Cloudy Plastic Headlights

Did you try toothpaste?

Vinegar?

If nothing helps, get some from a junk yard and replace them.

Toothpaste contains finely-divided abrasives. Not recommended.

Well those two came up in my immediate internet research and OP did not mention them, so I did!

...for polycarbonate headlamp fronts, that is.

Even an auto paint polish would be much better.

Buy news ones. They are all over the internet.

Internet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Your car must be from England. I've looked on 4 different US web sites for replacement lenses and your vehicle does not exist.

I had that with a fresnel type lens inside a headlamp. Cleaned it with Brasso, came up a treat.

Brasso contains mild abrasives too. OK for glass though not recommended for polycarbonate, which is what most headlamp fronts are made from.

Baba Ji might know... <wink>

We have discussed this at CR4 in the past but most postings were either toothpaste, can't do it or required materials that the average homeowner would have a hard time finding. This is the first posting I recall where someone had a good personal experience with a product that was easy to obtain and affordable. I'll give it a try on my old headlights. Thanks and GA.

Even though it is touted as a metal polish, I've found that Simichrome works extremely well on plastics as well.

Harley motorcycle shops carry it. About nine bucks a tube.

(it also works well on metals, btw )

Now, if your headlight covers have yellowed, polish won't work because the plastic is itself discolored, the plastic having been broken down by the UV in sunlight. Yellowed plastic also indicates that it may have become brittle. Best to replace the covers outright.

GA.

I did my headlights about two years ago using a kit I purchased at a local auto parts store. I believe it was made by 3M.

Your local auto parts store will have a kit with buffing wheels pre-charged with proper grit, used with your electric drill to polish the hazed plastic.

Take it to a professional restoration service....or get new ones....To do it properly you need the proper tools and products....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRVxRloAwwo

http://www.deltakits.com/shopping/headlight-restoration

I've done mine twice myself after having it professionally done once. Same results, just a lot cheaper to DIY.

No tools required, just a kit, water, and some elbow grease.

That's fine if you have all afternoon to waste, and the energy it takes...When I say professional restoration specialist, I'm not talking about the service station down the street that does it for $20....If it's done properly, you shouldn't have to redo it again for several years....but I guess it depends on your financial situation and personal preference....Some people like to work on their car, some don't....some people don't like to, but can't afford it, so they bite the bullet and do the best they can with what they have....IE: toothpaste

Personally I would just replace them, I mean after 14 years....You can get a new OEM replacement for $170. then you have a whole new light...

Be my guest. I just looked up the replacement cost for my headlamps and the price was $1,930.00 each!

I just keep polishing them.

It's those import fees.

That must be those fancy Lexus lights that turn with the steering....Hey if you can afford that much for the car you shouldn't wince at the small stuff eh?

Nor would I wince at occasionally hand polishing headlights. Takes about as much time as it does to properly wash and wax a car.

I would hazard a guess that your lights are not 14 years old, and regular maintenance would include polishing the lights....but after 14 years of polishing you may indeed have no choice but to replace these lights....although I have a feeling you will no longer own this car.......

It is 10 years old.

I would like to keep the car. It only has 93,000 miles on it and looks pretty close to new outside the 20 foot perimeter.

However, some times I have to curse the electronics in the car, which I find mostly useless baggage, in my opinion, and extremely difficult to diagnose some times when it fails.

Case in point, when the car exceeds 75 mph on the speedometer the seat belt alarm goes off, but no warning light show up. Slow down to 71 mph or less and it goes off.

No one has been able to solve that riddle, including the dealer. It's not the seat belt.

Turn the radio up, way up.

Or hearing aid way, way down. ;-) ;-)

While listening to Sammy Hagar . . . . I can't dr . . .

