lights? those aren't important for legality. I don't know if they have a separate connector but if those led strips do have a separate cable just unplug it so it doesn't look bad with one being out. I would not waste 1k on some new hunk of plastic whose issue doesn't cause a road legality concern. And yes it's a sealed unit so you can't do anything without essentially destroying the whole thing. Just leave it alone. If the actual headlight works fine just leave it as is.

 

[dogememe]

Are you saying the accent lighting or whatever you want to call it is out or the headlight iteself is not working?

 

[daves87rs]

You need the whole piece. Granted if the strip goes the whole thing might anyways….

Surprised there are no knockoffs yet….

 

[vavavroom]

Ah, the joys of unrepairable, modular components.

 

[shortyb]

Love my BEC LED reps in the Tiguan. BOTH units were $450ish new. Sadly, BEC Auto isn't around anymore. Made some of the best, most reliable replica LED lights around for VW. Check with LKQ, eBay, or Copart. They may have an acceptable unit for lots less than a grand. Or just turn off DRLs if that is what the light strip is for.

 

[zzyzzx]

If it were a Ford and junkyard part and a paid version of Forscan would be all you probably would need (assuming programming is needed).

With respect to your original question, yes, it probably can be done, but you would still need a donor part. If you are going to get a junkyard or aftermarket part (if that is even available) I would just try replacing it and see what happens.

Link to replacement parts please!

 

[AZjeff]

You might want to do some checking, I watched a video where the guy heated a headlight assembly in the oven to a fairly low temp and the adhesive softened up enough to split the lens from the reflector/bulb housing. Did whatever he was doing and heated it back up and put it back together. Worth a thought. Which is worse, a light out or mismatched lights?

 

[Owen Lucas]

I've seen techs at body shops make Frankenstein headlights by taking them apart, melting the lens seals off on some of them and or dremeling the housings. This was in the 2010 when projectors were becoming popular and they would swap HID projectors into Subaru or Civic headlight enclosures. They did good work but they were body men after all.

Yes, you can Dremel out the area and plastic weld it back together. I'd look into a broken donor headlight with functioning DRLs. Ebay has one for $225 now, it's a roll of the dice though and quite a project. Might look into a decent LKQ unit for $500 - $600.

 

[JTK]

Looks like good used ones online are $500-700/ea. New are over a grand a pop. I don't see anything in terms of low-ish cost aftermarket which is weird. $1000 headlamps have been pretty standard affair for a long time now. I recall my bride hitting a deer while borrowing her parents ~2010 Nissan Rogue with HID headlamps. That cost me $1K for one headlamp back then.

 

[meep]

High wattage LEDs usually have a pair (or two) of terminals, AND the back plate of the LED is soldered directly to the PCB for heat transfer. I’ve desoldered these with home equipment and some barbaric use of crushing it off while the solder lets go. Soldering the new one also required pre-soldering both surfaces, then getting one side molten and slapping it down real fast. *most* of the replacements I’ve done have held up, but not all. I’m not gonna lie, it was a pain. I’d be more inclined to install a higher quantity of lower wattage elements than attempt that repair in a plastic-sealed assembly. Bring back amber.

I was considering a used X3 and noted complaints on their headlamp assy’s for the same reason.

 

[HawkeyeScott]

You might want to do some checking, I watched a video where the guy heated a headlight assembly in the oven to a fairly low temp and the adhesive softened up enough to split the lens from the reflector/bulb housing. Did whatever he was doing and heated it back up and put it back together. Worth a thought. Which is worse, a light out or mismatched lights?

I’ve watched that too. Thought it was pretty clever. Almost did it last year to try and access the inside of my cloudy Suburban headlights and clean them up. Didn’t end up pursuing it as the aftermarket ones were affordable enough so I just went brand new.

That video is what’s got me wondering about this potential project…

 

[meep]

Most of them you can low bake and pull the housings apart - I’ve done it with several. Newer fords you cannot - the use hotter glue and the housings melt first. I own that T-shirt.

 

[twouvakind]

Troll Car-Part.com, headlights adaptive and not can be found. Some selling damaged housings with pristine guts.

 

[Carmudgeon]

Most of them you can low bake and pull the housings apart - I’ve done it with several. Newer fords you cannot - the use hotter glue and the housings melt first. I own that T-shirt.

The baking technique is an old trick with retrofitters, but won't work with fixtures that have been welded together.