Are your headlight lenses getting cloudy?

Now, THAT is fascinating!

Of course I don't have the ol' '92 around anymore so further discussion of it's headlight performance would be worse than subjective. I ran them day and night and changed bulbs perhaps two times in the 11 years I owned it. I put better-than-OEM Halogen bulbs in it, so maybe thats why I was happy with it -- or maybe they were holographic and gave only the appearance of projected perfection.

I went from a '81 Chevy pickup to the '92 Explorer, and believe me -- the Explorer lights were infinitely better than those of the Chevy PU.

The '99's low beams are average, the "brights" are pretty good, focus could be better, and I like being able to read the graffiti on the under-side of the over-pass, but the "narrow" comment above is absurd -- subjectively speaking -- but like I said, my everyday comparison is the '97 Sebring. I have yet to change a headlight bulb on the '99 Explorer. I can hardly wait to see what it will do with AM bulbs -- probably have to get a special license for it.

My first car (and my only other Chrysler product) was a '47 Dodge, and with the lights and the tin-foil body work, I think I've had my last Chrysler, if the rest are like the Sebring. Don't even get me started on its electrics and ghost-ridden alarm system.

And 25 mpg -- BFD.

Jack

Reply to
Jack
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I think they work so well that's it's difficult to tell if you have one not working unless you go out and look.

Reply to
Ulysses

Well, the 81 Chevy would have had good old sealed beams. Now 99.9% of the sealed-beams I've ever had were about 100 times BETTER than 90s vintage plastic Explorer headlamps (or pretty much ANY 1990s plastic specific-to-a-given-model headlamp). But its always possible that you had some really, really, really poor non-halogen sealed beams in the Chevy, or halogens with a cracked outer housing that allowed moisture to darken the reflectors, or a wiring problem.

Reply to
Steve

My '92 Explorer headlights were glass.

Jack

Reply to
Jack

Ummm...no. They weren't. Not unless you bought your '92 Explorer in Germany, where glass-and-metal standard-format 200mm x 142mm rectangular lamps were used (same size/shape as the large rectangular sealed beams in your '81 Chev pickup, but in Europe they were a replaceable-bulb H4 unit).

North American-market Explorer headlamps used a plastic lens and a plastic reflector.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

OMG! They were plastic -- and I loved them?

Eeeeuuuuwwww.

Jack

Reply to
Jack

Y'know, Jack, I'm beginning to get the sense that you *might* be mockin' me... ;-)

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Well, one dislikes being fooled -- but they sure LOOKED good!

Jack

Reply to
Jack

The facts are that the lights on the older Mitsu work MUCH better than those on the newer Ford. That car has 300K miles on it, lots of which is highway driving, but I keep a good distance between me and the next car in line, so I didn't get to test the flying rock theory.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

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Reply to
Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

It wasn't until years after I bought my Explorer that I got into souped-up flashlights. I own a 10,000,000 candlepower spotlight and did some Googling on it, and came across a forum called Candlepowerforums.com which is populated with serious flashlight enthusiasts (I never knew such an interest group existed). I spent some time on those forums and got a real education about how lamps, reflectors and bulb efficiencies affect lumens output. I learned that wattage does not equal lumens. One of the things I discovered about my spotlight and another Brinkman Q-Beam that I bought over 25 years ago, was that the reflectors are first surface mirrors of very high optical quality. Contrasted with the hazy, porous aluminum evaporative coating on Ford's plastic reflectors, I now understand why even my 100W 9007 bulbs failed to produce as much usable light as my Mitsubishi's 55W lamps. If you open the back of the lamp service compartment on the Ford while the lights are on at night, you'll notice where all the light that's not hitting the road is going--inside the compartment--a significant amount of light penetrates the reflective coating. I'm not saying that the lenses don't play an equally important role, but the role of the reflectors has not been discussed in Ford forums as far as I have read. The guys on Candlepowerforums are designing their own flashlights, or modifying commercial models costing up to $3000 each. I never realized there was so much science to headlamps, but the technical discussions there have been VERY illuminating (pun intended).

It is a '98 model. It has three problems: Very low current-handling wiring Bad lenses Bad reflectors.

I was blaming beam patterns initially, but I came to realize they are not the whole issue.

When the plastic reflectors have a few hours on them, they start to get clouded. The heat of the lamps begins to break down the plastic and the coating, causing microscopic rippling of the surface, and that begins to scatter the light, rather than reflect it at precise angles.

