I actually tried this today. I am quiet satisfied with the results. Sure, there are some dirt within the headlight, but overall, it did the job, and visibility has definitely increased.
I used this cleaning method on my 2004 Toyota Camry recently. Although the car has lived in the garage since it was new, there still was some headlight cloudiness that the toothpaste method removed, and now the headlight covers are clear as new. Greetings from Dallas, TX, USA!
Use Meguiar's Keep Clear Headlight Coating after this to prevent the yellow from returning. Clear cote will always flake off of plastic because its not designed for plastic.
A few years back, when headlights were made with glass lenses, one did not have to spend elbow grease and about an hour of time on a weekend buffing plastic lenses. The auto industry is pretty extravagant with my leisure time and elbow grease! if I were buying a new car, I would try to find one with headlights that did not waste my leisure time and elbow grease!
I’ve been skeptical about this for years but I finally tried it for the first time and this actually works great!! Obviously it does not make it look brand new, but you can definitely see the the difference. It is definitely worth a try if you have not yet!
I use Mother's aluminum polish / cream. Works better than anything. You'll need two soft cloth towels. One for application and another for polishing. I can clean my headlight plastics in 10 minutes to a clear plastic look. Last a couple months
Your method really does work great , didn't have wax so I used WD 40 to fill in .. I buffed it off like wax then applied a second spray, still looks great ... Thank you!!! 👍👍
Thanks my man! Just what I was looking for! Much easier, cheaper, and quicker than spending the whole day with expensive cleaners, sand paper, sanders, etc! I don't have the time, money, or patience for a big project like that! This is much better. Thanks again! 🫡 😀👍
I’ll have to try this again on my 2007 Honda Fit. I did it last summer but it didn’t make much difference because I gave up when my arms got tired. In a pinch I’ve wiped on a little bit of wd40 if I’m going to do any night driving but that helps very little and very temporarily. This is why I’m a subscriber. Thanks for posting this!
OwnedByACatNamedC.C. I need to amend my comment. It appears that WD40 is a viable temporary fix for foggy headlights. It doesn’t melt the plastic like bug spray does. Sorry I mislead you.
to replace even a turn signal bulb on my cts you have to remove the fender inner liner, front bumper and grille and then take the lights out of the car. it is atrocious.
Bloody (damm) great, no, Fantastic outcome! A car wash joint in my town charges $50.00! This method didn’t cost me a Penney! Because I had everything on hand! Thanks.
As someone who restored headlights professionally this is a stop gap temporary fix. Headlights have a UV coating to protect them from oxidation, to truly restore them you have to sand the plastic pretty hard with a 800/1000 grit wet dry sandpaper, working up to 2000 grit or better. Then you can seal them with a spray on UV coat or Wipe New.
Yep... Just bought my wife an 02 camry mint condition except for the valve cover and those hazy headlights lol. Chris fixit agrees with you. The toothpaste deal is good but the dude said there no permanent fix. Chris fix it used sand paper and clear coat spray with UV protection. All these methods will clean but the deal is how long will it last. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UEJbKLZ7RmM.html😊
I have a 2007 Chevy Malibu on which I will use this headlight cleaning method. If I can pull it off, I will give before/after shots to let you see results. Thanks for posting. This is very timely.
Wow! That is amazing! We live in the country, so you can kinda guess what kinds of things hit our lights. But, I'm going to give this a try. I have Crest Prohealth ADVANCED Deep Clean Mint. That should work.👍 TU.😊
Works, but only mildly. And you still need to reseal with good anti glazing clear coat to make results last. Toothpaste is a very mild abrasive and won’t work on badly glazed plastic.
@Cerebro Brother you want a U.V. Resistant clear. They make them but many auto parts don’t carry. Go on line and find. It will still yellow in time, just like the original clear did. Even waxing won’t stop the slow deterioration due to environment.
I discovered this for myself when thinking I needed a mild abrasive to clean my Ford Fiesta lamps…Toothpaste naturally springs to mind, but don’t use the smooth gel. You want the toothpaste with the gritty texture. A few minutes hand polishing is all you need and rinse with water. Done👍
If you use this method be prepared to do it every 2 months to keep them looking decent. You can get non oem replacement lamps at a pretty decent price.
So I used Cif which worked amazingly. Then my mate, who has an alloy referb business, sprayed the clear alloy wheel protector over the lights so the UV doesn't make them fade again. Been 6 months and still no fading.
That was really good thanks. Another trick for removing sun screen around door handles is Brasso Not sure you have that in the USA but its for brass and silver cleaning. My friend who valets cars was impressed because he had tried everything and this was the one that worked. We use it also to polish perspex.
Does this actually work, just recently got a new car and it has some sun screen finger prints on the metal as well as the black plastic strip on the vertical side of the door above the handle and its annoying me
Mothers aluminum polish! Wipe an even coat on headlights let it dry no taping necessary. Put a buffing whel on a drill unless you have a buffer. Buff lightly & uniformly in 2 directions up & down then side to side using outside edge of wheel which is moving faster dont apply anything more than light pressure & keep your movements uniform. Did it yesterday once dry I spent 5 minutes buffing? Like new. Acan is like 5 bucks. Ive used it 4 or 5 times & still have 1/2 a can. Its ok if you buff body paint next to headlights/tail lights it does no damage.
