About my headlights. First a little history...I purchased my car new, its an 06 and just turned 20K miles, the car sits in storage from November - April. My headlight covers have what appears to be "scratches" in them. When I was at the Mazda dealer for service I asked about them...it looks really bad when the rest of the car is perfect. I was told that an external source had done this to my covers. My car has never been anything other than hand washed, hand dried and hand waxed...they implied that some kind of chemical had come into contact with that plastic. I find it odd that when you look at the covers it almost looks as if a piece of tape (or something flat) had been placed across the top of each of them because that portion is unscathed. So...me being the curious person that I am I turned on the lights at night in my garage and sure enough where the high intensity lights do not shine corresponds to that line. I have spoken with Mazda and they won't do anything about it...I even posed the question that if something "external" was put on the vehicle why are my tail lights not showing the same "scratching" in them. Does anyone else have this same situation and can these be polished out? Any help you guys can give me would help!

 

have the exact same issue.

 

I honestly believe the plastic composite used for the headlight covers can't handle the intensity of the beams....if there are others out there with this same problem please let me know...I am sure Mazda doesn't want to admit its their problem but.....I have never used anything to compromise the plastic on those covers so I KNOW its nothing I've done~

 

Give MNAO customer service a call and report the problem. May not result in a replacement, but if they get enough complaints they may issue a service bulletin. Gotta start somewhere.

Otherwise, it the "scratches" are on the outer surface of the plastic, they can probably be polished off. Check with a body shop. If they are on the inside of the plastic, not.

 

For anger management I highly recommend Tai Chi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBvF6r6DOvc

 

If the above solutions fail then the only way to hide it might be to invest in some eye lids.

It may or may not suit your style but it will certainly hide the imperfection of the head lights on a otherwise perfect looking 8.

 

anyways you should take pics so i can see how bad yours is, i think i might have it slightly but if thats what your talking about it doesnt bother me at all.

 

eye lids +1

 

I use a 3M polish on the lens to keep them nice due to this exact issue.

 

how about trying to get us some pics of the issue?

the line for the HIDs is supposed to be there.

 

its quite possible to have chemical etching effect the front lights and not the back- they are facing different directions and so don't get splashed the same way.

 

The auto parts stores have all sorts of systems for returning the headlight covers to there original condition. It is not an issue limited to the RX8 or Mazda. It affects a modern cars. UV rays from the sun cloud the plastic.

 

yeah i have an 04 and mine are fine EXCEPT for the damage i did to em recently lol

 

i use plastiX by meguiar's. cleans it right off and restores it to like-new. but it fogs up again after a while so needs to be redone periodically. don't be angry

 

In my case I wouldn't call them scratches, but rather they appear to be clouding up. It looks like heavily built up soap scum, if anything. My car is also a 2006 model I bought new, however mine is a year-round DD currently with 62k miles. The cloudy appearance isn't that bad right now, but I am thinking about doing something about it.

 

this thread fails without pics

 

^^agreed need pics to determine what exactly is going on.... otherwise we really cant help you other than throw out a million ideas around

 

i have these exact same scratches on my headlights too, and yes. they are indeed scratches. i havent had the time to get them looked at but i do know what you are talking about. im going to be taking my car to the stealership in a few weeks and i will pm you and what bs they try to fill me on and see what it will take to get them fixed.

 

I bought some PlastiX and tried it....it did remove some of the issue but not all....I tried to take pics of the issue but its hard to see in the pic. It just bugs me because my car has never seen snow, ice or even adverse road conditions...been rained on twice I think. I have a 2002 Sebring with 110K miles on it and the headlight covers on it aren't that much worse than the Mazda. I was told when it was in for sevice that Mazda has issued a bulletin on this issue and won't do anything about it because they say its an external issue and has nothing to do with their components.

 

shinka: your car isn't garaged every night, is it?

 

yep garaged every night and stored and covered from november - april

 

wait.. pics of the headlights? the cars or hers?

 

http://www.amazon.com/GlassyLite-Pre...1914328&sr=8-3 If the scratches are on the outside, this will fix it. Super easy and impossible to mess up. Even has a sealant. Do you use a car cover?

 

I took my car to a car wash once and when they were done they had scratched up my driver side headlight.... took it to the dealer and said "it just appeared" and they replaced it under warranty no problems, but then again we (local owners) have a really good relationship with one of the service reps at our local dealership, so they dont jerk us around. I would say try becoming really good friends with the service rep and see if you can sweet talk him into covering it under warranty

 

oh yeah, and always use the same rep every time. When they call for the surveys, always give them a top rating.... you take care of him and make him look good to the bosses and mazda and he in turn will take care of you