Indeed, but it's what that aluminum is deposited on that determines how well it holds up. My '98 Ford may have been much better when new, but when I bought it off lease (3 years old), the lighting sucked then. Some of the newer cars have really shiny, polished reflectors and clear lenses and they do provide nice lighting. I drove a friend's Kia Sportage and it had mediocre lighting. Two years later, he bought a Kia Sedona, and the lighting was MUCH better--I could drive on an interstate with just lowbeams and have plenty of light where it needed to be.

I really wish Ford would have a recall on these headlights. I'm about to drive 1150 miles to FL and I am forced to plan my trip around daylight, rather than take advantage of less traffic overnight.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

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Reply to
Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

Regarding this matter, when I first bought my 98 Explorer, lots of oncoming motorists flashed their highbeams at me. I took it back to the dealer and told them the lights were misadjusted. They told me they were correctly adjusted. My friend's 2001 Kia Sportage had the same problem, the lights would shine right into the passenger compartment of the car in front of me, even if I was back 100'. I ended up adjusting my lights myself and that improved my visibility and stopped the flashing from oncoming drivers. Factories make errors.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

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Reply to
Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

In our business we see plenty of high mileage older Explores that do not have clouded leases. Regardless of brand or model clouded headlamp covers are a result of poor maintenance, period. Lens cover should be polished to prevent the clouding. There are several commercially available lens cleaners the will remove the clouding. One can then keep them clear by applying a polymer polish on occasion

mike hunt

Reply to
Mike Hunter

I do polish mine regularly, but there is nothing I can do about the reflectors inside. My lenses are pitted from sandblast on the highway, so I use polish to fill in some of the smaller pitting to increase clarity. It barely makes a difference, but at least I'm extending the life of the lens.

Reply to
Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

What polish do you use or it's equally hopless. I am thinking of a plastic polish:

  1. Blue Magic, Pep Boys
  2. Meguiar's PastX, directly from Meguiar.com
  3. Have seen special kits and polishes from Novus #1 #2 #3, 3M, and other. If you used the really tough plastic polish, #3 for example, would it matter or there not much more to polish before something goes south?
Reply to
treeline12345

TR3-brand car polish, green label.

Remember, you're *not* polishing plastic; you're polishing the hardcoat applied to the surface of the plastic -- essentially buffing-out a chalky paint job.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Why do you put up with having to periodically polish headlamp lenses? It is not a maintenance item covered in your manual. We should go after the car mfgrs somehow for putting out an usafe, mediocre product, like a class-action something or other. These things are a hazard to everyone, and Neons are the worst out there, some lenses are opaque. The 96 model year is just starting to turn cloudy. Rick

TR3-brand car polish, green label.

Remember, you're *not* polishing plastic; you're polishing the hardcoat applied to the surface of the plastic -- essentially buffing-out a chalky paint job.

Reply to
Rick

Umm - because life's too short? If you start jousting at windmills over this, where do you stop? Windshiled wipers that don't work right below

29°F? Window motors that fail? Window lift brackets that fail? Brakes that vibrate?

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Rick is one of those "my car has Warranty for life, guys" Doesn't matter what, nothing should ever break, or get worn out. Christ, I'm surprised the fact he has to change his engine oil was not brought up. Oh, and the tid-bit in the manual about washing a car properly is a waste too. Since it does not specifically mention headlights! Lets not mention the fact that the headlamps are covered under the basic warrany, but yes sand abrasion, and fogging due to the increased UV rays, from air polution is the manufacturers problem.

Reply to
David

It's probably a good idea to put in UV 400 protection into almost everything. I believe it's standard in plastics like CR39 for eyeglasses although they try to charge for UV coating. And polycarbonate and glass naturally have UV 400 protection. I don't know the details of how much all the above protect from ultra-violet rays.

If there is increased UV now because of thinning of the ozone layer, then this is a probably everywhere from our eyeballs to auto lenses.

Reply to
treeline12345

No, David, I'm just discouraged by D-C's (and other mfgrs) trend towards using pisspoor quality parts, like changing clocksprings, front stabilizer bar bushings, head gaskets and other items that fail at 36,001 miles, thats all. Read the litany of complaints in this NG, its all there. I dont think your personal attacks are very productive, since you know nothing about how I maintain my vehicles.

Reply to
Rick

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