headlight lens degradation

Our 2000 Ford Taurus wagon has bad headlight degradation. I used two Meguiars products about twice a year:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

The latter is like a UV wax. As you wipe it on, thin, it completely disappears.

Polycarbonate headlights come with a hard UV protective coating from the factory. It's important to maintain this as long as possible because, while it won't last forever, you are unlikely to duplicate it with over the counter restoration products. In fact, many of these products remove the UV coating and should only be used after the original coating is gone.

Don't use "all in one" cleaner/waxes that contain polishing abrasives on your new lenses. Use of a high quality Carnauba wax will fill in fine scratches and protect the original UV coating. Apply often.

I'm of the opinion that most badly weathered polycarbonate lenses had the wrong products used on them early in their lifecycle. Treat them gently like the coated plastic lenses in your glasses/sunglasses and don't delve into the world of restoration products until they really need restoration.
 
Thanks guys, when I read this thread I learned about the problem with the headlights. I bought my CX-5 2016 on July of last year and by the time I read the thread I was taking my car for 5k checkup. I told the guy about this problem and he told me I had to get an appointment on a week day (which was hard for me) finally I took my car today and they told me to take it back in 9 days because they are going to change the headlights under warranty. Big thanks to you all because probably I would not have noticed.

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After restoring the lights on my wife's '06 Miata a couple of years ago (and therein removing any semblance of UV coating) I started using this once a month https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned) on both her car and my CX-5. Seems to help, but there's nothing like keeping a car garaged to ward off this kind of damage.
Resurrecting this thread, after using this stuff for a year the headlight fogging literally stopped. Good stuff, highly recommended.
 
Resurrecting this thread, after using this stuff for a year the headlight fogging literally stopped. Good stuff, highly recommended.

Nice. I have some Meguiar's headlight sealant (2nd link posted by Triton above) that I've been using every couple of months on our CX-5. The headlights still looked very good when we purchased the car in August of last year. Hopefully they'll stay looking good.
 
All of you just need to invest in some headlight protection film (I recommend Xpel)... it'll not only provide chipping protection, but it'll also protect your lights from fading... my 10 year old Corolla beater (always parked outside) has Xpel on and it's still crystal clear to this day without me doing any special "treatment" or "maintenance" to it, besides washing the car

protection film is cheap, headlights are not
 
All of you just need to invest in some headlight protection film (I recommend Xpel)... it'll not only provide chipping protection, but it'll also protect your lights from fading... my 10 year old Corolla beater (always parked outside) has Xpel on and it's still crystal clear to this day without me doing any special "treatment" or "maintenance" to it, besides washing the car

protection film is cheap, headlights are not
My 1998 Honda CR-V which is never garaged for almost 19 years and 17,6538 miles under Texas sun, both headlight lenses are still as clear as new. They don't need any protection film or UV wax. I believe the quality of polycarbonate or what ever the material is still making big difference on longevity! If you use right material to make very reliable headlight lens, it'll show its true colors after 19 years like my Honda CR-V. And I know Honda didn't cut corners on my CR-V headlights like many other car manufactures did!
 
You're right... the quality makes a big difference
Your CR-V has ECE markings on the headlight lens, which tells me that they just used 1 lens for all markets of headlights, and just have different internals accordingly (but not too many differences, since IIRC, the CR-V has VOL/ECE style beam pattern)... My point is, ECE rules have very strict mechanical durability requirements, thus in order to meet their environmental degradation tests (under Regulation 20 or 31, now 112/113, etc), the manufacturer has to build the headlight with tough enough materials to pass this test

DOT rules have no such requirements to my knowledge, and so, the manufacturer can make it however they like... this results in a North American market flooded with crappy headlights everywhere (not to mention poor beam patterns)
 
Also, one thing is for sure, Honda sold cars with very good (DOT) headlights back in the 90s... not to mention, Honda and Toyota built up their reputation to their peak in the 90s with super durable and reliable cars... as the old saying goes, "they just don't build them like they used to"
 
protection film is cheap, headlights are not

You are not wrong!

I noticed some of those white fleck mark on the inside of my LED headlight lenses and it looks like the adhesive issue as per the TSB listed earlier.

Mentioned it to my Mazda dealer , the service rep had a look and took some photos - so they can see what Mazda says re a warranty replacement.

He mentioned that here in Aus, each LED headlight assembly costs $2000 at dealer cost price!

Yikes! Imagine the cost of a nose to tail crash - your insurance is up for $4K in headlights alone!
 
