I was perfectly happy driving my 97 Explorer at night until I drove my girlfriend’s 2005 Lexus RX one night. Whoa! I wouldn’t think a 2005 would be state of the art in terms of headlights, but it made it seem like I have 2 prayer candles up front in my Explorer.
So out of frustration I went to the auto parts store, and picked up some Sylvania H5 9007 headlight replacement bulbs with OSRAM technology. These seemed a little better. Now maybe it was like having 4 prayer candles in the Explorer.
Is it possible to get the newer car headlight performance out of the an older technology car?
So the other piece to this is the headlight lens. Courtesy of a suicidal deer, I have one 5 year old headlight lens and an original 15 year old lens, and there is quite a bit of difference in clarity between the 2. I bought an el-cheapo restoration kit, and it maybe removed 20% of the opaqueness from the old lens. Has anyone had any luck with these, and if so can you point me to one that works, and doesn’t an orbital sander or other extreme measures.
I spend a lot more time fending off the dark behind the wheel than with a flashlight. Thanks for any assistance.
I have good luck with the Sylvania SilverStar® bulbs.
Plastic headlamp lenses, Aghhh! |( I hate them! Once the factory coating is worn off you can polish them with one of the many restoration products out there, but it will require regular repetition to keep them clear. Replacement lenses are the only (somewhat) long term alternative and too often replacements are not as good as the factory originals.
What’s the wattage of your bulbs? H4/H7 lights are usually rated ad 65W, yet, there are 95W versions available for offroad and rallye use. You might want to check with your local laws, first, though.
I haven’t used those headlight restoration kits, but I have tried wet sanding some badly fogged lens with 2000 grit sandpaper followed up with some 3000 grit sandpaper, and then finished off with some generic plastic polish. It’s not perfect, but the lens almost looks new in terms of clarity. As jacktheclipper said, you have to completely remove the oxidized and pitted layer before even touching the plastic polish.
There's a pretty good article from Consumer Reports that explains & reviews a few different products out in the market. The layer you have to remove is the clear coat protective layer. Re-applying a clear coat is key. Otherwise, you're back where you started in a few months. Good-luck.
sandpaper worked well on a sweepgauge speedometer cluster lens off a 65 Mustang, once. Started with 80 grit and worked my way to 800 grit, then hit it with polishing compound. 20 hours of work to make it look like it was brand new. (yes, I do know there are reproduction ones readily available now - still, there weren’t any in the 90’s. Besides, there’s some pride in bringing original items back to life)
Oh, my bad for recommending 95W bulbs - When you fabricate your own wiring, you tend to overlook the fact that sometimes, standard wiring isn’t up to the task.
Sometimes the plastic is so degraded it has tons of little “stress” cracks in them(that’s what they look to me, might have to do with vulcanization). But you can still clear up the area around that. Depending on how bad the headlights are, I’ll start with about 800 grit, then 1000, then 2000, and polish. A key step is to seal the headlight afterwards, kind of like how a clearcoat protects paint. You could just use some wax, but there are longer lasting permanent sealants out there.
We use it as a test reagent in my pool store, and it’ll strip off all the ugly yellowness (I’ve tested it myself, I have a bottle of it next to me as I speak, ha) But it leaves the lens looking “scratched” but clearer.
Most kits use something like the NaOH to remove the yellowing and oxidation, then a secondary chemical to “buff” the light (or like someone already said, some very fine grit sandpaper should buff it out).
Honestly, on my sis’s and my gf’s cars, I just use the NaOH to get rid of all the yellowing, that alone made a hell of a difference. (and I got it for free, lol)
Personally speaking think your suggestion of h’wattage bulbs is a good one. Over the years I have used high wattage bulbs in all sorts of cars from 120w/80w in a Citroen cx through to 100w h7s dips in a Volvo V70 in every case never had an issue with the wiring (may be exceptions but never experienced one). Obviously easy to check after fitting them, see if the wiring gets toasty, if not High wattage bulbs are a lot better bet than the so called ” %brighter” bulbs which IME are not that much (if at all with some makes) better, just cost more money. Though HW bulbs may not be legal for roads (sic).
Heat in the headlight unit might be a problem for the plastic with very high wattage bulbs. Have drilled the units and put a small fan in an old sierra that had 150w (IIRC) bulbs…
Quite often it’s not just the lenses but the POS coating that they use as a reflector in the units, it ends up like matte silver paint after a while and have never had any luck in effecting a decent repair, without sending them to a plater. Did once get a car though an MOT using a ‘mylar’ type of film but the heat from (standard) bulbs killed it quick time.
This is the exact process needed. I have done it and the improvement was significant from the degraded plastic lense that I started with. I did not clearcoat seal it afterwards, but that is a good idea.
