headlights

[Dave jc]

I am looking for a pair of headlights for my 2010 RCZ ,Unfortunately for me they are XENON/ Not halogen
The lenes are really badly scratched and marked, they will not polish out .

A question ,does anyone know if you can change just the lenes on the headlights.

Regards Dave

 

[Pedro]

I think you have to separate the lens using a tool similar to a plastic weld unit or soldering iron design as they are glued together

 

[RCZIain]

There are some on ebay, they're about £250 a piece though.

 

[neilgsxr69]

I am looking for a pair of headlights for my 2010 RCZ ,Unfortunately for me they are XENON/ Not halogen
The lenes are really badly scratched and marked, they will not polish out .

A question ,does anyone know if you can change just the lenes on the headlights.

Regards Dave

They do come apart easily there’s quite a few YouTube vids of them being separated but as far as I know you can’t get Len’s replacements, if you can get them new they’re around £1200 each and by all accounts Peugeot are out of the MK2 xenon’s so anyone who busts a headlamp in a small bump will get their car written off because the insurance can’t replace the lamp

 

[Dave jc]

Thanks for your reply ,Is there a option to switch from xenon to halogen ?

 

[Claret63]

They do come apart easily there’s quite a few YouTube vids of them being separated but as far as I know you can’t get Len’s replacements, if you can get them new they’re around £1200 each and by all accounts Peugeot are out of the MK2 xenon’s so anyone who busts a headlamp in a small bump will get their car written off because the insurance can’t replace the lamp

They were available in August, is this recent? surely this won’t continue as writing for example an R off because of a damaged headlamp is pure madness!

 

[IanC]

My headlights were very deeply scratched and crazed when I bought my car a couple of months ago, so much so that I thought they'd never be clear again.

However, a couple of days (yes, days) spent with successively finer grades of wet and dry and followed up with Maguires metal polish, applied with an electric drill fitted with a foam disk and they were a universal and complete opaque white. Wet them down tho and they didn’t look too bad. So I dried them off, hit them with some compressed air and they looked ok ish!

But then I remembered those YouTube wood-work videos I've watched where they sand down a bit of timber filled with resin. After they sand the resin it's opaque and then they polish the whole thing with wax to get a mirror finish. It worked for me too! I decided to call it quits with the sanding and polishing and finished the lenses off with a rattle can clear coat.

They're not perfect by any means, you don't have to look too carefully at the finished result to see the imperfections but they're a dam sight better than they were.

 

[2retro]

Incredible. WTF happened to them in the first place to get them so bad though I wonder?!

 

[Verminator]

It's something that happens to the Xenon MK2 lights many members are having the same issue

 

[IanC]

Before I purchased it I asked the previous owner if she'd cleaned them with steel wool. She hadn't of course and had no idea of the cause of the deterioration.

I've seen outdoor timber work, finished in a non UV stabilised varnish that has a similar crazed and scratched look after long term exposure to sunlight. Given that most of the crazing and scratches was on the top face of my lights, it leads me to think that the headlight plastic is coated in something that was a tad short on UV protection. The upside is that the restoration process is limited to the removal of the non UV stabilised clearcoat.

Speaking of steel wool tho, in retrospect maybe I should have started the restoration with some of the really fine steel wool woodworkers use. (There are grades of steel wool. Who knew.) It might have saved me some elbow grease.

 

[Dave jc]

The headlights where marked when I brought the car ,They were polished badly.
I priced up new halogen headlight units £250.00 ,When i went to fit them I realised they were xenon's

 

[IanC]

I gotta tell ya, I'm no RCZ officienardo so I apologise that I don't understand the implications in your post.

Pls explain it to me like I'm a child starting with which generation RCZ you have.

Mine is a 2013 so a gen 2 with xenon.

 

[Dave jc]

Mine is a 2010 Diesel RCZ GT, 2.0. It has leather interior, Sat Nav, power seats. NG4 Radio/cd/juke box system. 19 inch wheels. Also it has very badly scratched xenon headlights. I'm not sure what generation it is probably Gen 1.
that cannot be polished out. previous owners or garage have tried to polish them but made them worse.
that's why I am looking for new headlights . The price for xenon headlights are unbelievable, from Peugeot £1700 each ouch.... More than the car is worth.


