Hazy headlights on 08 es350

[codylex350]

Hello room, this is my first foreign luxury car, most of my previous cars have been Cadillacs.  I am loving my ES, I have had it for a year and it has 121,000K miles on it with the Ultra Luxury package.  Only major issue so far is the A/C blowing hot and cold air, and with this Texas heat it makes driving brutal.  I am not a backyard mechanic but hopefully with the help of my brother (who is the backyard mechanic) i want to be able to do as many repairs to the car as i can.  So the main reason for this post is my headlights do not seem to be as clear as I have seen, any suggestions on how to get them crystal clear, i think that really makes the front end pop.     

[gbhrps]

codylex350,

Congratulations on the new ride!

Your Texas sun takes its toll on plastic headlights, but ... there are lots of YouTube videos on how to make them clear again. Basically it involves polishing the plastic with various compounds to remove the haze. In fact Maquairs and several other car wax companies make kits specifically for this job, and none of them cost much money.

Three things to keep in mind: mask all of the surrounding paint work with a layer or two of masking tape. This ensures that you won't polish the paint and burn through to bare metal doing damage. Secondly, keep any buffing/polishing pads moving around, as heat will build up and literally burn the plastic lens if its kept in one place for too long.

Lastly avoid the YouTube idiots who tell you to use brake fluid on the lens. Brake fluid will remove paint down to the metal and it will destroy many plastics. Good Luck!

[LennyF]

Headlight lens follow-up:

It is also recommended that you put a coat of clear gloss lacquer spray paint on the headlights after you removed the cloudiness.  This will prevent the cloudiness from coming back very quickly.

A/C follow-up:

My previous two cars were both Lexus, '97 ES300 & '08 ES350. They both had AC problems. My present car is a 2013 ES350,  & it's also starting to exhibit some "quirks" with the A/C.  Anyone see a pattern here...LOL

[timfox123]

Easy peasy 
this is all over youtube
Get Mothers Mag wheel polish from walmart and a microfiber rag.   This will clean it up pretty good.  Next at walmart you will find headlight wax.    That reduces the amount of damage in the  future.   You will need to do the process a couple times a year.  

there are about 30 other solutions out there on youtube.  

 

[1990LS400]

Or get the headlight lens refinishing kit that has been rated #1 by several auto mags.  I've used several kits and agree with the reviews that the Sylvania kit is the best - about $20 on Amazon.