How to clean toyota faded/dull/cloudy headlights?

[Ed666]

Hi there,

Both of my Toyota Corolla front headlights are faded/dull/cloudy. I have been informed by a local garage that this will cause my car to fail its MOT. I believe the fading is on the outside of the light and is due to the UV rays deteriorating the outer layers of plastic on the headlights.

With this in mind, would anyone know if there is anyway to clean these headlights? Ideally, I am looking for a DIY home approach that with a bit of elbow grease will clean the lights.

Any advice or guidance on a product that could be used would be most appreciated.

Many thanks

[FROSTYBALLS]

Various methods of restoring headlight lenses from using toothpaste to buying headlight restoration kits (from £9.50 upwards)  - eg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_21?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=headlight+restoration+kit&sprefix=Headlight+restoration%2Caps%2C201&crid=1PE51HSDCJ1MZ

[Catlover]

One suggestion I saw was use WD40 with a rag. Tried it and loads of dirt came on the cloth, and the light looked "clean" before so WD40 moved something.

Toothpaste as Frosty says as its mildly abrasive. Got any T-Cut, worth a try.

[TP49]

I used Brasso and cloth with plenty of elbow grease.

[RUToyota]

So many methods used as said...I use G3...or if they require more "aggressive" treatment, then something like a Meguiars kit might help.

[JayG]

I bought a set of these polishing foam disks for about a fiver that I could connect to my cordless drill and just used some cutting compound.

I'd tried two different headlight polishing kits before this method, the polishing kits took a significant amount of elbow grease and yielded poor results compared to the ease and finish the drill attachment gave.

[TP49]

Made a good job of that light Jay.

[DeTomato]

I used WD40 which removed years of film on the lenses. Toothpaste acts like a fine cutting compound so I used some Tesco colour restorer which I had in the shed and is similar. It did a great job!

[hubrad]

Good heads-up, JayG.. just ordered a set.

What does anybody use for sealing after polishing up?

[Notoyboy]

I don't bother with any sealing:  I just give it another polish as required - maybe yearly