It’s not an electrical problem, the lenses are cloudy.
I have a '97 Sable, which I use to commute to work. When set on bright, the headlights have roughly the same amount of light thrown as my Trailblazer on dim. I changed the bulbs because they were original issue, and when I did, I realized the lenses were cloudy. I tried washing them, but that didn’t help.
I presume they’re made of Lexan, or some similar acrylic material. Is there a way to clear them up? I’ve thought of buying a buffing wheel and a bunch of jeweler’s rouge, which will only work if the cloudiness is on the outer surface.
Help?!?
Oh, and let me add that changing the lenses is expensive, and taking apart the front end of a Taurus/Sable isn’t for the faint of heart…
I can’t answer for your car, but I know that in most cars it isn’t.
BTW, there are usually two causes of this, 2nd is most likely.
Using overly powerful (eg 100W) bulbs
Touching the bulbs with your bare skin when you handle them. If you ever do this, wash them with methelayted spirit. Otherwise tiny amounts of oil from your skin will get on the bulbs, vapourise and discolour the plastic.
It’s pretty easy. Go to an auto parts store, Pep Boys, Murray’s, AutoZone, etc. Get some 3M plastic polish. Follow the instructions and use them on the plastic of your headlights. The cloudiness will go away with a little elbow grease. I would not recommend using a buffing wheel unless you are experienced, as you could make the problem worse by putting large scratches in that won’t be able to be polished out.
I know what you’re talking about. The plastic has yellowed all the way through from age and exposure. The only thing to make it clear again is replacement of the lens which usually means the entire light assembly. Doing an assembly replacement costs a lot. I think the newer cars use plastic that resists UV breakdown better than ones 20 years ago. It occurs over time to all plastic lens requardless. The polish is for surface damage only.
GaryM that looks like a nice product package. It’s removing the outer lay very well from the looks.
It worked pretty well on my Ford. They looked as though they had condensation on them before hand and much better afterwards. Not perfect by any means, but better. I started with a battery powered drill and it wasn’t a high enough RPM. Switched to a 2200RPM unit and had better (quicker) results.
The stuff that Gary linked to is actually a metal polish. Sounds wierd, but a lot of people are using Brasso polish to buff scratches out of their plastic iPods, probably because it’s widely available at grocery and hardware stores, rather than some far-off specialty shop.
I’m just guessing, but the Autosol polish is probably roughly equivalent to Novus #2 polish.
Alternately, you can use 2000 grit sandpaper to wet-sand the plastic. A drop of dish soap such as Ivory will help keep the paper from loading up, and if you’re fussy, you can finish it up with 2500 or 3000 grit.
Whatever you do, plan on it being a bit messy and a lot tedious. If you use a buffer or polishing wheel, keep it moving to prevent causing ripples or waves in the surface.
Yet another option - browse the local “Pick Your Part” junkyards and look for the same model car and hope its lights are in better shape.
Many people deal with this same problem. Polishing seems to work, but you need to keep them waxed or some UV-protectant on them or they’ll haze right back up.
The easy fix is to get new headlight lenses. Dealers are usually $100+ each, but eBay is a decent place to find aftermarket ones. I have some TYC brand headlights on my 1998 Contour, they came with bulbs and fit and look great.
I bought a kit from Advance Auto Parts to buff the lenses. It’s made by a company called CCP, and consists of a hard plastic you chuck in a drill, and round foam pads embedded with a buffing compound that stick to the wheel.
You use a spray bottle to wet the pads, and polish the lenses. Go for about a minute, stop, spray the lenses with more water, and repeat until the lenses are clear. The whole process took about 5 minutes per lens.
Pro: worked as directed and advertised.
Cons: Hard to keep the revs up on my drill, but that’s not the fault of the kit; the process is messy, and you’ll need to wash the car when you’re done.
My lights are brighter, but not quite as much as I hoped for.