My 2005 S-type headlight lenses are cloudy....not all over but a good 50%. Have tried auto store lens cleaning kits, essentially bits of wet sandpaper, which doesn't completely solve problem, which soon returns. (I do coat 'cleaned' lenses with car wax, which doesn't provide any permanent solution.) Neighbor swears on using tooth paste as a scrubbing agent. Any practical tricks would be apprec. Thanks

 

I have to sand, polish mine every 6mos. I wish someone would make glass replacements..

 

I used Meguiars PlastX on mine a year ago with incredible results, but they started going cloudy again so I repeated the treatment 2 days ago
and the effect was almost as good as last time. It is a big improvement but it depends how badly they are scratched in the first place.
Worth a try at about £8 a bottle and 30 minutes work.

I am going to retreat them in another few weeks to see if it will improve them more.

 

Never had that problem on my now-sold 2005 S-Type 3.0. But my wife's long-gone 2000 Lexus RX300 did. The very common bathroom cleanser called "Soft Scrub" was well-known on the Lexus forum to clean those headlamps to a sparkling clear, partly due to its abrasiveness and partly due to the bleaching agent it contained. It sure worked on those Lexus vehicles. Perhaps it will also work on your S-Type....

 

Use WD-40. Wet a clean cloth with WD-40 and rub it on the lens. You may need to do this 2 or 3 times but it works and its fast!

 

My motorcyclist nephew recommended Plastix and I am trying it right now. Will report on what I find.

 

For best results use a machine to rub/grind them clear, Afterwards you need to seal the lenses with UV blocking compound. There seems to be two types of this: short lasting but cheap & long lasting but pricey. The cheap ones seem far more plentiful to buy. I'm still using a Maguires (short lasting one, as all the long lasting ones were sold out !) product a year after having my STR lights done & they still look great, but I do apply the coating each month (or after a car wash).

 

I'm about to redo mine after about 12 months and this time I'm going to try the clear 'headlight film' to see if that stops or slows the clouding. I've found the wipe on UV blockers don't last more that 6 months or so.

Anyone tried the clear film?

 

My headlight lenses are fairly clear but there is a rough patch on the top that the Plastix has not been able to remove. So far I would say the experiment is something of a failure but I will give it another go around in the near future.

I need to get something that will grind off these rough patches that are on the top of the lenses for all four of them. I would have to get rid of them before trying anything else.

Bob

 

I am going to try WD 40 but I would also like to give the Soft Scrub a try. I went to their website and there are about six different products, some of them gels. Could you be a little more specific as to the product your Lexus colleagues used? I see one that is bragging that it contains bleach and I am assuming this is the product you have been using. It is not a gel but there is a gel with bleach also--and there is an 'advanced' product, whatever that means.

Bob

 

Bob,

Just found the old Soft Scrub bottle under our master bathroom twin sinks. It is a white bottle with a mostly green label that says "Soft Scrub with Bleach Cleanser". The product itself is a white-colored paste that is gritty to the touch and smells quite a bit like chlorine bleach. It certainly did the job on my wife's previous 2000 Lexus RX300's headlights. I had to clean them a couple of times per year in order to keep them from getting cloudy. All I ever used was a nickel-sized dab of Soft Scrub on an old cotton diaper and a quart or so of clean water to rinse out the diaper as I polished. I probably spent five or six minutes per headlight each time, applying more product to the damp diaper as needed. I never coated the headlights with anything after I got them back to a clear appearance, but perhaps I should have....

 

I tried the WD-40 trick on cloudy lenses and it did help some....don't really understand why, but if it works, great.

Also tried the SoftScrub suggestion....not so sure it's an improvement over the WD-40, but will give it another shot soon.
Any improvement is a lot better than what you must go thru in order to put in new headlights, that's for sure.

The suggestion on this forum regarding correcting drooping lights worked for me several years ago and is greatly appreciated.

Jim George, Columbia, MD
2005 S-Type Midnight Black 4.2 VDP