I just bought a 1996 Lexus ES 300 and the projector headlights don't look the best. Where can I buy a pair and how much do they usually cost? Are they easy to install?

 

Are you talking about how the lens looks itself? If it looks pitted and dull, you can use a hard compound polish to clean it up. Plain simple toothpaste will work as well.

 

Welcome to CL and congrats on your '96 ES purchase. I also had a '96 ES for many years until I traded it in last year for my current '01 ES (click the link on my sig for the whole story). The best decision I've ever made

Regarding the headlamps on your ES, can you be a little more specific on what you mean by their appearance? The headlamps in most '92-'96 ES tend to look hazy and grimy if not kept clean on a regular basis. Some pictures of your headlamps would help us determine what can be done to freshen them up. flipside909 brought up a couple great solutions for detailing the ES headlamps.

Again, just post up with a little more detail behind your headlamps (add some pictures to your post if you can), and we'll see what we can come up with at no extra charge

 

Thanks guys, I will try to get a pic of them up later today

 

Here are some pics of the headlights. Sorry they aren't the best of quality. Any help would be appreciated.

 

See how they look really hazy at the top of the headlight. The last picture probably shows it best.

 

The headlamp plastic lens appears to be oxidized at the surface. I used to have the same thing on my old '96 ES. Can you feel a difference in texture if you run your fingernail from the "clean" portion of the headlamp to the "hazy" area? If so, then you know that you don't need to physically open up the headlamp to clean the inside (although the inside tends to condensate frequently for the '92-'96 ES headlamps).

To clean headlamp surfaces, I hear from many others that Meguiar's has a special product made for that particular task, called Plastic-X. It's supposed to do the magic and literally brighten them up to showroom-like condition. You can go online at http://www.meguiars.com for more info on this plastic cleaning product, or you can drop by your local auto parts store and find the product (I prefer the big named stores like Pep Boys and Autozone, but believe it or not, Ace's Hardware store has a pretty good auto detailing section)

 

Meguiar's is great.... Even the car wax seems to take off the haziness.