Headlight

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

 

There's not a damn thing nice that can be said about the '93-'97 LH-car
headlamps. They have piss-poor performance even when brand new. It's a
race to see whether the lenses will cloud-up or the mounting tabs will
break off first.

DS

 

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")

 

I can think of one thing nice to say about them. They are better than
the ones that came on some Neons. They turn almost black with age.
How anyone sees at night with one of those Neons I don't know.

 

I called Chyysler and they said the knew nothing about the problem with
headlights. Guess they as well as a big bird have there head in the sand.
Glen