MOT passed, but an odd headlight advisory

[hewesy]

Hi all, long time no speak...

Just had my Fabia MOT'd (passed) but with two advisories. One was new front pads needed, last set was fitted in 2009 so not surprised but the second seems odd to me.

Apparently the headlights are fading and will likely fail the next MOT due to not letting enough light through. I'm told by the garage it's due to plastic headlights being affected by the sun.

Anyone else had this/heard of this? New lights don't seem cheap at £90 a side for genuine!

Hewesy

[@Lee]

Hi all, long time no speak...

Just had my Fabia MOT'd (passed) but with two advisories. One was new front pads needed, last set was fitted in 2009 so not surprised but the second seems odd to me.

Apparently the headlights are fading and will likely fail the next MOT due to not letting enough light through. I'm told by the garage it's due to plastic headlights being affected by the sun.

Anyone else had this/heard of this? New lights don't seem cheap at £90 a side for genuine!

Hewesy

You can get a Headlight restorer kit from Halfords for a damn site less than £90. You're welcome

[Dazza95]

Plastic headlights are easy to restore - you just need to sand them with different grades of wet sandpaper and then polish. I actually want to produce a guide on how to do this when I get round to doing mine.

 

[hewesy]

Wow, great replies guys.

I'll check out the kit but will take a closer look at the wet sanding too. My wife makes jewellery so have access to some proper display polish for the final shine up.

Cheers! Beers owed.

Hewesy

[TMB]

I hate plastic headlamp lenses for that reason

[DanHarper]

Try a polish with tooth paste.

 

Cleaned up my Celica lights brilliantly, and cheap!

[devonutopia]

Done a fabia one before.  These were proper manky but came up good with a good wet sanding and thorough polilsh!

 

 

 

[TMB]

^ Very impressive! I'll have to give mine a go.

[devonutopia]

All you need is various wet sanding paper grades 800 to 2500 (the range I use)

Blue masking tape to surround light to ensure no accidents whilst wet sanding

Rotary polisher with a tough pad and good cutting polish - 50mm spot pad & backing plate works best in my experience

Gentler pads & polish for refining at the end. 

 

[TMB]

^ Excellent, cheers

[rtz62]

Agree with devonutopia.

Alternatively, 3M or chemical guys do excellent kits

[-Jason-]

I have done this on my old Clio Cup.  It is very easy to do.

 

Before:

 

After:

[hewesy]

Some great replies and demo's there guys, many thanks.

 

Jason, do you use the wet sandpaper by hand then use the rotary polisher to apply the polish compound?  Luckily my wife has a Dremel with polisher wheels and rouge for jewellery work so we should be good to go.

 

Thanks again,

 

Hewesy

[whitep]

Headlight restorer kits are ok but only a temporary fix. The hardcoat face on the lens gets polished off, so it is now softcoat. My FIL did his jaguar and a year later needed to do it again. He used toothpaste! i would advise the headlamp protectors if you are going to use them. But ask the Brisky parts section on here about pricing of new lamps.... standard ones are cheap IMHO.

[Avalon]

A clear film should do nicely, I've got the kit to custom cut blast proof films but I've only ever done so for windows and always on the inside so I'd need to check the data sheet but protecting the light shouldn't be that hard.

[hewesy]

Thanks chaps, how do I ask the parts folks whitep?  Sorry not been around for a while and probably missed something!

 

Hewesy

[hewesy]

I have done this on my old Clio Cup.  It is very easy to do.

 

Before:

 

After:

What did you use, just the wet dry Jason?  Whats the black tube, polish?

 

Hewesy

[@Lee]

What did you use, just the wet dry Jason?  Whats the black tube, polish?

 

Hewesy

the yellow pack is Halfords wet n dry, the bottle looks like Meguiars plastic polish

[Titanium_Man]

Toothpaste is meant to be useful? (Not tried it myself)

[@Lee]

Toothpaste is meant to be useful? (Not tried it myself)

I dread to think what state your teeth are in

[devonutopia]

I use a small pencil eraser as a small block for even pressure distribution. Finger tips are not good as create spots of pressure through the paper.

[hewesy]

Now that's a great tip, thanks Jason,

 

And thanks Lee, it does look like Meguiars plastic polish, now I have Googled it following your suggestion.  Never heard of it, one for the list!

 

Hewesy

[TMB]

I dread to think what state your teeth are in

 

[Benjiman]

  Whats the black tube, polish?

 

 

Meguiars Scratch X 2.0! I'd recognise the bottle anywhere.

 

http://www.meguiars.co.uk/product/198/ScratchX-20/

[hewesy]

Thanks Benjiman, I've ordered Meguiars clear polish as I've also got an old MX5 which could use the plastic rear screen cleaning, gone a touch coudy!

 

Thanks guys,

 

Hewesy