I purchased my new accord in August 2021, and i generally wash it about once every 2 weeks. I recently noticed that the brand new headlights are hazey, but I cant tell if it is because of microscratches or just stubborn dirt that car soap doesnt pick up. Anyone have any tips to restoring these to crystal clear? The pics below were taken right after i washed the car.
Go down and buy a container of Meguire’s Plastix and give them a good polishing. Car washes do not take the place of hand washing though so the film may be on the rest of the car too. Hand waxing/polishing once or twice a year will help maintain the finish. If that doesn’t work for the lights, take it back to the dealer and have them look at it.
Thank you for your reply.
I will try Plastix and see how it goes. And the car has only been washed by hand, never put it through an automated car wash system.
Hopefully the plastix will restore them to new because i doubt the dealer will do anything about it.
You should still be in the warranty period so the worst they can do is say it is not covered . Also many dealers have the means to restore the lenses to almost new for a fee.
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Please say you don’t use dishwashing soap! It is terrible for car finishes and maybe headlight lenses, too.
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Hazy headlights is a pretty common complaint here, not just on Accords, most cars with plastic lenses. One idea, be sure to thoroughly spray the grit off the car’s surface with a garden hose first, before using a sponge and warm soapy water to wash it.
Well, it’s 10 months old. Interested to see what dealer says about hazy lenses.
But not for 10 month old cars. Very unusual.
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Maybe OP can post a wider view of the area. Some headlight placements are nearly on the side of the car, and this area gets a lot of airflow, any grit in the air flowing past pits the plastic.
Here is a wider angle view of the headlights. I used Plastix on it Sunday and it did not seem to change it at all. I plan to go to the dealer either today or tomorrow because the Autostop function is not working anymore either lol.
They might Agee they are hazy. They might polish them. I bet they won’t replace $500 headlights.
Notice how the headlight sort of wraps around the corner of the car? It’s a great look, but unfortunately it creates a clear, smooth path for wind (with grit) to zoom around the corner at that location. I expect that is why you seem to be having this problem with such a youthful car.
By contrast I have an early 90’s Corolla, headlight faces front, doesn’t wrap around the corner, and the lens is made of glass. Never had any haze problem in 30 years. I do have some pitting on the corner of the bumper though.
On your car the plastic lens is being constantly pitted as you drive. That faster you go, the worse. Suggest to just accept it will be a normal maintenance chore to have to polish the headlight lens from time to time to mitigate the pitting. The more frequently you do this job, the easier it will be.
Suggest to let the dealership have a look first and get what they recommend in writing, dated, before doing anything about this yourself. Folks who paint cars use fine grade water-compatible sandpaper to get that super-gloss paint finish; If all the lens smoothing products fail for you, sandpaper might work if you decide you have to do it yourself. Might take several grits, starting at 400 and moving up to 1000 or even higher.
Suggest to make the argument with the dealership that since this may be caused by the design, they should accept it as their job to keep the lens clear through the end of the warranty period. After that you will accept it as your problem.
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If he driving this car in the sand dunes?
Don’t damage your headlights with sandpaper before the dealer inspects the headlights and claims this is environmental damage. These pictures don’t show the problem, there is a chance the problem is in the manufacture of the plastic.
I went to the dealer and they said that this was considered “normal by comparison” to other 2021 accords that they also had come into the shop that day. I asked them to compare it to a brand new accord that has not been driven a lot and they said that they did not have any on the lot due to supply shortages.
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You might want to try elevating your complaint to the corporate level. Contact info for Honda of America can be found in your Owner’s Manual.
That seems pretty close to an admission there’s a problem with this particular headlight’s design. Not enough however that Honda or the Dealership would be required to do anything about it probably.
hmmmm … One idea for a compromise during the warranty period, the dealership supplies the polishing materials and you supply the labor. Then, with no expenses to you, a little elbow grease on your part should keep the headlights at a nearly new appearance. You might could get a more favorable compromise from Honda corporate, but it seems such a minor issue to have to deal with all the time consuming hassles required to take this to the corporate level.
Well just to be contrary but those don’t exactly look like what I would consider hazy. Normally hazy would be a yellowish surface on the plastic and not clear, but they look clear to me. Maybe it is the reflectors or layout of the LEDs that disperses the light a little.
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+1
As I suggested previously, the OP should feel free to contact Honda of America, but–like you–I don’t see a real problem with the OP’s headlights.
My unofficial/unscientific observation is that Mercedes vehicles seem to have the worst headlight hazing problem of any make of vehicle. By comparison with the typical 2-3 year old MB vehicle, I don’t perceive a problem with the OP’s headlights.
I enlarged the photo and it does look like there is glare off the headlight lens. One photo can be misleading though. It may be that this apparent haze is an artifact of LED headlights. A way to tell for sure is to remove the lens and shine a different light light through it and see if there is any light scatter from scratches that might be there. If you can’t do that, you might look at the lenses with at least 10x magnification Andy see if there are a lot of scratches. I’m not saying the OP is wrong, just that at this point it’s hard to tell.
I’m wondering if the car got put through an automated carwash with those spinning brushes, which can scratch plastic. That happened to me, years ago.