Looking at the price of replacements, you would think they would be made out of glass.

 

I finally heard back from the local JLR dealer and they tell me that the headlight with the faulty J blade LED will be covered under the CPO but they will not cover the other headlight for micro-cracking. My concern is with replacing just one headlight, will the other appear even worse than it already does; microcracks more apparent and even a possible brightness difference? CPO is clearly a different warranty but I feel like this issue isn't isolated and headlights should match.

 

My 400 has very, very early onset of this. When it happened in my 981 Cayman, it started out very small and completely covered both lenses within 2 days of the southern heat. I am out of warranty and my extended warranty doesn't cover the lamps, so I am going to try some Lamin-X protective film. I'll report back as I don't really want to spend $5k a piece for lights LOL.

 

I had that happen to one headlight on my '17. The dealer replaced it under warranty....$5k.

 

I have been told that putting ppf on headlights can actually trap the heat more and cause microcracks. Can anyone provide a definitive answer on this?

 

This seems very plausible to me. Frist, why would you put PPF over plastic? Next, on mine, it happened after the dealer put PPF on the front of my car, including the headlights. They ended up needing to replace both of them.

Funny story, when they replaced them, they got me on black one and one chrome one. It looked a bit like Clockwork Orange...

 

Between consistant DRL failure and now this, it looks like a potential class-action situation over faulty headlamp units if this is a systemic problem just now rearing its head. My one headlamp with a bad drl was replaced under warranty at over $6K. Two of them could total an early F-type if there was much damage in an accident.

 

Well they put the ppf on because rocks can crack the plastic too. How did you notice a problem with yours? I haven't noticed any issues with my headlights but now I'm nervous.

 

My P-car had no ppf on the lamps and this is how they ended up before I replaced them, so I can't speak to if ppf would make it worse. This was 100% within the lens as I own a body shop and sanded them down to clear coat them with unfortunately no improvement.

 

It was very obvious.

 

That there is some nasty looking chit in that headlamp. Actually, the "crazing" of the plastic headlight lens should be considered a safety hazard and a complaint filed with the National Transportation Safety Board as the distortion will limit the effectiveness of the lamp and/or distort the pattern, causing a potential blinding of oncoming traffic. You don't want anyone to be injured in an accident because of it, but a complaint could ultimately force a RECALL down the road if the right person (perhaps an attorney who also happens to be an F-Type owner) were to take the challenge.

 

The cancer has spread to mine, seemingly over night, started to notice a cluster of stain looking spots last month, did not think much of it, but it did not disappear after a car wash, tried to clean them thinking it might be tree sap or stubborn grime, made it way worse in the process(or not, it was probably going to flake off soon without action)

After trying to sand and polish them, i realized it’s both inside and out, the inside is not that bad so i never noticed it.

Micro cracks is also visible when viewed closely or against the sun, similar to op’s picture.






the last 2 pictures has sanded spots on the top and untreated spots in the bottom, 1500 grit sand paper did not remove it fast enough, had to go for 800 for anything meaningful.

 

I installed PPF on my old S-Type head lights after I had sanded and buffed them back to perfection. Two reasons?

1. As posted above impact protection
2. All factory head lights have a UV coating on them. When you sand and buff the surface your removing that usually all of it. As I found that coating is what's failing and turning cloudy/yellow. I used Expel cut to size head light film. The film supposedly has UV protection. If you don't put some kind of UV protection on the newly cut and buffed lights they start to decay fairly fast. I have shot clear on them and used the PPF. The film is a lot easier to do.

Drove that car for several more years with no problems so I did not see any trapped heat problems from the PPF film.
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I’m going to tint them for uv protection now that the coating is gone, the vivvid tint is supposedly uv resistant.

the og coating is probably different than most other cars, usually they yellow before anything else.

 

Like Clubairth1, I have PPF on both headlights and have had no issues with cracking, crazing or yellowing. The car has spent the last 2 years outdoors in strong Southern California sun and the headlights still look new.

+1 for PPF !!

 

In 2020, while my 2017 was still under factory warranty, I asked my JLR dealer about the Microcracking. It was written up in a service order and denoted by "take pictures". Nothing was done at that time, and at $6k each, thought I could live with it. 2024 service visit and my JLR tech brought it to my attention. I repeated my story and he asked for copy of that work order and said he would push it. It's been a month and the latest word is that it has been "escalated 3 times", Pushed up the decision chain? These are the Vision Pack headlights so a pricey set for JLR. Tech said its a known issue.

 

The micro-cracking occuring on my 2018 are forming inside the lens, so no amount of sanding will fix it.
My CPO warranty will not cover replacement as I'm told this is a cosmetic issue (until it isn't).
I reached out to JLR customer support and they acted concerned and told me they would start a case to get me goodwill funding to replace. After waiting 2 weeks they informed me it's cosmetic and won't be offering any funds to replace.
So I've settled to having the driver's side headlight with the J-blade out replaced under CPO warranty and let the other one be. Hopefully it won't be a jarring difference.
Good to know ppf is working for some of you!

 

Rocks are terrible to headlights. Call Flo…