Headlight cover cleaning

[Lucyinthesky]

Anyone know how to clean up the headlight lens covers? Mine have turned slightly foggy. Toothpaste doesn’t work and I am unsure about using commercial brands.

 Thanks 

[Lexus Owners Club]

T-Cut or any other abrasive paint restorer will usually work

[Lucyinthesky]

Some moisture on the inside as well. Only solution is replace entire light assembly-very costly.

[1990LS400]

4 hours ago, Lucyinthesky said:

Some moisture on the inside as well. Only solution is replace entire light assembly-very costly.

If the seals between the lenses and the headlight housings are broken and causing leaking, the lenses can often be removed by heating the headlight units in an oven - lots of YouTube videos on that.  Then reattach the lenses with an appropriate adhesive.

Moisture in headlights can also be caused by their vents getting clogged up - even spiders can do that.  Verify that the vents on the headlight units are clear.

My favorite headlight lens restoration kit is one from Sylvania - about $20 at stores and online.  I've made some really awful looking headlight lenses look like new with these kits. 

[yesphesn]

I use windex to clean the headlight covers on my GX.

[Toni Faye]

I bought some headlight cleaner for about $15.00 on Amazon and it worked great.  Enough to do a lot of cars.  

[Lucyinthesky]

Thanks Toni and All

The lens covers are scratched so polish won't work. Have to replace the entire assembly as they don't sell covers. Expensive deal and I think Lexus is running out of them so I will be faced with about a $3000 bill. Probably not.

[Harold Walk]

For the outside of the lens, try Maguires lens spray on treatment.  You can purchase a cheap $13 lens polishing kit from Harbor Freight, which requires use of a hand drill to polish.  Follow with the Maguires, but do so outside --- not in the garage --- because the stuff is potent.

[Bykfixer]

I use the 3m headlight restore kit and Plasti-X to keep it looking like glass for about 6 months. Just reapply Plasti-X about once a season to keep them looking great. 

[Nick H.]

On 7/15/2020 at 2:21 PM, Lucyinthesky said:

Anyone know how to clean up the headlight lens covers? Mine have turned slightly foggy. Toothpaste doesn’t work and I am unsure about using commercial brands.

 Thanks 

Rust-O-Leum (sp.?) and Armor All both have a “Two Step” kit that works remarkably well.  
It is very simple to use — clean (scrub) the headlight covers with the first cleaning/polishing wipe, then use the second “finishing wipe” to ‘fix’ the shine onto the plastic covers.

Both kits run about $12 at Advance Auto or O’Reilly’s outlets, although I imagine that Amazon/Walmart/etc., may have them for less.

All the best!