Regards Dave.

 

[Claret63]

It's something that happens to the Xenon MK2 lights many members are having the same issue

The problem is not on the outside with the xenon headlights, it’s on the inside that can’t be fixed period, and anyone with even a pug extended warranty, it will not be fixed.
Peugeot warranty claim it’s UV damage.

Its a material problem with the heat generated from the lamp.

 

[IanC]

I read somewhere that some RCZ headlights were identical to 308 lights or is that just an urban myth? If it's true tho, and your car is one of those that shares headlights with the 308, it gives you a much higher chance of picking up a good set from a wrecker.

There are one or two different styles available on AliExpress, but I can't for the life of me work out how you order a pair. They are not cheap!

I guess I was lucky that my lights just had the damage on the outside.

IanC

 

[Kenneth]

Before I purchased it I asked the previous owner if she'd cleaned them with steel wool. She hadn't of course and had no idea of the cause of the deterioration.

I've seen outdoor timber work, finished in a non UV stabilised varnish that has a similar crazed and scratched look after long term exposure to sunlight. Given that most of the crazing and scratches was on the top face of my lights, it leads me to think that the headlight plastic is coated in something that was a tad short on UV protection. The upside is that the restoration process is limited to the removal of the non UV stabilised clearcoat.

Speaking of steel wool tho, in retrospect maybe I should have started the restoration with some of the really fine steel wool woodworkers use. (There are grades of steel wool. Who knew.) It might have saved me some elbow grease.

Scotch pads are very good for that as well. You get various grades of them before cracking on with the fine grit paper. Is it the lacquer finish that’s the problem or the lens itself? If it’s the lens that gets crazed then nothing will work really. Seems like you got a result all the same so it must be the top coat. Whatever that is.

 

[Flanners]

The problem is not on the outside with the xenon headlights, it’s on the inside that can’t be fixed period, and anyone with even a pug extended warranty, it will not be fixed.
Peugeot warranty claim it’s UV damage.

Its a material problem with the heat generated from the lamp.

These cars are a 'mare.....thankfully mine are tip top.....my car is parked in a dark garage only used on Spring/Summer days so no headlight use just the DRLs! The quality of modern car parts is a joke tbh....as is the fact that the Xenon's are not covered by the Warranty imo.

My older cars with plastic lenses just need an occasional buff/clean with Healight restorer and all good to go........

 

[IanC]

Scotch pads are very good for that as well. You get various grades of them before cracking on with the fine grit paper. Is it the lacquer finish that’s the problem or the lens itself? If it’s the lens that gets crazed then nothing will work really. Seems like you got a result all the same so it must be the top coat. Whatever that is.

I wasn't aware that Scotch pads came in different grades too. Good to know!

Having done a successful headlight restoration I'm pretty sure it's not the lens but just the UV protection that is the problem. Tbh, given the sad state of my lenses before I started, I wasn't sure which it was but clearly (pun intended) the problem was with the coating used on the exterior of the lens.

Thinking about the Scotch pads tho, I might give them a try on my black roof arches to get rid of the water spots that won't polish out. I've read the various related threads on this forum but no silver bullets there unfortunately!

 

[Kenneth]

I wasn't aware that Scotch pads came in different grades too. Good to know!

Having done a successful headlight restoration I'm pretty sure it's not the lens but just the UV protection that is the problem. Tbh, given the sad state of my lenses before I started, I wasn't sure which it was but clearly (pun intended) the problem was with the coating used on the exterior of the lens.

Thinking about the Scotch pads tho, I might give them a try on my black roof arches to get rid of the water spots that won't polish out. I've read the various related threads on this forum but no silver bullets there unfortunately!

I do plenty of wood finishing at work and they are good for certain things

I’m glad that it’s just the top coat that’s the issue as I can fix that.

If the arches are solid aluminium I’d take the finish off to bare metal then seal it again I reckon. You’ll get the brushed finish with scotch pads if you work methodically at least. I haven’t had my car long enough to find out all the little secrets. They are great wee cars all the same. Worth loving

 

[Kenneth]

BTW. I’m 6’5” and I fit in the drivers seat fine. If I can do it anyone (nearly) can

back seats are purely decorative though