Had a minor fender-bender incident recently, all fixed by insurance. To my surprise, the left (Driver) side headlamp was replaced as part of the repair, even though the damage to the light was minimal.

However, the age difference between the right and left HID headlights are now immediately obvious, never mind that the right lamp has a Brutal fix. Although the attached pic does not show it clearly, and the actual street lighting quality is not too different, the HID lens on the left looks clear while the lens on the right looks very cloudy.

My practical side says "just leave as is" while my Jag side says "that does not look good".

Leave as is? Can the right lens be cleaned to match the left? I would love to hear what you guys might do. I can get 20% discount on a new right headlight, but that is still big bucks, about US$950.

 

check with a body shop, I had one polish the plastic lenses and they sprayed them with a clear coat type paint to help prevent them from clouding. It has worked much better than the do it yourself kit that I bought at the auto parts store. Cost less than $100 for both headlights.

 

Actually, the repair body shop DID polish the outer right-hand (passenger-side) plastic lens, and it looks OK. What is different is the HID lens. It's cloudy, like many others I have seen, almost cataract-like. The new lens on the driver side is quite clear.

Question is - if I were to open up the right headlamp, can that cloudy HID lens be polished or separately replaced?

 

Use the search function for this forum as there are several threads concerning 'how to' remove the outer lens.

The projector headlamp lenses are not available as service items from JLR.

 

Thanks, NBCat. Your second sentence answered my question. Damn!

 

I cleaned my quarts lenses when I had mine apart , thay are glass and clean easy with meths ! Do not however touch any of the chrome coated reflectors in side the head light ! as it can mark and even wipe off the chrome easerly , and wile your in there replace the junk plastic light adjusters with the high strength resin replacement kit from eBay ,and silicone up your brutal screw hole , two birds with one stone !

 

When I bought my car it had drooping headlights. I did the Brutal fix which worked great for a while but the screw started to eat a hole through the reflector and the headlights started drooping again. I bought a kit off fleaBay with metal adjusters and made it a weekend project. When I had lenses off, I polished and clear coated them and could not be happier with the results. It has been over a year and I have no signs of yellowing, etching, etc. Any spots you see in the photo are dead bugs.




These are the products I used to polish and clear coat. I have used this clear in the past to coat a 1950 chevy we wanted to preserve the "patina." It is single stage but works very well. Highly recommended for headlights.

 

I had great success polishing the cloudy plastic headlamp lenses on my wife's previous 2000 Lexus RX300 SUV with a relatively strong bathroom cleanser called SoftScrub. I read about this tip on the Lexus forum I was a member of at that time (probably 2005 or so). Make sure you use the version that contains bleach. It took some serious scrubbing and elbow grease but it did indeed get those plastic lenses looking new again. Once cleaned, a decent coat of car wax on the exterior of the lenses kept them from clouding up again until I sold the vehicle in early 2007. If you're married, check with your wife before purchasing a bottle of SoftScrub. She may already have some that she uses for cleaning the sinks, showers, tubs, etc....