Are your headlight lenses getting cloudy?

I guess the cloudy ones that really stand out are the Neons, must be because
they are positioned towards the sky more than other cars.
Rick

"C. E. White" > wrote in message
news:Kj8Se.305597$x96.80641@attbi_s72...

"Rick" > wrote in message
...
> We shouldn't have to apply anything, period. I may be wrong, but I dont
> see
> other makes of old cars, like Toyota, with this problem, only Ford and
> Chrysler. Even GM seems to be immune. Why is that? Is it as preventable as
> I
> suspected?

You must not be looking very hard. I see Toyota with yellow lens all the
time. SO's old Camry was terrible. I have a '92 F150 with some really nasty
looking headlights, but my other recent Fords seem to have held up just
fine. And even my '86 Sable had good looking headlight lens after 10 years
(traded it then), but the stupid light bar looked pretty bad. I have a
friend with an older Buick LeSabre ('91 I think) and it has some pretty
nasty looking lens as well.

I suspect some vehicles suffer more than others because of where and how
they are driven (because the outer coating is abraded off by grit). For
instance my F150 has spent a lot of time on dirt roads and dusty fields. I
assume that all this exposure to dust must have eroded the lens' surface -
I know the bumper looks like it was sand blasted in some areas (painted
steel bumper).


Ed

On Fri, 2 Sep 2005, Rick wrote:

> We shouldn't have to apply anything, period.

I agree with you.

> I may be wrong, but I dont see other makes of old cars, like Toyota,
> with this problem, only Ford and Chrysler.

Nope, it affects all makes with plastic lenses. Some sooner, and some
later, but it does affect all of them. Volvo got bitten so badly by
plastic lenses (made by a very reputable lighting company, yet) in their
'86-'93 240 and '89-'94 740/940 cars that they went back to glass and are
only just now beginning to use plastic again. LOTS of Japanese cars with
five or six years on 'em and cloudy lenses, even up here in non-desert
Toronto. Plenty of GMs, though GM does seem to use a higher grade of lens
material that doesn't go yellow quite as quickly.

DS

In alt.autos.ford Rick > wrote:
> We shouldn't have to apply anything, period. I may be wrong, but I dont
> see other makes of old cars, like Toyota, with this problem, only Ford
> and Chrysler. Even GM seems to be immune. Why is that? Is it as
> preventable as I suspected? Rick

A 1998 Chevy Metro and a 1993 Dodge Neon both have the opaque headlights...
both made in Japan, as if that really has an impact on the usage of poor
quality plastic lenses.

My 1992 Chrysler and 2000 Dodge with plastic lenses showed no problems.

---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

On Sun, 4 Sep 2005 wrote:

> A 1998 Chevy Metro and a 1993 Dodge Neon both have the opaque headlights...
> both made in Japan,

Well...no. The Metro's lamps were made in Japan, but there's no such thing
as a 1993 Dodge Neon (the Neon was introduced in 1995), and the Neon's
headlamps are US-made.

In addition to the lenses, reflector efficiency is very low in these molded
headlamp units. My Explorer has some of the worst lighting I've ever driven
with. Bad enough on a good night, dangerous on a rainy night.
The need to engineer highly efficient reflectors and change the lens formula
so that it remains clear. Or maybe go back to glass with evaporative
deposited aluminum reflectors on aircraft aluminum housings.
If ever there was a good reason for a recall, this would be it.


--
Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION • FILM SCANNING • DVD MASTERING • AUDIO RESTORATION
Hear my Kurzweil Creations at: http://www.dv-clips.com/theater.htm
Business sites at:
www.dv-clips.com
www.mwcomms.com
www.adventuresinanimemusic.com
-

> You must not be looking very hard. I see Toyota with yellow lens all the
> time. SO's old Camry was terrible. I have a '92 F150 with some really
nasty


My wife's '89 Mitsu Galant has no yellowing or cloudy lenses at all. Why?
Because they use GLASS lenses. Nothing substitutes for glass when it come to
longevity.


--
Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION • FILM SCANNING • DVD MASTERING • AUDIO RESTORATION
Hear my Kurzweil Creations at: http://www.dv-clips.com/theater.htm
Business sites at:
www.dv-clips.com
www.mwcomms.com
www.adventuresinanimemusic.com
-

In alt.autos.ford Daniel J. Stern > wrote:
> Well...no. The Metro's lamps were made in Japan, but there's no such thing
> as a 1993 Dodge Neon (the Neon was introduced in 1995), and the Neon's
> headlamps are US-made.

Slight slip. 1993 Dodge Colt. Piece of crap from the day it was built,
headlights so yellow in 2002 that they looked like fog lights.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss wrote:

>>You must not be looking very hard. I see Toyota with yellow lens all the
>>time. SO's old Camry was terrible. I have a '92 F150 with some really
>
> nasty
>
>
> My wife's '89 Mitsu Galant has no yellowing or cloudy lenses at all. Why?
> Because they use GLASS lenses. Nothing substitutes for glass when it come to
> longevity.

Unless a rock of just the right size hits it - you might get a tiny nick
in the plastic, the glass will break requiring replacement. 8^) I'm
guessing that glass would hold up slightly better against sand blasting,
but not sure about that.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005, Mark & Mary Ann Weiss wrote:

> In addition to the lenses, reflector efficiency is very low in these
> molded headlamp units.

H'm. I'm interested to know how you arrive at that conclusion.

> My Explorer has some of the worst lighting I've ever driven with.

I'm guessing it's a pre-2003 model. The '03 up Explorers actually have
rather efficient and well-focused low beams, but the previous models have
three generations of really awful headlamps.

> Bad enough on a good night, dangerous on a rainy night. The need to
> engineer highly efficient reflectors

I'm still curious how you arrive at the idea that the reflectors in your
lamps aren't efficient. Generally, reflective efficiency is not a problem
in even poorly-performing headlamps. The common problems are insufficient
active optical area (lens and reflector too small), poor beam pattern
formation and focus, and low-efficacy light sources.

> Or maybe go back to glass with evaporative deposited aluminum reflectors

There's nothing wrong with nonglass, nonmetal reflector substrates *per
se*. Of course, "plastic" covers a lot of territory. Cheap thermoplastic
is ill-suited to the job, but it has been used in a great many North
American-market headlamps, because beam focus requirements are lax and it
is, well, cheap.

On the other hand, some of the very best headlamps have "plastic"
(thermoset phenolic) reflectors.

All of them use vapor-coat aluminum reflector "shiny stuff".

DS

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005, Mark & Mary Ann Weiss wrote:

> My wife's '89 Mitsu Galant has no yellowing or cloudy lenses at all.
> Why? Because they use GLASS lenses. Nothing substitutes for glass when
> it come to longevity.

Until a road rock comes along. *Krunch!* (Or lots and lots of little
pieces of road grit, which pit and "sandblast" the lens until it disperses
the light just as badly as a clouded-up plastic lens).

Hardened/toughened glass is where it's at...