hey everyone..
I need some advise for my headlights. I own a 2000 honda civic. i have got the stock headlights with HID lights in my car. the ones gat have the bluish colour. the lights work great and i love the colour. but when i drive out on a rainy night on a road without streetlights, the lights dont seem to light up the road well.
is this a common problem with the HID lights? the lens of the headlights are scratched and blur.
i was planning to either upgrade to a xenon lamp or get one of those projector headlights. my friend a set of the xenon lights for his 2005 car. i did like the white colour, but my current lenses r scratched, so wondering if i should just get a new unit
can anyone give a suggestion which is the better option.

regards

 

Just to clarify - do you currently have bluish bulbs (like Sylvania Silverstars), or HID/Xenon ones (those are the same)?

If they're bluish bulbs, then yes, they'll disappear in the rain. I had a set in an old Toyota, and I put the stock bulbs back in within two weeks because normal night driving was just marginally better, and I couldn't see anything in the rain.

That being said, I've driven cars with reflector-type housings (like your stock '00 ones) with HID retrofit kits, and they were horrendous and scary because I couldn't see anything (they lit up the trees nicely, though). Because the light output of HID bulbs are different than the halogens, they tend to throw light everywhere except where you want it. Properly designed HID lights are usually in a projector housing, and have a nice focus and sharp cutoff. I used to have them in my old Mazda3, and they were stellar.

But, as you pointed out, polishing your existing lenses will improve the lighting a bit. I usually use 750 fine grit wet sand paper with water and dish soap. Once you've wet sanded them and can feel all the old dingy coating is removed, wash up the lenses. Then wet sand them again with 1500 grit paper. Clean the lights, then go back with 2000 grit paper and wet sand them again. Wash the lenses, but don't panic even though they look worse than when you started.

Then go get one of the small, red, spongy polishing ***** from Mother's, and put it on your drill. Get some Meguiar's Plast-X, and go to town polishing them to crystal clear.

Because you've just sanded off the crazed coating, you'll need to polish them more frequently because they're not UV coated anymore, but it does a fine job of cleaning up the lights.

 

hey guess i got the name wrong. i just have the bluish halogen bulbs.
well i guess its better to just get a new headlight set and fit it on the car, considerin all the work of polishin lol..
thanx a ton for your input.. . i am so tempted to get those set of projector headlights. hope its worth the money

 

Actually, polishing the headlights doesn't take too long at all - maybe an hour at most. Plus, materials will probably be $20, as opposed to $180+ for new lights.

Or, if you're just looking for an excuse to get the aftermarket ones, then this is a good time to do it.