Foggy headlights

[Yaworski]

Back in olden days, we had sealed beam headlights that cost about $5. There were two round sizes and two square sizes and that was it.

Then we got those pesky conformal headlights with the "easily replaceable bulbs." Now there are about eleventy different bulbs and each has a dozen options.

My car is a 2002 Volvo and has glass headlight assemblies so even after 24 years they are crystal clear.

My daughter's 2005 Prius has plastic headlight assemblies. She inherited the car from her grandfather. He lived in Florida and garage kept the car so when the car changed hands,the headlights were nice and clear. Five years later, they are all hazy.

Replacements are not cheap. Ten years ago, I had a 92 Camry that needed new headlights because they were foggy and replacements were about $30 each on eBay. Cheap Prius headlight assemblies start at $100 each and OEM ones are about $300 each. For simple, mass produced molded plastic.

Why can't they make headlights out of a material that doesn't haze over from exposure to the sun? Taillights don't get cloudy. Aircraft windshields don't get cloudy.

Better yet, go back to glass.

 

[Mike J]

I replaced the headlight housing on my daughters 2004 Honda CR-V. I got the housings from Amazon. They weren't all that expensive. My other daughter has a 2008 Toyota Highlander. I was thinking about doing the same thing for it. I looked into how difficult they would be to replace on the Toyota & I think I am going to clean them instead. The only problem with just cleaning them is over time they will haze back over. I spoke to a friend that for a time had a side business cleaning them. His solution was to clean them up, get them clear & then paint over them with a clear enamel.

 

[NikA]

Haziness most times is a surface-level effect due to UV damage and kits to treat it are relatively inexpensive. I treated haziness on my plastic lens headlights about 2 years ago and they have held up well. We live in a very high UV environment here in NM, expected life of plastics other than HDPE that are outside is about 18-24 months.

 

[GSP7]

Rock Auto has best quality headlight housings and lowest price

I was looking at the online headlight venders like "Headlights warehouse" or "headlights depot" or "headlights king" or whatever they call them selves

Rock Auto is better.... less money ....

 

[deac45]

I have cleaned and polished them in the past with an all in one kit by Turtle Wax. Last I did was my wife's Corolla. They were still clear five years later when we sold it. Toyota seems to be worse than others about hazing over.

 

[Yaworski]

Why don't taillights get hazy?

 

[BigPapa53]

I’ve used Cerakote from Amazon with good results. I bought new lights for my pickup and treated them before installation but sold the truck a few months later so I don’t know if it helped keep them from hazing. This is my Honda Accord before and after.

 

[Montelores]

Polish with toothpaste.

Monty

 

[themousethatroared]

You will never get plastic as clean and clear as when it comes freshly out of the injection mold. Polishing is just making smaller and smaller scratches with each finer grit paper/compound/paste, and whenever you scratch plastic, it's going to degrade. Some of the headlights have a UV coating, and as soon as you start polishing, that's gone, and it degrades faster.

Anything coarser than toothpaste is going to make a bigger mess in the long run. If toothpaste won't clean it up, Novus makes three grades of plastic polish that work pretty well, and Autosol aluminum polish is good on plastic. Once you go at them with polish or toothpaste, plan on it becoming a regular thing, because they will frost over.

I have not tried any kits with clear coat. That may work and is probably the only solution when using anything like a sand paper, that will frost over more quickly. But the next time you have to do it, you'll have to take off the clear coat, too.

Tail lights do frost over. Yellow turn signal lenses a little more/worse than red and white/clear.

Buy a set of headlamps before the car is 15 years old, and set them on the shelf for future use, because they'll start discontinuing parts around that time.

 

[Jeepnik]

Why not go back to glass? Because built in obsolescence. And red does fade/fog. It's just harder to tell.

One thing I have noticed is that the old incandescent lights start off no where near as bright, and "yellow" over time. The newer bulbs stay bright until they die. I noticed the lights on my '78 just looked dim. Now part of that is I was mentally comparing them to newer vehicle bulbs. But I decided to change them. And lo and behold there was a significant difference in new bulbs versus ten year old, approx., bulbs.

 

[Yaworski]

Tail lights do frost over. Yellow turn signal lenses a little more/worse than red and white/clear.

Never noticed that. My 24 year old tail light assemblies look pristine.

Buy a set of headlamps before the car is 15 years old, and set them on the shelf for future use, because they'll start discontinuing parts around that time.

I bought new headlights for my 92 Camry in 2013. The Prius in question is a 2005 and lots of options exist.

 

[Yaworski]

I've noticed that no one has addressed the issue of why nothing has been done about these crappy headlights.

 

[Jeepnik]

I've noticed that no one has addressed the issue of why nothing has been done about these crappy headlights.

Refer to post #10. It's this way because that's the way the manufacturer want it to be.

 

[contender]

"I've noticed that no one has addressed the issue of why nothing has been done about these crappy headlights."

It's quite simple.

Car makers do NOT want the average Joe working on anything. They want us ALL to go back to dealerships & spend a LOT more money to get anything fixed. They have done this on purpose.
And by having vehicle specific parts,, they can charge a lot more too.

 

[themousethatroared]

I've noticed that no one has addressed the issue of why nothing has been done about these crappy headlights.

Plastic weighs less. They assign some team to figure out how to cut weight to improve fuel economy, and all plastic lighting wins. It also reduces weight on the ends of the car, away from the center of gravity, and on the outside of the axle, which improves handling. They'll get bonus points for crash safety because it won't leave broken glass on the road, and some bean counter in the lawyer pool will say that it will cut down on pedestrian accident injuries.

