Thread: hazy headlights i cant see

I've had my replacement housings since I bought them off eBay in early 2008. They still look awesome. I have used the Meguiar's Ultimate Compound on them every 3-6 months lately. I work it in real good with just a nice, soft microfiber cloth. REALLY work it in. Then just find a clean area of the cloth & rub all of it off so it's nice & clean. Works very well for me. I do the same with my stock tailights, they shine like crazy & look freaking awesome. Don't recall the brand or seller I got the housings from but they've held up very well. At the time, they were around $100. Keep in mind that was 6+ years ago. Sh1t's cheaper now.

I like the retro fit pics ^^^. Looks really nice & clean.

About the aiming of the headlights... I owned my GTP for probably 8 years before I found the actual adjustment screws for adjusting the headlights. It's not mentioned in the GM manual that came with the car I don't think. You need one of those $5-$10 star bit socket sets to adjust them. There's a weird star-shaped screw sticking somewhere out of the top of each headlight. That's what you have to play with to adjust the height up or down. Just an FYI for anyone out there.

Look up the general procedure for aiming headlights online. IIRC, you have to park like 10-20 feet away from a garage or wall (COMPLETELY FLAT SURFACE). Then you have to kinda make a straight line from EACH bulb to the wall & mark it off with tape for each one. Then you wanna measure up from the floor about 4 feet. That's where the top of the light output should hit. They also said to horizontally aim your driver's side one slightly to the right of where it should be so as to be more courteous to oncoming drivers on tight 2-way roads. Makes sense. There's another adjustment screw somewhere in there for the side-to-side action.

Originally Posted by Trett93

seen a vid on facebook like a couple months ago, headlight was piss yellow, all he did was take an old sock and bugspray, sprayed the sock and it wiped right off. I hate my headlights, cant ever get them clean its like theyre frosted inside the housing, good ol sunfires.

Originally Posted by 1BadGT

Yeah that's the same video I seen. Found it on Facebook and Youtube. And no everyone, my lights are pointed straight, you guys caused me to go check them lol. The Silverstar ZXE'S are just REALLY bright lol.

Sent from 1BadGT's Rooted Galaxy S5!

Originally Posted by GTP131

Although I don't work with optical-grade resins often, I do work in plastics and would like point a few things out. I apologize if some of these things seem obvious, but I think it will help some people.

Headlight lenses turn hazy/white/yellow due to oxidation. No need to go into the chemistry, but it's basically plastic's equivalent of metal rusting. There are a number of reasons a plastic might oxidize, but in general, radiation (heat, UV from sunlight, etc) makes the process happen much faster. Light doesn't cause the oxidation per se, but damages the plastic in a way that enables oxidation.

Generally, the OEM's make headlight lenses out of polycarbonate. They generally prefer it over acrylic because polycarbonate is tougher and more difficult to crack/break. Unfortunately, polycarbonate has a much greater tendency to oxidize. Although there are additives to make polycarbonate more resistant to oxidation, these additives also tend to reduce clarity and are not appropriate for an application such as a headlight.

To get around this issue, OEM's generally put a thin UV-resistant layer over the lens. This reduces the amount of radiation that accelerates oxidation in the lens.

Now, let's go back to the "metal rusting" analogy. If you have a rust spot on your car, do you just sandpaper the rust off and call it good? Hopefully not, as the conditions that caused the rust will simply react with the fresh metal and rust again. Ideally, you would clean the rust, then properly paint and coat it to prevent the rust from returning.

You can apply similar logic to your headlight lens. Once the coating is reduced or gone, your lens oxidizes. If you simply clean off the outside of the lens (likely removing any remaining coating at the same time) then you will probably remove the oxidized plastic and have a clear lens again, but the conditions that caused the oxidation will cause it to haze over again.

So what can be done about it? Like others in this thread have mentioned, you can add another protective coating. You will need one that will be hard and resist all the particles that strike the lens during driving. Finding one that lasts as long as the OEMs apply probably isn't going to happen, so you will likely rely on a coating that should be periodically re-applied. The rest of the action will be preventative. Keeping your headlights out of the sun and weather as much as possible will help protect the coating.

Nice explanation.

Originally Posted by spazzz

That would be Opti-Lens, but it is $60 for 10ml...which is enough for 5 sets.
It is supposed to last. The only reason I bought and used it was to protect my new headlights with the D2S.3 retros I did.

Now for that kind of scratch new headlights is a no brainer

This is the way to go or another option is to invest in some x-pel once the lights have been restored. That also prevents the lights from hazing.

Good write up on bug spray versus and actual lens polish.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...-s-plastx.html