Detailing - Foggy Headlights

My headlights are all gross. They have like a film on them that I can't get off. I think it might be like hard water but I am unsure. A friend told me turtle wax would but I tried Wolfgang and no luck.

I've heard that aluminum polish should do the trick. If not, take some very very fine sandpaper. Get plenty of water on it, and sand the headlights very lightly. Be extremely careful, if you try that.

u take like 1000 sand paper and sand them down (wet sand) really good...then polish them back...with a buffer and some polish

I really don't want to use the sand paper because the film is not all around. It is sparsely covering it. I will try aluminum polish.

You can also try toothepaste......the white kind, not the gel.

turtle wax does work try that...rub it in good and buff it off

ORIGINAL: civic96RB

turtle wax does work try that...rub it in good and buff it off

I tried three times.

Id just do the ole 1-2 replacement

is the fog inside or outside the headlight...cause if its inside i got the same problem...n i have no idea how to get that fixed

It is on the outside. One guy said to vent his headlights he drilled three really tiny holes in the headlights. Not something I would do but it might make sense to you.

if its on the inside you need to get some silicone and reseal them up

yea thats a good idea...but before i do that how do i get out the fog out

yeah aluminium polish works i used it on my head lights , they come right off

ORIGINAL: 2000Ex

It is on the outside. One guy said to vent his headlights he drilled three really tiny holes in the headlights. Not something I would do but it might make sense to you.



yeah, that was me...like he said, i wouldn't recomend it, but it does work for a quick and cheap fix...all really is is trapped moister and has no way to get out, creating a "foggy" look. I've had to do it on a few cars myself. just use the smallest drill bit so it's less noticable.

MY problem is a hard water film on the exteior of the lights.

We use this stuff on our headlight housings over at the TCCA... Novus polishing compound, seems to work pretty well. There are also other products out there, I just can't think of them off the top of my head..

So which one really works??

used blue magic if that dont work the sand paper is the one

You need to wet sand them. KEEP THE SAND PAPER WET!!! Also helps if you use a little dawn soap with it. Start with 800 grit then move to 1000 then to 1600 then to 2000 and finally to 3000. Then after that you need to use polish on them. It's a long process but they will look beautiful after word.

I have the same problem. Mine have a foggy film on the INSIDE, as well as water condensing on the inside of the headlights. I'm thinking about just replacing them, but I saw this thread and wanted to make a post to see what I should do. Anything special to do in order to fix this? Any help would be much appeciated. Thanks.

i dont know about the inside but the out side of mine looked like that and last weekend i used a machine polish and now they look brand new. try that

ok have had this problem with my civic. Light wet sand and some good polish will clear this fogg right up. however make sure that the fog/grime is on the outside. because there is a chance that you simply have a sealent broken and have moisture by the bulb. hope it works

for those headlights with the dirty yellowish on the inside i heard that baking the lights can help. you do it by taking the lights out puting them in a oven a bake them to a certian temp which melts the glue holding the lense to the rest of the light. once you baked them just pull apart the lens and clean the inside of the lights and re-glue back together.

WallyWorld (aka: Wal-Mart) has a kit for about $22 that says "permanent fix" on the package along with "money back guarantee". Haven't tried it myself and I don't know anyone who has........however the guarantee might be worth taking a chance on.

new oem style lights are like 90 bucks.
I got eom ones with black housing. I love them and no problems so far. (had them for a few months)

Yeah, if your film is due to acid rain, it's not actually a film at all. Acid rain actually burns into the surface much like it does in autoglass and paint (when a car isn't garaged). On paint, you use polish. On glass, you use glass polish. With plastic, you're going to be best off with wet sanding to smooth out the surface and then an extremely fine polish to return it to it's original luster. It's a heck of a lot more inexpensive then new housings, at about $5 for polish and $1 or less for the sandpaper. Worst case you have to take that route, but why not give it a try before dropping that much money.

Just make sure to always keep water on the housing to provide a lubricant for the sandpaper. Otherwise, you're going to leave fine scratches. 1000 to 1200 grit is probabaly fine, but the finer the better (although it will take longer).

Let us know it it goes man!

Might want to try Eagle One Wadding Polish. It is for aluminum, metal and steel, but someone on this forum mentioned they used the same stuff for the same problem.
It is a wad of cotton, pull off a piece, rub it on, then buff it off. Might be worth a try. It is under $6.00 at Auto Zone or Checker.

guys, original post is over a year old

ORIGINAL: cderalow

guys, original post is over a year old


It's all good, the more solutions we have to this problem the better!

take the headlight off (theres a DIY about how to remove them on this forum in the DIY section), take the clear plastic part of the headlight off, wipe it all down clean, make sure there is no moisture in there, put it back on, use silicone caulk all around the edges of the headlights real good (use more than neccessarry), and you should be good.

Or for a temporary fix, i guess just runnin your headlgihts on bright for a long time will evaporate it (or so i hear lol)

I have seen some stuff at auto zonefor this problem....I don't remember the name of it but I know I have seen it and if you ask someonethat works there they canpoint you to the rightdirection that it is on....
I will try to go tomorrow and find it and post it here......

I don't remember the name of it
Silica