Glen said:
I have a 97 Intrepid and the headlights are self destructing. It seems the
clear finish is coming off the plastic and they are getting dull. Is this
normal and be quiet about it, or is it another flaw the chrysler knows
about.
If you email take the 2 out of my email.
Thank you
glen
Microsoft would call it an undocumented feature. It's a common
problem. I'm not too happy about having to spend $400-$600 after five
years on an item that should last the lifetime of the vehicle, but
that's the nature of car ownership these days - people think nothing of
spending several hundred or a couple of thousand dollars on routine car
maintenance anymore due to poor design.
You can find techniques for polishing it back out (successivly fine
grades of sandpaper finishing with 1200 or 1500 grit, then some sort of
polish to fill in the fine scratches), but they're mostly wishful
thinking (the polishing would have to be repeated often). You'd be
essentially removing a protective coating (anti-UV and anti-scratch)
that doesn't work very well, but the base material is even worse and
will deteriorate more rapidly once exposed.
If the pricing is like the 2nd gen LH cars, you can find individual
headlight assys. on the internet for just under $200.
I have a new driver's side assy. for my '99 Concorde sitting on my shelf
right now waiting for warmer weather to put it in (the other side was
replaced a year or so ago due to an accident, otherwise, I'd need to be
replacing it now too).
Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")
