fogged headlight

[Ninety5gister]

I have one headlight that has like some kind of residue on in that I can't get off. Is that normal? What do I do? Do I have to replace it? Can it be fixed? Does anyone else have this problem?

 

[Ghost1984]

if its on the outside, like a yellow film, you can wetsand it off and then put some rubbing compound on it, if its on the inside, you might have to remove the headlight assembly and clean it from the inside, if theres moisture in there its because you have a seal cracked so the air seeps in.

 

[TurBoGs-T]

Mothers aluminum polish got mine off fine. but it was only a temp fix.

 

[AdoreGSX]

ok, i did my reverse lights a while ago with wetsand, but now i was just ####ing around with one of my headlights and tried a spot with the wetsand and it looks horrible, its blurred as hell and i need to get it back to normal or better. I dont have any buffing compound so that MAY be the problem but I dont know, I need advice from someone badly...please help. uppinnn

 

[cuttheduck]

Dont need to panic,, I would just use some rubbing compound and a rag. It fixed mine instantly. Read below for your problem.

More Headlight Fogging/Yellowing Fixes
written by: Slipstream
Currently Offline

DSMtuners Member
Location: California
Car: 95 Talon TSi AWD
After reading multiple articles on how to clean up the headlights on my Talon I tried them all to no avail. Unfortuneately mine weren't just fogged and yellowed, you could actually feel crustyness of the UV damaged plastic and the pitting and corrosion from neglect (I just bought it). After all the other fixes out there failed to resolve my bad headlights I came up with a plan, if your headlights are bad, and I mean bad. the following might work for you where others have failed.

Supplies:
1000-grit Sandpaper
2000-grit Sandpaper
McGuires ScratchX Scratch Remover
Spray Bottle filled with water
Shop Towels

1. Pick a headlight to start on and spray it down with water. Dig out the 1000-Grit sandpaper and start sanding the headlight, keep it wet and wipe the plastic dust off frequently. Keep at it until the dust isn't yellow anymore and you can't feel any pits or corrosion on the lens.

2. At this point your headlight looks worse than when you started...it may have been foggy before but now you're wishing you had left them alone because they are clouded worse than ever before. Never fear. Dig out the 2000-Grit sandpaper and spray the headlight down, like before keep it wet, keep sanding and wiping and spraying until any minor imperfections come out, and all the scratches from the 1000-grit paper are smoothed out.

3. Yes I know they are still foggy. Wash them off completely and dry them thoroughly. Now grab that expensive tube of ScratchX and follow the directions, rub it on using tight circles and lots of elbow grease. Let it dry and then buff it off and look at your headlight. Has it ever looked better? No I didn't think so.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 above on the second headlight.

I hope this helps relieve some of the aggrevation I had in trying to find a solution to my headlight issues.

 

[Zenja]

I'm pretty sure that sometimes (like on my car) the lights get fogged and/or dirty from the inside and cleaning the outside won't help much. There's a tech article on how to take apart the light and clean the inside.

 

[Defiant]

These are the threads just in the Tech Articles forum:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127646

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113806

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98500

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80302

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58328

Besides that, there are dozens of threads about this, including one just this week.

Please, please SEARCH the forums. It's why we've done all this [free] work for you.