Why Do Headlights Get Foggy?

Sandblasting and micro pitting over time can destroy your headlights

The most likely reason your headlight will fog up / did fog up and needs 'fixing' is not usually due to UV on its own. All headlights come with a hard protective UV coating from the factory. The problem starts when you drive your vehicle without a lighting protection film applied to the lights. Over time sand and road debris chip the hard coating the headlights came with and the sun starts to break down the polycarbonate. This process happens slowly, little by little. So slow you don’t notice it until it is too late

Unprotected Headlight:

Protected Headlight:

If you then sand down and polish the lamp and return the clarity you must protect the lamp from both exposure to the atmosphere, UV and pitting otherwise you will have the fogginess return. While you could use some sort of polymer sealant or wax they typically do not last that long and of course will do nothing again further pitting – and pitting was the root cause of the cloudy / foggy lens.

Your best course of action is to protect the lens with our Headlight Armor lighting protection kits! If you do sand the headlights down and refinish prior to the application of Headlight Armor be sure to use a solution that includes a final hard UV coating and allow it to fully cure per the manufactures' recommendations prior to applying a Headlight Armor Lighting Protection Film application.