Headlight Restoration Done

[Artermis]

With the winter's evenings approaching and driving in the dark more now (having purchased my '8 in April) I've started to become more irritated with the lack of range and intensity of light my factory xenons are giving me.

This is a combination of factors I think.

1. Poor level adjustment. You can adjust the xenon light level but you must use VCDS to put the lights into a learning mode first. see Ross-Tech website on how to do this.

2. Aging / tired xenon bulbs. Bulbs don't last forever, of course. As they age their best and brightest years will be behind them. I will be replacing my bulbs but they've not arrived yet.

2.5 (ish) I also wonder if the colour temperature might be a factor for me. Xenon bulbs come in a range of colour temperatures. This ranges from 4000k (kelvin) to 12000k. 4000k is a very yellow light, where it moves through the white, to blue to purple at 12000k.

4300k is probably the most common colour, giving the colour considered closest to natural light. I personally prefer 6000k, which is more of an ice white with possibly a tiny hint of blue in them. So my replacement bulbs will be 6000k. Avoid cheap eBay chinese bulbs and be aware of fakes / knock offs of the branded items, Phillips are particularly impacted by this.

You may need to consider the legal requirements of your territory before you change colour the colour temperature of your bulbs.

3. And the point we're here... headlight deterioration, discolouration. The lenses are plastic on our '8s. They are UV resistant but of course nothing lasts forever, wear and tear takes it's toll. The top edges of the '8's lights especially seem to yellow over.

You can see in these pictures of mine there the top edges had gone. The near side was suffering more so than the off side. Running your finger over the light you can feel (and hear) the difference in the roughness of the affected area.



The restoration process is pretty simple really. You're essentially going to need to polish the plastic lens. To do this I'm using an off the shelf kit, of which there are many to chose from. I got this one for just under £13 from Eurocarparts. It's the meguiars kit and comes with polishing compound, drill mop head and some small sanding pads.



There are other kits out there but the meguiars kit is probably the best known and been around the longest. They do a more advanced kit now too but that wasn't available to me at point of purchase.

So here is how you go about it - it's really very simple. It's taken me about 2 hours to do the pair. The longer you spend on it the better your results are going to be - so patience is key.

Step 1 - preparation

Clean the headlamps. I used some quick detail spray then dried over. You can use your car shampoo - avoid fairy liquid though. Make sure they're dry before you go further.

Mask off the lamp. You're going to use a drill with a polishing mop, so you don't want to risk damaging paint. you can see I've used some decorator's blue masking tape.



Step 2 - sanding

The kit comes with two double sided sanding pads numbered 1 through 4. 1 being the most course and 4 the finest.

I didn't think my offside would need sanding as it wasn't that bad - but it did. Essentially anything but the lightest of marks will need sanding.

It's a wet process - so wet the lamp and dunk the sanding pad in water. You can't use too much water.

Starting at number 1 pad sand the affected area. You don't want to go mad with stage, so it'll only take a couple of minutes, maybe less, at this point. Rinse with fresh water when you think you've gone far enough and inspect Sand a larger area if necessary.

Rinse between stages.

Then flip the pad over and move to the number 2 pad. Expect this stage to take you around twice as long as the previous stage. You want to start to see the area you're sanding look like frosted glass.

You can run your finger over the sanded area and you will fee the difference in it becoming smoother as you sand out the deeper marks created by the 1st stage.

Rinse between stages again and move onto the second pad and stage 3. Again this will take you about twice as long as the previous stage.

Repeat for stage 4. Again expect this to take about twice as long again. The effort put in at this stage is what makes the result later down the line.

You can probably see in this picture now the sanding is pretty much done on the worse of my two lamps that the sanding has done the majority of the work



Step 3 - Polishing

I've not photographed this stage much as it needed both hands. Meguiars have their own video on youtube of this part of the process too.

It's here - Youtube Meguiars Vid

Apply polish to pad and then apply to surface. Work in even strokes, with a mild pressure, along the length of the lamp and back again.