So they're gonna be plastic, and plastic sucks. It decays with UV. All of it does. Some real fast, and some slower, but it all decays. The more resistant, the more expensive. And all the good chemicals that make the stuff more resistant are banned for making holes in the ozone layer or killing the fish. Then some idiot came up with the complaint about plastics filling up landfills, the oceans, and micro particles of the stuff are building up in everyone's blood and body tissue,, so they decided to make it biodegradable.

 

[Yaworski]

If they are concerned about safety, I wonder if anyone has given any thought to the accidents that happen because the driver couldn't see the road.

I'd think that there would be an aftermarket glass headlight business. I'd buy them.

 

[RC44Mag]

Back in 88;I bought a new Mustang GT just out of service. Had it for over a decade and the plastic headlamps got damaged from sand and pebbles hitting them and maybe sunlight also. I think it was Mothers who sold a kit with a bottle of polish and a polishing ball which fit a drill. I bought it filled directions put it my Makita cordless and went to work. I’ll be damned, it worked better than I thought would have. Someone likely makes a similars kit or even Mothers.

 

[stonebuster]

"I've noticed that no one has addressed the issue of why nothing has been done about these crappy headlights."

It's quite simple.

Car makers do NOT want the average Joe working on anything. They want us ALL to go back to dealerships & spend a LOT more money to get anything fixed. They have done this on purpose.
And by having vehicle specific parts,, they can charge a lot more too.

Absolutely correct. They want you to use the dealer to even change a headlight bulb in my 2014 Chevy pickup. Charged me $300+ for install two pop in & twist low beam bulbs because of all the stuff they've got to remove to have access to them.

 

[Yaworski]

According to the Honda forums, my 94 Accord had plastic headlights. It sat outside and when I got rid of it in 2013, the headlights were still clear. I guess that Honda used better plastic.

 

[BigPapa53]

Federal regulations changed in 1983 to permit aerodynamic, non-standard shapes and replaceable bulbs, which allowed manufacturers to switch from glass to molded polycarbonate plastic. I had a ‘95 Grand Cherokee years ago with plastic headlights. The same headlights in Europe were available in glass. I found some on eBay. I’ve looked for a similar situation for other vehicles but never found anything available. Plastic is also much cheaper to manufacture.

 

[Montelores]

BMW 63117442652​

2014-2019 BMW 63-11-7-442-652

Customer Questions & Expert Answers (2)

• Part Description
  Headlight, Led Technology, Right
• Position
  Passenger Side
• Manufacturer
  BMW

$3369.98 MSRP: $4139.26
You Save: $769.28 (19%)
Core Charge: $700.00
Ships in 1-3 Business Days

 

[Kevin]

According to the Honda forums, my 94 Accord had plastic headlights. It sat outside and when I got rid of it in 2013, the headlights were still clear. I guess that Honda used better plastic.

Where was this car? I would also guess in states like AZ, there are more UV rays. Just a guess though.

My parents live there and have this same issue with headlights. Here in Texas, we’ve never had any problems.

 

[Yaworski]

Where was this car?

Maryland and Pennsylvania. My Maryland based Focus and Camry fogged like mad as did my daughter's Prius in Pennsylvania.

I'm just thinking that Honda used better plastic.

 

[themousethatroared]

Based on instrument clusters, that get baked in the greenhouse under the windshield, they made a pretty big improvement in plastics in 1990, because the 85-89 stuff will turn to powder in your hands, and the 90-93 stuff holds together well enough that it can be rewelded. At least in my chosen poison of car brand, and they put the headlight and wiper switches on the ends of instrument cluster, so it's inevitable they break.

These things were popular in kits for sport compact cars to add projectors to cars that had reflector aerodynamic lamps and as original equipment on motor homes:

They are called Hella 90mm lamps. They are part of a quad lamp set and there is a reflector lamp high beam that is similar in appearance and dimensions.
I used a set on a car that came with glass aero lights, because they filled with water, had been discontinued, and all the ones at salvage yards were also filled with water.
They are glass, and pretty durable. I've had them on the car for over ten years, one took a rock chip soon after I put them on the car, and it hasn't leaked or broken any more than the chip.
I will say the reflectors on the high beams suck, because the sunlight caused the silver on the bottom where the sun hits it, to peel.

 

[Yaworski]

BMW 63117442652​

2014-2019 BMW 63-11-7-442-652

Customer Questions & Expert Answers
$3369.98 MSRP: $4139.26
You Save: $769.28 (19%

Makes me very glad that I don't drive a BMW anymore.

 

[Jeepnik]

"I've noticed that no one has addressed the issue of why nothing has been done about these crappy headlights."

It's quite simple.

Car makers do NOT want the average Joe working on anything. They want us ALL to go back to dealerships & spend a LOT more money to get anything fixed. They have done this on purpose.
And by having vehicle specific parts,, they can charge a lot more too.

That's probably true. But, the dealers have spend a lot of money convincing younger, and not a few older, folks that they can't fix today's complex vehicles. And the public has bought it hook line and sinker. In fact, they are easier to diagnose and it's still just removing parts and putting them back on.

 

[NikA]

For those that aren't familiar with Project Farm: https://share.google/JhfAO2C6tsGHnIqJ8

 

[Jakeintexas]

Cerakote, turtle wax, and maguires all make plastic headlight restoration kits. Use one of those.