Headlight plastic cover wear ?

Dave M

Admin Team
United-Kingdom
My offside headlight clear plastic cover appears to have deteriorated. Its almost as if there,s been some kind of laquer oversparay ?. Has anyone had any similar problems and if so do i have to buy a complete new headlamp unit or buy the clear plastic to fit on. Many thanks in anticipation of replies.
David.
 
If its lacquer over spray from a paint job first check carefully if there is any sign of panel repair ( if it's good it won't always be detectable and paint thickness magnets are useless in the A2 for obvious reasons. )

Try some panel wipe or a solvent on it. Use gloves in a well vented area and check the MSDS.

Oops - the elf and Safety geek in me took over there!

edit: if it is lacquer on glass it should scrape off with a finger nail to test it.
 
Thankyou Steve for looking for me - its a nearside (passenger side) one for sale but its a reasonable price. Seen them at over £100 - pah !
 
While looking for you (after I sent you the link) I found two that look like they are splittable and I have bought one and made an offer on the other.

This will be useful for fitting the DRLs in the project!!

So I should thank you for setting me off on the hunt again!!!

Splittable headlamp 1.jpgSplittable headlamp 2.jpg

Can anyone confirm that thee are both "splittable" they look it to me? I can see all of the clips.
I thought these were reasonably rare and expensive? Shame they are both offside ones, but I can make one good one from the two of them.


Cheers
Steve B
 
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Just seen it Steve thankyou - its now in my watch list.

I bought an A2 driver's side headlight from this seller last week; it's due to arrive here within the next couple of days. My original headlight appeared to have been sandblasted, whilst the nearside one is as new. The seller refused my initial offer of £50.00 but agreed on £55.00 including delivery. I'll post again if there are any problems.
 
Thats the same effect on my drivers side headlight jeff - wonder what causes it ?.

Having read the Audizine piece on headlight restoration, it appears that the cause is the breakdown of a factory applied ultra violet sealant followed by wear and tear, presumably due to road grime being blasted on to the headlight.

As for why it happened to both your and my offside headlights only, my guess is that our A2s were previously owned by 'hypermilers' who were constantly overtaken by drivers less concerned with squeezing every possible mile out of their fuel and it was only the offside headlamps that caught the spray as the overtaking drivers 'cut up' the dawdling A2s!
 
Not wishing to sound like a total numpty...but can you still get new A2 headlight assemblies?
Mine are a bit crazed and I'd be tempted to replace them - but failed to find at Stoke Audi etc
Anyone point me to a parts site?
 
Not wishing to sound like a total numpty...but can you still get new A2 headlight assemblies?
Mine are a bit crazed and I'd be tempted to replace them - but failed to find at Stoke Audi etc
Anyone point me to a parts site?
I just did a search on Carparts4less and they listed some. Probably not OEM.
 
Tho the headlights look good once the polishing process is done they don't last long, we do these at work allot and Iv noticed they fade again after a thew months (I'd say about six months) . We do the exact same process as described. It's fine but you will have to keep doing it. What your actually doing is removing a damaged film and then leaving no protection.
 
Hi Scott,
Am a bit puzzled that it doesn't last in your experience. I see you mention leaving no protection after removing the damaged film, but if the routine in the link to Audizine is followed the last stage is to add the protection of a urethane varnish.
I looked at obtaining the same varnish a couple of years ago and failed as it seems the brand is in the North American market only.
In the end I purchased the 3M Headlight Restoration kit, which comes with a tiny sachet of their protectant in a 'wet wipe'.
I used this two summers back and the results are still as good as the day I did it.

I have polished up a cheap car badge where the clear coat has degraded and gone milky and then only applied car polish afterward. In this case the coating does start to turn milky again within a few months, but again I suspect if the urethane varnish / 3M protectant was applied it would be good for a very long time.

Nick
 
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