RTV Silicone...gone wrong on my rear light! Ideas Needed

[210_MIH]

Hi guys....

A3 sportack with retrofitted rear LED lights...the ring in the outer cluster stopped working...upon inspection, realised it was full of water...the wiring was fine and dry.

So I dried it up and used the RTV silicone around the edges, thinking it wont get water in it again. MISTAKE: i put it back on to the car when it was still a little wet...

Few days passed, light was fine and today it went again. So i managed to get a new light but when I tried to take the old cluster off...guess what...it was stuck solid to the body.

Now, does anyone have any ideas how to soften up the silicone....as I just cant seem to get the light off...

Any ideas appreciated....

 

[MacrosTheBlack]

Could try heating it up a bit with a hairdryer perhaps?

 

[Boon]

There is a silicone eater available, it takes a few hours to work (will take longer to unstick a light as you can't get to all the silicone!) How it affects the plastic lenses is anyone's guess though... Might be best to try and cut it carefully with a Stanley knife?

 

[210_MIH]

Any idea what its called? stanley knife, there isnt much of a gap between the body work and the light itsel unfortunately...

 

[Ste_Nova]

just push it

 

[hades-]

just pull it off then clean it up

 

[MrLapou]

Try some fishing line to slice the silicone away.

 

[c_w]

Where did you put the silicone?

If it was around the edge of the lamp whilst it was off it should only had bonded slightly to the body, the thing with silicon is not to "shock" it or rip it off, but put steady force on the lamp (start from the inner part like you would when removing the lamp anyway), once the silicone starts to break it will then release the rest much easier.

 

[Boon]

Just called silicone eater/silicone remover should find it in Homebase/B&Q/local builder supplies