Are your headlight lenses getting cloudy?

Let's see, proper maintenance, I missed that in the owner's manual and the shop manual. Is there a section on polishing your headlamp lenses? What do they recommend anything in particular? Any time periods, like once every six months? I had always thought the headlights were like the brake lights, don't need anything to keep them clear - silly me :)

lenses?

the headlamp fluid must be changed every 30k!

Silly you, obviously you thought wrong. Particularly when you failed to do anything when the lens covers first started to degrade. There are any number of things on an automobile that require preventive maintenance over time that are not specifically listed in the manual. What is in the manual are those MINIMUM warranty requirements you must complete to avoid negating warranty coverage. By the way tail lamp covers will degrade over time as well

mike hunt

I was not in possession of the vehicle when it started to degrade and I guess it did not bother my friend who was. When it was brought to my attention by a mechanic, I cleaned up the lenses. The mechanic wanted about $400. I spent about $1 on Meguiar's PlastX which is a little pouch filled with something that looks like toothpaste.

That easy, apply a little polymer polish on occasion and the lenses will not become cloudy.

mike hunt

Fortunately my '95 Concord's headlight lenses are still quite clear. The car is garaged most of the time and we don't get much sun for half of the days. Perhaps this is saving it?

That should help it. I found with our old Aerostar years ago that polishing the lights with Turtle wax every time I waxed it kept them crystal clear while other one's faded. Cheap simple maintenance.

I wash the car with a Turtle Wax wash and wax concentrate, which certainly gets on the lenses. Perhaps that is also helping keep the lenses clear.

And to top it off the Aerostar Lenses are GLASS! wow Glass lenses stayed clear what a revelation.

Lets complete the thought. The Sebring are not glass ???

They are plastic with an optical coating.

After years, the wind with it's little grains of sand 'sandblast' the optical coating and the lenses start to fade and turn yellow.

There isn't really much to do except install new headlights.

Like any finish lens cover require preventive maintenance . If cleaned and protect by a polymer polish on occasion and they will not cloud over.

mike hunt

There are two other options (see (1) and (2) below). The cloudiness is a surface issue - not thru-the-material.

For (1) or (2), it would be best to remove the assys. from the vehicle.

(1) You can sand the surface with ever finer grades of wet-or-dry, ending with 2000 grit, and then polish with any one of a number of polishes - Mequiar's Plastix? being one that works well. But you do have to periodically repeat the polishing. (Note: When the sanding is finished, the surface will look uniformly dull - never fear - the polish fills in the microscopic sanding scratches to make it look brand new. While not necessary, if you polish it long enough, you will smooth it down to a water clear surface, but polish will still be needed periodically to protect it from deteriorating again without the clear coat that originally came on it.)

- or -

(2) Sand it down as in (1) above, and then (after insuring that no chemical residues remain from sanding and/or polishing) clear coat the surface with regular clear coat - many people have found this a very satisfactory solution. Just like the polish in (1) fills in the dull finish (after sanding) to make it appear water clear again, so will the clear coat.

Also, whether replacing with new assys. or clear-coating, these might be a worthwhile investment:

you might have to replace one set of those over the remaining life of the vehicle - much cheaper than new headlamp assys. Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Hi Bill...

Just to add to your sanding process for what it's worth...

Autoglass people have a product they use... a pink liquid, used to polish windshields, that easily polishes plastic to a brand new gleam.

Wish I remembered (if I ever knew) what it's called. How I came across it was years and years ago one of the kids went up north in a 79 pontiac wagon. Coming back it rained, the passenger wiper somehow ripped, and time they got back there was an awful gouge in the glass... neighbor was then in the autoglass business, and gave me a coke bottles worth of this stuff.

BTW, lots of elbow grease removed every last trace of the gouge, but by the time it was gone the glass was optically changed. In this case didn't matter, lower strip on passenger side, but if any others try it be careful :)

Take care.

Ken

Yeah - anytime you remove material (change the thickness) unevenly, it's going to cause optical distortion. One of my kid's car's windshields has an arc from the windshield wiper arm from one night several years ago in which the wiper blade fell off in the middle of a bad storm and they kept driving with the wipers running with it like that - it's not too noticeable, and not deep - just surface abbrassion - I'm hopting that if I ever get it polished out, it won't cause noticeable distortion.

I've concluded that some glass is *much* harder than other glass. I worked on it by hand with tooth paste and some other abbrassives - even tried wet-or-dry on it. Didn't phase it. I even got my Dremel MotoTtool out with the polishing wheel and abbrassive - still didn't have any effect! There's a shop in town that's supposed to be set up for removing windshield scratches - as soon as I get it back on the road (replacing head gasket now) I'm thinking of taking it by there and paying to have them see what they can do. Another shop in town says they don't do that any more - they just insist on replacing the windshield - which I guess is more proftiable for them, and in some ways makes sense for the customer too. I just prefer not to break the factory seal if I don't have too (plus I have learned that factory windshields are made of much harder glass than typical consumer grade windshields - and therefore much more resistant to sandblasting and other damage (and polishing out of scratches once they do occur). :)

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

Yep. Glass comes in all kinds of different hardnesses. And then there's hardened glass, and toughened glass, and...

Cerium Oxide slurry is the appropriate gookum.

That's why you want to insist on reputable-name-brand glass when having a windshield replaced.

DS

< Big Snip>

If it's pink, the active ingredient is probably cerium oxide. It is used in optical work quite a bit, as it cuts and polishes faster than rouge. It's also less messy. Personally, I would make a lap with optical pitch to do the polishing, and avoid the sanding altogether.

Steve R.