I've done the wd40, headlight restoration products, Turtlewax Colorback, and toothpaste. As youve stated they're all only temporary fixes as that the clear coating and UV protection has all deteriorated. But, toothpaste is safer on your automotive paint than other products.
@@TightWadDIY thanks. I use the Xpel PPF, said to be the best on the market with 10 years of warranty. I didn't put it over the paint tho, since I already got the dealer's ceramic coating and 6 years paint warranty
I just spent 3 hours trying to get my headlights clean with some crap from the auto store. Didn't work worth a shit. Imma try this and hopefully it works.
9 out of 10 Dentists recommend brushing your headlights at least twice a month. Plus, you get the added benefit of Minty Fresh vision on the darkest of nights! In between brushings be sure to use Colgate Breath Strips or Hubba Bubba! 😂 Joke's aside, I've used this method many times, and it works fairly well! Thanks for sharing ✌️
WOW!!!! Thanks for the tip!! I went and bought the 2 small tubes of Crest and did this this evening on my wife’s 2011 Honda Pilot EX. One tube actually did both headlights that were really glazed. Got some shop towels and did the wax on wax off!! LOL Worked like a charm, looks new!! The only thing I didn’t have was some wax to put on. I will have to pick up some. Also, our map lights are out and I watched your video on that. There is my next project!! Again thanks for posting these videos. One question have you had an issue with the third seat latch not working?? The 1/4 seat is down and the latch will not release so I can raise the seat. Again thanks!! Juddie - J & J TOA
Yes, Hell and satan go together. That is where he is headed for eternity, and so will those who serve. Whether you believe it not doesn't make any difference.
I just did my daughters headlights. I have tried the toothpaste method, on my own car, it did last a few days. I used sandpaper, 800 stroking side to side and then rinse, then up and down, then side to side with 1000 grit. Then scrubbed with the Barkeepers friend, it's like Comet bath scrub. Then waxed, and the drivers side looks great, but as I was trying to teach her, she did the passengers side, which ended up less yellow, but still foggy. I heard once you get them clear, WD-40 will help seal and keep them clear? Great video BTW!! THANK YOU! I may try again on her passenger side, toothpaste. My daughters car is a 2004 Sonata. Her headlights are very dim, she is scared to drive at night. I drove her car at night and couldn't see well either. Scary! Trying to find the right headlight bulbs as well. Any ideas on that?
I don’t think WD40 will have any benefit. Just keep scrubbing with toothpaste until they are clear. They will stay clear for a couple months and you can repeat the process. To get the correct bulbs, go to an auto parts store. They will look them up for you.
If you have the funds, swap out factory headlamps for projector type headlamps instead, can use factory bulbs and it still focuses the beam better and magnifies it, worked awesome on my 06 f150...
And, the chance of your headlights getting cavities, is reduced dramatically. I once purchased two different toothpastes that I did not realize were manufactured by the same company. On the sides of the packages, one said "CAVITY PROTECTION", and the other said "FIGHTS CAVITIES". So I thought that was kind of weird.
For $20 you can get a meguiars headlight restoration kit from walmart. Made my headlights look like new and i have leftover product for more headlights (they recommend 2 coats and thats all i used). Been over 6 months and theyre still looking new. In the long run the $20 is the better deal, just saying...
@TightWadDIY Nice Results!!! I don't know if someone asked this in a previous comment but I don't want to go through 600+ comments, so I'll ask: What kind of cloth did you use when first applying the toothpaste and does it matter?
I finally did this to one of my headlights. Toothpaste and Turtle 🐢 wax. Not perfect, I didn’t have as much elbow grease due one shoulder painful. Will do again. Didn’t do the other, it’s fairly new and not glazed. I drive rural roads and a large dog 🐕 committed suicide, so close and charging at the car, couldn’t miss it, broke that headlight. It ran off up a wooded hill, probably died. Had to order new headlight.
I need to try this. I have one headlight that is awfully cloudy, and one that is nearly clear. I think there was a difference in the one they used as a replacement after a deer collision five years ago. Does it have to be Crest? lol, I have several other brands in the cabinets, and travel bags. They need to be used for something, since I don't brush my teeth anymore. Thanks for the vid.
The coating on the headlights wears off overtime causing the cloudiness. That would explain why the newer light still looks good. Any toothpaste will work but I prefer the non gel type.
@@TightWadDIY thank you very much I used it on my dad's car and my dad's headlight's are now strong and before I did the method my dad's car has only one light working and after I used the method both of my dad's headlight's starting work and they became stronger
All you do with toothpaste is clean out the dirt, not the actual problem, which is oxidation and carbon deposits baked into the lens. This video is utterly useless, as I described above.
The plastic fogs up due to UV in sunlight. It comes with a UV Filter which has worn off. Pastes you buy for this purpose clean the surface but also add the filter to protect it for a while.
@@TightWadDIY I got my headlights done by a franchise called "ultra-tune". They added the filter, which took a while to dry and was a bit sticky. Then I got another car and went to a car products shop, they had one product which was for mild problems and had the additive in it to protect after cleaning. They also had a two product solution for really bad headlights. It might depend on whether your car is garaged or spends a lot of time in the sun. If your car is garaged and you live in a cold area it may not need the additive. I'm in Australia and I notice a lot of older cars with this problem. Anyhow well done with the toothpaste!
@@rexcowan9209 I see what you mean now. Yes, the various clear coat materials can help dramatically. I thought you meant just the “polish” they sell. Most kits are simply a rubbing compound and a wax.
