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A while back there was an issue with some headlights that had suffered from a problem called "crazing" in which the polycarbonate material in the lens begins to develop small lines which look like multiple tiny cracks.
For those of you who have been around a while may remember that StonGard's headlight protection was considered to be one of, it not the main cause for this problem. StonGard took considerable heat from many because: a) They considered this a factory defect in the lens making it a warranty issue with Honda, and denied all responsibility for the problem and b) StonGard's refusal to replace a set of $700 headlights for one of their customers with the crazed lens.
Now that I have refreshed some of your memories out there, take a look at this...
...StonGard doesn't make taillight covers.
Check your tails, my warranty ran out 3 months ago.
It certainly speeds the process, that's for sure, but I won't blame JUST StonGuard for it. My front lenses have been clean for over 2 years, but I decided to put some static cling tint on them...that's right, static cling. Within 3 weeks I pulled them back to put a bit of water behind them and the lenses were severely crazed right where the HID light shines through the lens. Same thing happened to Pinky, so I would say the evidence points pretty strongly to a material that easily crazes...waiting for Honda to come out with a TSB for this...
10 months, no Ston Gard, lenses are fine. 2 months with Ston Gard, lenses are ruined. Nearly 2 years since, no Ston Gard, no problems. Ston Gard promises that if the lenses are damaged with their product in place they will replace/repair them. They did neither. It was either the product or the application of the product that did it in my case. Either way, they refused to do anything about it and went so far as to accuse me of slander.
SCS2K, I understand and share your frustration. As you remember, I did everything I could think of the get your issue resolved with StonGard, but there had been enough prior experience with lenses that crazed without the headlight protection to back up their view that it would have happened anyway, with or without the product in place.
I'm not a molecular scientist, so I cannot prove or even explain what happened, but there is no doubt that the StonGard headlight protection will protect the lens from being damaged by road debris. This vehicle has the StonGard protection on the headlights but not the amber lense below the light.
My theatrical lighting experience may help out here. What is probably happening is that the light from the HIDs is being partly absorbed by the coating (strongard or static cling tint). This causes one side of the plastic, and the applied layer, to heat up faster than the other side. Cracking then ensues.
The reason for this in the area where the HIDs shine through is because the HIDs are tightly focused at this poing (not more than an inch or two across for the light beam this close to the front lens of the HIDS). This means that a lot of light is passing through this area. The reason why this doesn't occur with dust/dirt and other stuff on the light is because the dust/dirt gets the heat (and is free to expand w/o hurting your plastic, while the films are completely encasing the plastic (meaning when it heats up both it and the plastic next to it expands, causing cracking like an ice-cube first dropped into water).
The picture in the first post shows cracking where the running lights are (the red lights that are always on at night).
The theatrical lighting reference is because the theatre I once worked at had the same problems (cracking lenses) with the outer lenses of some of their lights when using bulbs that had a higher light output than the light instruments were rated for.
The solution? Don't allow any film or spray-on layering on the plastic covers of our lights. This way you minimize the risk of heating one side of your clear plastic faster than the other side, and minimize the risk of cracking.
12-30-2002, 11:14 PM