It's probably something simple, there are so many gizmos I don't think anyone knows them all.....Maybe a larger service center at a larger dealer...I guess it could be a software glitch, but who knows.....Probably some sort of warning that the tires are not uniformly inflated...lol

I think there is a CPU with some scrambled bits somewhere, but it punctuates how technology can be a two-edged sword and much of the nanny circuits in cars can really be more for marketing glitter than to actually improve the functionality of the vehicle.

Bang on, but it seems most people don't think of it that way.

Oh how I wish VW, and other manufacturers, had listened to or would listen to your wise advice.

The drive train in my VW TDi is phenomenally reliable and efficient, but the myriad of electronic gizmos intended to increase convenience do not follow suit. I really would prefer to actually manually roll down the windows, and manually adjust the mirrors....the one on the driver's side is no further from me than the rearview mirror glued to the windshield which they didn't think I needed help reaching.

Don't get me wrong, some of it is very amusing. The seat heater my dog inadvertently...I'm just guess there, maybe she does it on purpose...turns on, typically in August here in Florida, provided some good laughs once I realized my sweating wasn't an indication I was coming down with some odd summer flu and that their wasn't anything wrong with the AC.

However, the very expensive, eventually brittle plastic interfaces and the less than rugged electronics behind those interfaces do not bring me joy....not even before breaking.

Last year my AC went out, which you can understand the issue here in Florida.

The dealer had it in twice for a total of six days of testing, poking, prodding, and ripping down the dash. The first two days they replaced the AC control unit, only to have the problem come back a day later, I returned the car and they had it for four more days for round two.

Root cause? Heater relay.

And the worst part is you are paying them $100 per hour or maybe more to learn how to fix your car !!

Yes there are no "mechanics" any more, only technicians who know how to read the display on "diagnostics" computers. At that point it tells them which module to replace, pretty simple stuff at first glance but you pay the price for the module. But truly diagnosing a problem, I would be surprised to find any "technician" at a dealership who can trouble shoot a problem without their computer and plug in.

Umm, yeah.

3M headlight polishing kit. If you can't figure it out, then have a "pro" do it for you.

It's not that hard...

Come on.. a little sensitivity please. Think of the poor souls whose lives will be on the line if his headlamp lens is not optical grade!

simple inquiries often return insulted abilities

I would guess that vertical strokes would be preferable to horizontal. Horizontal strokes would tend to diffuse light vertically, disrupting the (mostly horizontal) design light spread.

My 2¥, never done it -

I think you mis-read the emotions in my response. Although, your request for sensitivity is revealing.

You're juth too thenthitive.

So, just for you:

==========

Hey honey,

It's really not too difficult, sugar child. All you need to do is bop on down to the auto parts store (you know the one, where we first met), and buy one of them little 'ole 3M headlight polishing kits. They's as simple as pie and all, you know?

Anyway...I gotta go, so may the love of the Lord be with your soul sweetie-pie.

Take, care...xoxo

We use a Micro mesh kit on acrylic aircraft windows with with great results as long as the crazing isn't do deep. But for head light lens, that shouldn't be a problem. Here's a link to eBay where you can get a complete kit for $24.95. But as mentioned above, it takes elbow grease and patience.

I used a 3M headlight polishing kit on my 99 Dodge Caravan, and it did a terrific job. It took a bit of elbow grease but not too bad, especially if you use a buffing wheel on an electric drill. I picked the 3M because Consumer Reports rated it highly.

TOOTH PASTE- Tooth paste is a very mind abrasive which abrades the tartar and other junk off of the tooth enamel but not the enamel. It works the same way with plastic by gently removing the opaque top layer and then polishing the extremely thin lower layers. Some are coarser than others and a test sample should be done before the final parts are done. Choose a variety to try. For relatively coarse work I used to use McClain's (sp) tooth paste and a variety of others tested for relative polish effect. It is much better than rouge since it is finer. Use the coarser grades and then progressively go to the finer pastes. I do this every year on my cars that have the tendency to go opaque.

