Do you suffer from foggy headlamps?

Maintenance/Repairs
21

While I can’t prove my theory, I think that the best way to avoid clouded/fogged headlight lenses on modern cars is to simply garage them in order to shield them from excess UV rays. I say this because my cars–which have all been garaged since the late '80s–have never had this problem. That includes a Ford, a Honda, and 3 Subarus.

Back in my working days, the cars did get their share of scratches on the headlight lenses as a result of rocks/grit/gravel kicked up on them while commuting to work on the Interstate, but none of them ever suffered clouding/fogging of the lenses.

Then again, a friend of mine has a 7 year old Rav-4 that gets driven daily on the Interstate, and his headlight lenses still look good, and his car isn’t garaged. So, can somebody explain to me why some cars seem to be subject to this problem and others aren’t?

22

It could be the formulation of the plastic used which could vary constantly among car makers and even within the same make year to year.

Sylvania manufactured the lighting on my Lincoln including the headlamps and apparently the spec called for recycling milk containers. Total garbage are the politest words that can be used to describe them. It’s not just yellowed lens; it’s the reflectors burning from bulb heat which then causes them to give off almost as many lumens as an Xmas candle sitting on the mantle…

There are no options as new lamps are not available from anyone and almost all of the ones showing up on eBay suffer the same burned reflectors. Most of the time it can be seen in the pics.
For the rare one that is not burned it soon will be once in use.