You're right... the quality makes a big difference
Your CR-V has ECE markings on the headlight lens, which tells me that they just used 1 lens for all markets of headlights, and just have different internals accordingly (but not too many differences, since IIRC, the CR-V has VOL/ECE style beam pattern)... My point is, ECE rules have very strict mechanical durability requirements, thus in order to meet their environmental degradation tests (under Regulation 20 or 31, now 112/113, etc), the manufacturer has to build the headlight with tough enough materials to pass this test

DOT rules have no such requirements to my knowledge, and so, the manufacturer can make it however they like... this results in a North American market flooded with crappy headlights everywhere (not to mention poor beam patterns)
Yes, 1998 CR-V does have "ECE" marking on the headlight lenses. But if you see the pictures I posted at post #55 in this thread, my 2001.5 VW Passat has the worst condition among cars we current have. The lenses degraded and yellowed after 7 years. And that headlights are ECE certified and have "ECE" marking on the lenses.

I agree, Honda and Toyota built up their reputation to their peak in the 90s with super durable and reliable cars ⋯
 
My 1998 Honda CR-V which is never garaged for almost 19 years and 17,6538 miles under Texas sun, both headlight lenses are still as clear as new. They don't need any protection film or UV wax. I believe the quality of polycarbonate or what ever the material is still making big difference on longevity! If you use right material to make very reliable headlight lens, it'll show its true colors after 19 years like my Honda CR-V. And I know Honda didn't cut corners on my CR-V headlights like many other car manufactures did!

The upright profile and small surface area of the light of that year's cr-v helps too. Less of a direct sun angle to hit it. The bumper also juts out from it at such an angle to help shadow light reflected off the ground too.

My old 3 started hazing after about 6 years in the sun. But those lights are large and fully exposed.
 
All of you just need to invest in some headlight protection film (I recommend Xpel)... it'll not only provide chipping protection, but it'll also protect your lights from fading... my 10 year old Corolla beater (always parked outside) has Xpel on and it's still crystal clear to this day without me doing any special "treatment" or "maintenance" to it, besides washing the car

protection film is cheap, headlights are not

I highly recommend Xpel as well but just not for the CX-5 (pre 2017 at least). Its too hard to install due to some funky creases. Xpel is a premium thick film. Too think for the CX-5 for me to install. I used thinner 3M paint protection film and the lenses on our CX-5 with 60k+ miles looks nice and shiny. No chips.
 
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I just noticed this like 2 months ago, and it seems to be getting worse by the day.


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I highly recommend Xpel as well but just not for the CX-5 (pre 2017 at least). Its too hard to install due to some funky creases. Xpel is a premium thick film. Too think for the CX-5 for me to install. I used thinner 3M paint protection film and the lenses on our CX-5 with 60k+ miles looks nice and shiny. No chips.

Do you have any suggestions on where to get paint protection film for the headlight?
 
Had a service specialist from Mazda HQ look at my headlights today.

He said the white cloudy marks were on the outside or under the UV coating, so he tried to remove the UV coating to clean them up - then redo the UV coating - a 10 minute job, apparently.

An hour later, that 10 minute job wasnt successful. He says the marks are on the outside of the lenses, but I still reckon they are on the inside surface.

Anyway it doesnt matter, he has approved replacement headlights, and the dealer has put an order into Mazda and will contact me to organise a time to have them replaced when they come in. Saw the warranty invoice - $1995 each. Bit of a markup on parts prices hre in Aus, it seems.....

By the way, if you really want to see how bad those headlights are, turn them on! Wow, does that show up the marks!! They look 20 times worse than when the headlights are off!!!
 
I agree, Honda and Toyota built up their reputation to their peak in the 90s with super durable and reliable cars ⋯

meh, our Acura Integra and previous Corolla from the 90's had pretty nasty looking headlights after about 10 years or so. And my wife's old Corolla was pretty much a massive pile of junk despite me doing whatever possible to keep it running. My Integra is still going strong, though!
 
meh, our Acura Integra and previous Corolla from the 90's had pretty nasty looking headlights after about 10 years or so. And my wife's old Corolla was pretty much a massive pile of junk despite me doing whatever possible to keep it running. My Integra is still going strong, though!
Are these nasty looking headlight lenses from Japan?
 
Not sure, the Corolla is gone. All Integras were built in Japan so I'm sure they have headlight housings from Japan (Koito).

I had headlight protection film on the Integra for about 11 years, and they slowly degraded over time. I finally pulled the nasty stuff off last year, leaving a mess of very old adhesive residue. I was able to get it all off, and wetsand and polish the lenses, but now the lenses look hazy on the inside for some reason. I probably won't do anything else to it unless I were to upgrade my HID projector retrofit conversion, but I drive the car so little these days that it hardly seems worth the time, effort and money to do such a thing.
 
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