Are your headlight lenses getting cloudy?

Daniel J. Stern wrote:

> The headlamps in question ('92 Explorer) have low overall output, poor
> focus, a low peak intensity, narrow beam width and high levels of upward
> stray light. All of those factors add up to an objectively poor beam.

Now, THAT is fascinating!

Of course I don't have the ol' '92 around anymore so further discussion
of it's headlight performance would be worse than subjective. I ran them
day and night and changed bulbs perhaps two times in the 11 years I
owned it. I put better-than-OEM Halogen bulbs in it, so maybe thats why
I was happy with it -- or maybe they were holographic and gave only the
appearance of projected perfection.

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.

The '99's low beams are average, the "brights" are pretty good, focus
could be better, and I like being able to read the graffiti on the
under-side of the over-pass, but the "narrow" comment above is absurd --
subjectively speaking -- but like I said, my everyday comparison is the
'97 Sebring. I have yet to change a headlight bulb on the '99 Explorer.
I can hardly wait to see what it will do with AM bulbs -- probably have
to get a special license for it.

My first car (and my only other Chrysler product) was a '47 Dodge, and
with the lights and the tin-foil body work, I think I've had my last
Chrysler, if the rest are like the Sebring. Don't even get me started on
its electrics and ghost-ridden alarm system.

And 25 mpg -- BFD.


Jack

My lenses are very cloudy- any inexpensive replacements you know of?

Try polishing them with a cleaner/wax compound. I've been successful
cleaning up light lenses that way.

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 02:08:44 -0400, "nashjeff" >
wrote:

>My lenses are very cloudy- any inexpensive replacements you know of?
>

"Jack" > wrote in message
m...
> Daniel J. Stern wrote:
>
> > The headlamps in question ('92 Explorer) have low overall output, poor
> > focus, a low peak intensity, narrow beam width and high levels of upward
> > stray light. All of those factors add up to an objectively poor beam.
>
> Now, THAT is fascinating!
>
> Of course I don't have the ol' '92 around anymore so further discussion
> of it's headlight performance would be worse than subjective. I ran them
> day and night and changed bulbs perhaps two times in the 11 years I
> owned it. I put better-than-OEM Halogen bulbs in it, so maybe thats why
> I was happy with it -- or maybe they were holographic and gave only the
> appearance of projected perfection.

I think they work so well that's it's difficult to tell if you have one not
working unless you go out and look.

inside or outside??
"Big Shoe" > wrote in message
...
Try polishing them with a cleaner/wax compound. I've been successful
cleaning up light lenses that way.

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 02:08:44 -0400, "nashjeff" >
wrote:

>My lenses are very cloudy- any inexpensive replacements you know of?
>

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.

Outside only! If they are clouded up inside, I don't know any way to
fix them. I think they are a sealed unit, but someone else may know
more about that.

On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 15:54:51 -0500, "stevie" > wrote:

>inside or outside??
>"Big Shoe" > wrote in message
.. .
>Try polishing them with a cleaner/wax compound. I've been successful
>cleaning up light lenses that way.
>
>On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 02:08:44 -0400, "nashjeff" >
>wrote:
>
>>My lenses are very cloudy- any inexpensive replacements you know of?
>>
>

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