Are your headlight lenses getting cloudy?

Jack wrote:


> I went from a '81 Chevy pickup to the '92 Explorer, and believe me --
> the Explorer lights were infinitely better than those of the Chevy PU.

Well, the 81 Chevy would have had good old sealed beams. Now 99.9% of
the sealed-beams I've ever had were about 100 times BETTER than 90s
vintage plastic Explorer headlamps (or pretty much ANY 1990s plastic
specific-to-a-given-model headlamp). But its always possible that you
had some really, really, really poor non-halogen sealed beams in the
Chevy, or halogens with a cracked outer housing that allowed moisture to
darken the reflectors, or a wiring problem.

Steve wrote:

> Well, the 81 Chevy would have had good old sealed beams. Now 99.9% of
> the sealed-beams I've ever had were about 100 times BETTER than 90s
> vintage plastic Explorer headlamps (or pretty much ANY 1990s plastic
> specific-to-a-given-model headlamp).

My '92 Explorer headlights were glass.


Jack

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005, Jack wrote:

> My '92 Explorer headlights were glass.

Ummm...no. They weren't. Not unless you bought your '92 Explorer in
Germany, where glass-and-metal standard-format 200mm x 142mm rectangular
lamps were used (same size/shape as the large rectangular sealed beams in
your '81 Chev pickup, but in Europe they were a replaceable-bulb H4 unit).

North American-market Explorer headlamps used a plastic lens and a plastic
reflector.

Daniel J. Stern wrote:

> North American-market Explorer headlamps used a plastic lens and a plastic
> reflector.

OMG! They were plastic -- and I loved them?

Eeeeuuuuwwww.


Jack

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005, Jack wrote:

> > North American-market Explorer headlamps used a plastic lens and a
> > plastic reflector.
>
> OMG! They were plastic -- and I loved them?
>
> Eeeeuuuuwwww.

Y'know, Jack, I'm beginning to get the sense that you *might* be mockin'
me... ;-)

Daniel J. Stern wrote:

>>> North American-market Explorer headlamps used a plastic lens and a
>>> plastic reflector.

>Jack wrote:
>> OMG! They were plastic -- and I loved them?
>>
>> Eeeeuuuuwwww.

> Y'know, Jack, I'm beginning to get the sense that you *might* be mockin'
> me... ;-)

Well, one dislikes being fooled -- but they sure LOOKED good!


Jack

> > My wife's '89 Mitsu Galant has no yellowing or cloudy lenses at all.
Why?
> > Because they use GLASS lenses. Nothing substitutes for glass when it
come to
> > longevity.
>
> Unless a rock of just the right size hits it - you might get a tiny nick
> in the plastic, the glass will break requiring replacement. 8^) I'm
> guessing that glass would hold up slightly better against sand blasting,
> but not sure about that.


The facts are that the lights on the older Mitsu work MUCH better than those
on the newer Ford. That car has 300K miles on it, lots of which is highway
driving, but I keep a good distance between me and the next car in line, so
I didn't get to test the flying rock theory.


--
Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION
Hear my Kurzweil Creations at: http://www.dv-clips.com/theater.htm
Business sites at:
www.dv-clips.com
www.mwcomms.com
www.adventuresinanimemusic.com
-

> > In addition to the lenses, reflector efficiency is very low in these
> > molded headlamp units.
>
> H'm. I'm interested to know how you arrive at that conclusion.

It wasn't until years after I bought my Explorer that I got into souped-up
flashlights. I own a 10,000,000 candlepower spotlight and did some Googling
on it, and came across a forum called Candlepowerforums.com which is
populated with serious flashlight enthusiasts (I never knew such an interest
group existed). I spent some time on those forums and got a real education
about how lamps, reflectors and bulb efficiencies affect lumens output. I
learned that wattage does not equal lumens.
One of the things I discovered about my spotlight and another Brinkman
Q-Beam that I bought over 25 years ago, was that the reflectors are first
surface mirrors of very high optical quality.
Contrasted with the hazy, porous aluminum evaporative coating on Ford's
plastic reflectors, I now understand why even my 100W 9007 bulbs failed to
produce as much usable light as my Mitsubishi's 55W lamps.
If you open the back of the lamp service compartment on the Ford while the
lights are on at night, you'll notice where all the light that's not hitting
the road is going--inside the compartment--a significant amount of light
penetrates the reflective coating.
I'm not saying that the lenses don't play an equally important role, but the
role of the reflectors has not been discussed in Ford forums as far as I
have read.
The guys on Candlepowerforums are designing their own flashlights, or
modifying commercial models costing up to $3000 each. I never realized there
was so much science to headlamps, but the technical discussions there have
been VERY illuminating (pun intended).