I used a cordless drill even though they recommend a power drill (my mate's nicked my extension lead, so no choice!). You don't want to go too fast, so if you use a power drill be sure to stick to the lower end of the speed scale. start off at slow speed whilst you apply the compound across the length of the light, do a couple of slow passes whilst you do this before increasing the speed a bit.

Dont let it dry and buff off the moment you're done. If it looks clear like glass give it a once over by hand to finish it off and again buff immediately. Then you're done.



You can see the difference is marked. Admittedly I need to do a bit more work on the left side of the light, as I had been a little scared of getting near the paintwork.

I did go away and do more after that photo but my phone had died by this point, so couldn't get any additional shots.

Hope this gives others the confidence to try it, as it was genuinely very easy to do. Sanding I could understand is a little daunting but you can't really get it wrong, just go easy on the first couple of stages, as you can always go back and sand more if you feel it needs it.

I will look forward to trying this out when it gets dark later as I expect to get some of my longer range light output back from this.

[homer simpson]

I have done this a couple of times but used grades of wet and dry rather than a kit. Polished off with some G3 and the a milder polish, finished off with some headlamp sealant. Difference is night and day

[paulrstaylor]

I'll be interested to see how long this lasts, I used the same kit on my S4 last year and 6 months later was back to cloudy - they have launched a new kit that includes a clear lacquer aerosol - twice the price though!?

[ainarssems]

I tried the kit with lacquer last summer, so far so good but not enough time to has passed to fully judge. I agree that the ones that only polish or polish and wax does not last long, maybe half year as the new headlights come with protective coating but once you polish it off UV rays from sun damage plastic and you need to redo it twice a year. 2 Step kit was very easy to use, you just rub it down with included scotch pad and paste to matt finish removing old coating so that lacquer sticks to it. Did not take much effort or time, then just spray on 2 coats of included lacquer. It's not cheap but took less effort than polishing to clear finish and hopefully lacquer will last and protect plastic from UV for at least couple of years. You can probably save money and use other cheaper clear coats that stick to plastic and provide UV protection, but I could not find anything definitive in UK but I did see some aerosols in USA specially for headlights

[David's8]

Good work I did my (D2) lenses 2 years ago using 800/1000/1500/ 3000 grade wetndry and then polished it with G3/G10 using a DA polisher. Worth the effort but i think it needs doing again! Grit/salt during the winter does a good job of sandblasting the front of the car. Cleaning the inside of the lens usually makes a huge difference too.

[Artermis]

Originally Posted by paulrstaylor

I'll be interested to see how long this lasts, I used the same kit on my S4 last year and 6 months later was back to cloudy - they have launched a new kit that includes a clear lacquer aerosol - twice the price though!?

Agree it can't be a permanent solution. The fact that the lights have yellowed and clouded in the first place means that the UV protection on the lamps has failed - probably worn away over time. It's no surprise really. It'll just have to be something to keep on top of.

I couldn't find a kit that had a protective coating in it, although do believe they exist, yes. I have seen the likes of US owners using a UV resistant clear coat spray.

In any case I doubt I would have been able to apply that today anyway, it's 2nd of January and was 1.5oC out, so not the weather for any kind of spray painting.

[homer simpson]

There are seller-made-up kits on ebay and the protectant is a polish rather than a spray

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Meguiars-H...wAAOSwGzlTu63~

[Norretal]

Where are you located Artermis? Did I once meet you at an Audi meet at the Angel of the North?

[paulrstaylor]

I think my next refurb on the S4 will be to rub down and spray with a clear lacquer......

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/pai...-lacquer-500ml

"All our clear lacquers contain UV inhibitors / filters" - what is the worst that could happen!?

[Artermis]

Originally Posted by Norretal

Where are you located Artermis? Did I once meet you at an Audi meet at the Angel of the North?

Based in Grimsby, North East Lincs. Sorry to say never been to an Audi meet or to the Angel of the North - so afraid we've never met!