Hello everyone

I have a weird issue to my headlights. They were pretty normally degraded-worn when I bought the car, so they were first polished for a MOT (just as a temporary "fix"), and then I ran them through a clear-coat restoration procedure (400-600-800-1000 sanding and 2k clear)
They now mostly look fine

But only till you hit them with a bright direct light (like sun), and then it looks much less good. They are kinda not 100% transparent, and have something whitish in 'em





Also they have a nasty light spot on them when low-beam is on


Same effect was also present before the clear-coat, after just a regular polish, so clear coat itself is unlikely to be a source of the problem

I am guessing it's either insides of the lenses, that are contaminated somehow, or plastic somehow degraded throughout its entire depth
Since checking out the insides is very labor-intense process- I would like to hear your opinion on that first. Have you, guys, seen or experienced anything like that?
What could that be?

Thanks!

 

It's possible the lens is cloudy on the inside I've seen this before. Are the headlights that difficult to remove?

 

Removing is not that hard, but opening them up- kinda is
Also I am not quite sure what to do with the insides. Sanding them down would likely destroy the factory engravings, which could be a problem, because Germany
I was also considering getting new lenses from ali (150$ for a set), but they also come blank, and they can not put engravings

Is there a way to somehow check, if crap is on the inside, without opening headlamps up?

 

You can polish the lenses perfectly on the outside, and they'll be very glossy, but if the oxidation is throughout the thickness of the plastic, they will always be milky. When light shines through them, it diffuses in the oxidation and looks worse.

 

I think its dirty on the inside, my car has the same issue

 

I'll take them off and take a look inside
There is info online about gel-type anti-fog coating on the inside, and that could very much be a problem
Isopropyl might rule that out, and if not- ali lenses...

I'll drop an update here

 

also when I first got my car and washed it I noticed some condensation build up in the one headlight so that might be causing it to get dirty inside

 

I only once had minor issue with condensation on my right lamp, which I quickly fixed by replacing the big o-ring and foam inserts in little breathers


So dirt is not the main candidate. Also- my contamination is perfectly uniform, and dirt would be much more random I guess

 

Spent the whole yesterday making the car unusable


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Removed inner coating with "fat remover" and some isopropyl alcohol. Did not work that well and made no major difference (though inner "orange peel" was gone and lens got smoother and nicer)
Had to spice it up with physical polishing- still no luck (coat was gone completely, but lens was still milky)
Thought that it could be my bad, so sanded through the outside clear coat that I put there myself, but same again- no major difference

So it is lenses themselves unfortunately. Gonna try replacing with chinese ones and hope for the best

 

Do a projector retrofit while you're at it. You won't regret it

 

Naah, it's too much hustle to make it look right (projector on top of a normal reflector look dumb as hell to me)
And police will definitely not be happy with that

 

I replaced my factory HID headlights with D-Spec projector headlights off of , back in 2021. 3 years later, and they still look and work great. I run high power H1 LED's, and the beam is epic. The projected line is crisp and sharp, with no bleeding over nor glare. You do have to rotate the LED's to line up the "hot spot" with the beam projection.
One of the headlights now has a small crack in the lens from a rock hit, but the crack does not leak.
Running LED's does require the removal of the bulkhead lid (wire pass-through plate that turns to lock), to allow the fan to clear, which means the headlights are no longer sealed. However, in 3 years, the lenses and reflectors are as clear as day one.

 

I have zero doubts leds in projectors are amazing. But there's no chance these can pass my local inspection, hehe
Even lenses I am installing are a bit of a gamble
I really like the stock ones look, even though they are total crap, but I don't care about light that much. The city where I live is pretty well illuminated, so you can drive with no light at night and still do just fine
And autobahn... if there's something, that you need headlights to see- it would be probably too late either way

Thanks for your suggestions anyway!

 

All done with new lenses
The hardest part was the outer rubber seal. Original one is a bit fancy shape-wise, and of course is not available separately.
Entirely new headlamps is the only option, if there is literally anything is wrong with yours, are you kidding, toyota...?

Bought 10x10 seal intended for house windows, made out of EPDM rubber, which should last forever



Made it into a loop via superglue, connection feels very strong, and looks ok-ish, if looking not too close

Excuse the quality

Also made holes with hot screwdriver for condensation to exit



Glue on the rubber strip feels fine, but could be stronger. Hope a pressure wash will not rip them off


Before/after 1

Before/after 2


All done

Lenses feel great, all the mounting elements are replicated perfectly, all screws go right in, zero issues with installation
Almost like they're stealing them from Koito, hehe

I'll try not to forget about postion a long-term update in couple years

Peace

 

That looks much better. Have you looked into applying headlight protection film to them so they stay clean and don't get sandblasted over time by road debris? To me, it's a mandatory step of a full lens replacement lest you end up with the same issue again in a few years.