> > My Explorer has some of the worst lighting I've ever driven with.
>
> I'm guessing it's a pre-2003 model. The '03 up Explorers actually have
> rather efficient and well-focused low beams, but the previous models have
> three generations of really awful headlamps.

It is a '98 model.
It has three problems:
Very low current-handling wiring
Bad lenses
Bad reflectors.


> > Bad enough on a good night, dangerous on a rainy night. The need to
> > engineer highly efficient reflectors
>
> I'm still curious how you arrive at the idea that the reflectors in your
> lamps aren't efficient. Generally, reflective efficiency is not a problem
> in even poorly-performing headlamps. The common problems are insufficient
> active optical area (lens and reflector too small), poor beam pattern
> formation and focus, and low-efficacy light sources.

I was blaming beam patterns initially, but I came to realize they are not
the whole issue.


> > Or maybe go back to glass with evaporative deposited aluminum reflectors
>
> There's nothing wrong with nonglass, nonmetal reflector substrates *per
> se*. Of course, "plastic" covers a lot of territory. Cheap thermoplastic
> is ill-suited to the job, but it has been used in a great many North
> American-market headlamps, because beam focus requirements are lax and it
> is, well, cheap.

When the plastic reflectors have a few hours on them, they start to get
clouded. The heat of the lamps begins to break down the plastic and the
coating, causing microscopic rippling of the surface, and that begins to
scatter the light, rather than reflect it at precise angles.


> On the other hand, some of the very best headlamps have "plastic"
> (thermoset phenolic) reflectors.
>
> All of them use vapor-coat aluminum reflector "shiny stuff".
>
> DS

Indeed, but it's what that aluminum is deposited on that determines how well
it holds up. My '98 Ford may have been much better when new, but when I
bought it off lease (3 years old), the lighting sucked then. Some of the
newer cars have really shiny, polished reflectors and clear lenses and they
do provide nice lighting. I drove a friend's Kia Sportage and it had
mediocre lighting. Two years later, he bought a Kia Sedona, and the lighting
was MUCH better--I could drive on an interstate with just lowbeams and have
plenty of light where it needed to be.

I really wish Ford would have a recall on these headlights. I'm about to
drive 1150 miles to FL and I am forced to plan my trip around daylight,
rather than take advantage of less traffic overnight.


--
Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION
Hear my Kurzweil Creations at: http://www.dv-clips.com/theater.htm
Business sites at:
www.dv-clips.com
www.mwcomms.com
www.adventuresinanimemusic.com
-

> The problem with all the vehicles you claim have great headlights is
> that they **** *everyone else* off. Ford trucks/SUVs in particular I
> find to be painfully glaring when following me, the low beams still have
> enough stray upward light that I can't even glance at my rear view
mirrors.
>
> nate

Regarding this matter, when I first bought my 98 Explorer, lots of oncoming
motorists flashed their highbeams at me. I took it back to the dealer and
told them the lights were misadjusted. They told me they were correctly
adjusted.
My friend's 2001 Kia Sportage had the same problem, the lights would shine
right into the passenger compartment of the car in front of me, even if I
was back 100'.
I ended up adjusting my lights myself and that improved my visibility and
stopped the flashing from oncoming drivers.
Factories make errors.

--
Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION
Hear my Kurzweil Creations at: http://www.dv-clips.com/theater.htm
Business sites at:
www.dv-clips.com
www.mwcomms.com
www.adventuresinanimemusic.com
-

In our business we see plenty of high mileage older Explores that do not
have clouded leases. Regardless of brand or model clouded headlamp covers
are a result of poor maintenance, period. Lens cover should be polished
to prevent the clouding. There are several commercially available lens
cleaners the will remove the clouding. One can then keep them clear by
applying a polymer polish on occasion


mike hunt

"Mark & Mary Ann Weiss" > wrote in message
ink.net...
>
>> > My Explorer has some of the worst lighting I've ever driven with.
>>
>> I'm guessing it's a pre-2003 model. The '03 up Explorers actually have
>> rather efficient and well-focused low beams, but the previous models have
>> three generations of really awful headlamps.
>
> It is a '98 model.
> It has three problems:
> Very low current-handling wiring
> Bad lenses
> Bad reflectors.
>