Found a fix for sun damaged headlights

Here is a link to my how to thread for more heavily damaged lights.

Make sure you apply the UV block religiously afterwards or they will yellow again!

Headlight Restoration | PriusChat

 

My wife has a 2006 Corolla that I use Turtle Wax Headlight restorer on. It is not expensive but requires a bit of "elbow grease". The first time took quite a bit of time and you have to re-do it about once a year, but it doesn't take long on the reapplication.

 

I discovered that even cheap rubbing alcohol will remove the yellow discoloration in my old corolla. But it comes back in several months. However, I never tried the sealer. Where do you buy it?

 

I restored my daughter's 2008 Mazda this weekend. I used the Meguir's Heavy Duty kit from Advanced Auto Parts. It was dramatically better than the 3m kit. It contains everything you need, including the Plastx shown above and the UV protectant. I highly recommend it.

 

personally i would not use anything that is just a magic clear your headlights type of product. they'd just be masking the problem, not really fixing it. i bought a 3m headlight restorer kit and it worked very well. a true fix for any headlight problem will take a little elbow grease, but it's worth it. My wifes cars headlight were so fogged and yellowed over you literally could not see the bulb through them. After using the kit I had them crystal clear. It's amazing how well those kits can work on seemingly hopeless headlights.

now i just do the occasional touch up with the kit, but I didn't know about the sealants, so I will get some of that and definately apply it.

 

I'm guessing automatic car washes rub off the factory protectant coating and that's why they turn yellow.

Alan.. Sent with Tapatalk 2

 

"Fogged", yellowed , or opaque headlights are a SAFETY issue and it should be a ticketable/warning offense legally. I see so many cars that are neglected to the point that there should be a law, that if not enough light is where it is supposed it be that it needs to be corrected! If you can't see at night how can you safely drive? I am not an advocate of more laws, but people don't use their heads and tend to be a little lazy!

 

Nah, the sun's UV bakes the coating and the plastic. The UV output from headlight bulbs doesn't help either. Fine material abrasion can also remove the UV coating and etch into the plastic.

The UV shield supplied with the kits works well but it doesn't address fine particles abrading the lens.

 

All newer cars should have a UV protectant that coats the headlight. If they didn't they would yellow VERY quickly. The reason your Vette never had a problem is because it doesn't sit in the sun 12hrs a day like non-garaged cars.

The Prius headlight is more susceptible to UV degradation because of the massive amount of plastic that sits in direct view of the sun. The GenII was particularly bad.

My GenII NEVER went through a mechanical car wash and the headlights started to yellow after 5yrs. It spent most of it's time in direct sun and sometimes under a carport but wasn't garaged.

 

I'm not arguing that the Vette doesn't have a film. That is different than the UV coating (paint-like) that comes on headlights. Could it be that you have clear bra material on them like xpel? XPEL Head Light Protection

 

I researched the headlight sealing options and apparently there is semi permament sealer available: Optimum Opti-Coat 2.0 Permanent Paint Coating

Price is steep but you can also seal alloy wheels and even paint.

 

Was I just lucky?
My last vehicle, I did NOTHING to the headlights and they stayed incredibly clear.

Well I did soap them up and rinse them off when I was washing the entire vehicle...but that's it.

Maybe it's climate related? Oregon get's a lot of cloud cover...so not a lot of constant beating sun. But I've never really done anything special to maintain headlights and I've never really had a problem.

(Knock on Wood).....now my Prius headlights will probably start to fade like an old mans eyes with cataracts.