Yellow Headlights CLK W209

[redjules51]

Over the years and not very much use, headlights have gone yellow with exposure to uv light. Have tried all manner of different concoctions to no avail.

I believe the main problem is that the headlamp covers are plastic and not glass. Any suggestions other than complete unit replacements would be appreciated.

 

[AndySlade]

Over the years and not very much use, headlights have gone yellow with exposure to uv light. Have tried all manner of different concoctions to no avail.

I believe the main problem is that the headlamp covers are plastic and not glass. Any suggestions other than complete unit replacements would be appreciated.

Many body shops will polish them if you don’t fancy doing it yourself. Many kits on the market which involve progressively sanding with finer emery papers and then polishing paste. Meguiars, Holts and many others do a kit, check-out Halfords, E-Bay and Amazon. The more expensive ones contain attachments for a cordless or main powered drill and fit in the chuck to which emery papers and polishing mop are attached.

I was going to do mine, but had some tin worm on rear arches done. A nice surprise was the body shop had polished my S203 headlights as part of the overall work they did.

 

[Richard Moakes]

Just paid my detailer £100 to very carefully refurbish the plastic lenses on my W164 headlights and then put a ceramic coating on them. He went very slowly and carefully, took about 3.5 hrs in total, I probably made the job a bit longer by chatting to him, but he admitted to me that it still scares him to do them, as he doesn’t want to ruin anyone’s headlights.

To give a comparison, in my more foolish days, I got a have a go hero from Facebook to refurbish headlight lenses on a Cayenne, he destroyed them, left them opaque and blurred. Had to buy a 2nd faulty set and create two good lights out of four, cost me a lot of time and money.

 

[redjules51]

Many thanks. Will probably get them detailed professionally.

 

[daibevan]

You could try the stuff advertised on the detailing section just below this thread.

 

[w204benz]

I've had good results with wet sanding followed by polishing. They weren't even yellow - just starting to go hazy - but the improvement was noticeable.

 

[daibevan]

I've had good results with wet sanding followed by polishing. They weren't even yellow - just starting to go hazy - but the improvement was noticeable.

So have I

 

[steven.n]

For a quick fix on my old clk I used wire wool from the supermarket the one with the soap in it then t cut after, came up a treat, I should have sealed them after but didn't bother lasted 2 years and just did them again

 

[mioba]

Holts do a kit. about 20 pounds from ECP.

basically its wet sanding going down to finer grade. then use a plastic polish and then to spray with UV resistant lacquer.

well mask around headlight. Keep the lenses lubed while polishing (soapy water) and elbow grease. Done my w220 a few years ago. they came up new.

 

[daibevan]

Holts do a kit. about 20 pounds from ECP.

basically its wet sanding going down to finer grade. then use a plastic polish and then to spray with UV resistant lacquer.

well mask around headlight. Keep the lenses lubed while polishing (soapy water) and elbow grease. Done my w220 a few years ago. they came up new.

I used Mguire's kit once and it worked a treat. I still have some of their compound left. Last time I used fine grade wet & dry and finished off with the compound.