Repair of Cloudy Headlights

I expect it happens a lot faster yeah.

 

Has anyone had experience with something called LightBrite from the dealership? Parkway Toyota here in Englewood NJ offers this and claims they look like new after. But I'm worried my headlights are foggy from condensation on the inside - not yellowish, just cloudy. Any way to tell the difference from the outside?

 

How long does the fix last? I'm not going out of my way to be a sceptic, hope for the best. I'm guessing it might require reapplication every couple of years? That's not too bad.

I've been reading a bit, and the consensus seems to be:

1. Plastic headlights save weight.
2. Plastic headlights are safer in a collision.
3. Plastic headlights are cheaper to make.

Definitely not cheaper replacing headlights these days...

Maybe safety will get legislators on this? Are fogged headlights greatly reduced in brightness?

 

Headlights "back in the day" used to either be round or square, and made from glass. This limited automotive design somewhat, but the glass lamps were tough, inexpensive, and stayed the same yellowy-white as when they left the factory over a period of years.
Besides.....back in the quaint period before the late 90's, car makers didn't accept car designs that were made by chemically enhanced "carchetics" trying to break new automotive fashion ground.

Now, injection molded plastic assemblies with replaceable LED or Halogen lamps give the clay modelers who design cars the opportunity to make the squinty-eyed wind-cheating models that modern CAFE requirements demand - at a much lower cost......but make no mistake........it's ALL about the cost.

If the OEMs would try to make you to believe that they're being forced to use plasticky assemblies because of buzz-kill bureaucrats beating them down, then that's a bunch of balloon juice.
You could make the same assemblies from tempered glass, or even some kinda gee-whizz acrylic but it would be...........more expensive.

Nobody complains about window glass being a safety hazard @ accident sites because.........it's specifically designed to be safe, and the weight gain from using glass instead of plastic is offset by the fact that the people inside the car have to be able to see out of the car clearly.

Headlamps just have to stay transparent enough to pass the light through to the outside of the car without diffusing it enough to cause visibility problems until the end of the warranty period - and then it's on the customer.
Some states actually have automotive safety inspection programmes, and since owner sloth is a 50-state problem, headlamp transparency has become a new block to check off in the more oppressive states.
Other states just use traffic cop's judgement....so....... if you're one of those people who don't like to get yoked by the man for an equipment ticket.......or....you just like to be able to see where you're going after dark or in heavy rain, then you'll want to replace cloudy headlamp assemblies before they (and by extension......YOU) become dangerous to be on the road with.
Like shocks, brakes, tires, filters, fluids, and the lamps themselves, the housing is now considered to be a user-replaceable item, and @ $200 a pop they're not all that expensive.

My '06 (non-Prius) is just starting to get cloudy eyed.....and so I'll probably clean them up as the OP did and see how long the repair lasts.
Or?
Maybe not.
Amazon says I can just replace them for about $80..............

............for both. With a 1 year unlimited mileage warranty.
It would appear that plastic assemblies are cheap for non-OEMs to make as well.

 

I saw some stomach churning numbers for headlight replacement, mentioned a few Toyota part costs, up the page. Bringing that down would be great.

 

Our 2010 was built in August 2009, sat for 15 months in a covered storage shed, facing away from the windows, and spends most of its time in our garage with north facing windows. Never done anything other than wash:


(Hood's popped slightly, have a charger on the 12 volt.)

 

Our son and daughter-in-law have our previous 06 civic. I was babysitting it last week, did a little detailing, and noticed the headlights have the hazing pretty bad. They're parking outdoors.

 

The Headlight assembly becomes hazy over time due to the exhaust gas that emits out from the car that you're waiting behind from. If you store your vehicle and don't use it often then it wouldn't affect it too bad.

 

Some info, not that conclusive. There's lots of discussion on this. Part'n parcel of plastic cars I guess:

What Causes Headlights To Turn Yellow And Foggy

Not sure if this Consumer Reports test is beyond their paywall:

Headlight Cleaners - Consumer Reports

The take away: they all seems to last a few months at most. This is starting to tick me off: everybody ends up with shite headlights, eventually. And the cost of these rolling sculptures is through the roof and climbing.

Besides cosmetics and replacement costs, there's a significant safety impact, due to reduced efficacy of the headlights.

 

I just used Plastix (~$9) and about 10 minutes to buff away the haze that started on my 2010 headlights. They look, and I think the bottle will outlast the car. Do the headlights when I wax the car, they should stay clear for along time.

 

No Pay, No play....

 

Fairly superficial, and they don't draw a lot of conclusions, but fwiw:

 

Here is Popular Mechanic's take on who makes the best kit for restoring headlights.

The Best Headlight Restoration Kit | Headlight Renewal Kits

 

Nother link, with some before/after testing:

Clouded headlights not just cosmetic problem

It's odd, considering the safety ramifications, google returns no "official" statements/stands. All these fogged headlight cars driving around, greatly compromised night visibility, nobody in government cares.

Another price, 2016 Prius headlamps, again the discounted price at Toyota Online parts:

$740~771

HEADLAMP COMPONENTS for 2016 Toyota Prius | Toyota Parts

 

I've always been curious about these products.
I've also never had the cloudy headlight issue with any vehicle I have owned.

I'm wondering if it doesn't have something to do with where the vehicle is most of the time?
I'm in the Northwest, and have a lot of cloud cover most of the year, and I just don't see a lot of vehicles develop this problem.

I am also curious as to how long the results last, and/or if the problem comes back with a vengeance?

You would think manufacturers could determine exactly what is causing this deterioration, and just fix this problem at the manufacturing source?

When it does happen to a vehicle, it's dangerous.
And it looks horrible.

 

I just got some of the OP product off Amazon.
I also have a plexiglass aquarium to uncloud so I thought I'd try it one way of the other.

 

Kind of miss those days.
Real glass headlights.
Chrome bumpers that weigh more than my entire vehicle today.

My new vehicle.
Plastic Chrome.
And nearly all "Bumpers" today are integrated Styrofoam filled sacrificial pieces, designed to crumple...safe...effective...but if you hit anything, don't really expect to be able to do much but cry and write a check to a body shop.

No going back to those old days...but some aspects of those resource Dinosaurs were.....really, really cool.

 

I bought the 3M they rated number 1. It didn't work for my 2005. Maybe I'll compare notes with Rebound in June.