I find it fun to do it where passerbies and the neighbors can see it being done. They can't imagine why I am rubbing headlight covers with a tooth brush and then a cloth with toothpaste on it.

I have used this on Plexiglas for more than 40 years and only had a problem when I put tooth powder instead of paste on.

It is certainly less expensive and does as good a job as the more expensive specialty items,

Good Luck, Old Salt

I've used toothpaste as a polish on plastics & it works well. The 'whitening' type seems to work best although I was using this on polyacetal rather than polycarbonate. I wonder if the vibrating/orbital toothbrushes would help?

We seem to all have the "best" polishing product/compound/toothpaste/abrasive.

I suggest that the abrasive size/mesh is important but the carrier is even more important.

Polycarbonate is more solvent sensitive than many plastics. So, be sure the magic potion is compatible the the plastic.

I'm sure that most are safe, but, check first.

You can't 'clean' them. In 14 years they've been sandblasted. You might find that they can be polished. Or just replaced.

Most probably your problem is not 'dirt' but aging of the polycarbonate lens due to UV attack. Sorry, but what you need is new headlights.

Remember someone rejuvenating cloudy plastic covers on solar lights (Lights weren't charging properly) by using clear nail polish which turned the cloudy plastic clear again--Can't vouch for it, but , hey, worth a try..I would clean the plastic well before applying to get a good bond--Maybe try a small spot first--

Thanks everyone I have tried many of what you have said without success .....have to admit they are 14yrs old so will replace them now ......Cheers everyone and thankd for your thoughts.

Plastic headlights suck.

They get cloudy with age and sun. Polishing them yearly will help keep them clear, as will using a UV blocking automotive polish on them when you polish the car. My test in South Florida is to take some plastic polish and use one finger on the center of the lens. If I can not remove the cloud in that one spot in 200 strokes, it is new light time.

As for "optical clarity", unless you use sandpaper, you can not make them worse. Any polishing improves the light transmission. Give it a try.

At last.......... we had some benefit from living in a rainy climate, score 1 for the UK.

A couple of years ago I used a kit from Harbor Freight (CCP Headlight Lens Repair PN# HLR-200R) that was on sale for less than $10. Normally I try to "strategically" buy items from this company but considering it was going to be used on a 1998 Ford Taurus I decided to give it a try. The product worked quite well and cleared off the haze on the headlights. Overall, it took me a little under and hour to complete the process. Unfortunately my son bumped a small suv a few months later and folded the aluminum hood, broke the front plastic bumper and shoved the radiator into the engine block; parts were more than the car was worth so it went to salvage.

I've been hesitant to post this, because if it is not done carefully, it could be ruinous.....

.

If you are careful, and capable of exercising patience and moderation, you can use a trick on PC headlight covers that also works on scratched CDs and core frams.

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The trick is, after normally cleaning the lens covers well and drying, to dip the tip of a q-tip in acetone, and rub in the direction on the most prominent scratch. As the tip of the q-tip gets dirty or frays, barely dip the tip of a new q-tip in acetone and rub in the next most prominent scratch along its direction.

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I have to stress moderation here. You don't want liquid acetone dripping down the PC nor really even visibly wetting the surface. It should just barely moisten the q-tip. Wash the lens cover with water when finished.

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PC dissolves in acetone, which makes this a useful technique for removal of deeply imbedded whatever. It should be reserved for the deepest scratches. It probably isn't a good idea to attempt to clean the whole lens cover like this.

A better suggestion might be to first practice this on someone else's car.

Was I not explicit enough? That was what I meant by 'capable of exercising patience'. Getting some practice in has a far better chance of occurring if it is done as a surprise under the cover of night, than with a preemptive daytime request.

In another thread here we've mentioned vapour polishing which is much like you describe except that you hang the lens in a container with a very small amount of acetone & then warm it to create a vapour. This has the effect of smoothing all the surfaces. There are lots of video examples on You Tube.

Interesting. Thank you.