Hey all,

Simple question really.

I recently replaced my driver side headlight with a brand new OEM one. the passenger headlight was not replaced. Granted the passenger side headlight is not brand new looking like the driver side, but it doesn't look bad either, at a glance and even somewhat up close, they look nearly in the same condition.

I recently replaced my JS2K low beam bulbs to the Osram CBIs and they make a world of a difference, with one caveat. the Driver side is far crisper in shining out the light and when the beam hits the lens as its being projected out, you can clearly see the difference as the passenger side has more of a soft/murkey look to it vs. the driver side is clear, clean and shines through without any notice of 'pitting'.

When you look at the passenger headlight up close from a foot away, then you can see there is very light hazing and only at the top, nowhere near where the headlight bulb shines out through, and the actual front of the lens just seems to have a bit of light pitting from driving.

My question to you all about all of this is:

If I were to get my headlight polished up by a professional detail shop for only the passenger side, would this treatment make the output more even/better like my driver side?
Although it's not much money, I don't want to do it if it isn't worth the effort/money/time.

Please advise.

 

Sounds like your passenger side has light haze from oxidation. But if it's only at the top, then you may not see much improvement in the light output even after polishing. It's not worth to pay a shop to do this.

Here's a picture of headlight restoration I did for a friend recently (there are DIY kits for headlight restoration as well, but I've never tried any)
- Wet sand using 800, 1000, and 1500 grit sand papers
- Compound with M105 then polish with M205
- Coat with UV resistant clear coat (most important step)

 

Thanks for the input, Trcydaman,

Yeah, when you look at the car dead on, the headlights look nearly equal...