[mb443]

I ran some questionable quality eBay AE bulbs for a few months before coming to my senses and replacing them with LUX V7s.

When installing the LUX bulbs I noticed the end of one of the plastic AE rings that the bulbs shine into is discolored. There is no bubbling, just a very slight surface discoloration. After doing some more reading it sounds like this was caused by the cheap bulbs damaging the tip of the plastic. I'm lucky I didn't let this get worse to the point of needing replacement... Xenon+adaptive aint cheap.

The result is one ring is just slightly dimmer when viewed with higher ambient light levels, IE: full daylight, and that light output from that ring seems more sensitive to viewing angle (that could also just be that its the outside passengers-side AE so I'm always seeing the reflection from that ring at a wider angle than the others). Once the ambient light level drops a little it's almost impossible to notice, but I'm still interested in a fix if possible.

I'm wondering if anyone's has been successful in resolving this kind of thing by cleaning/polishing the tip of the plastic AE ring. Obviously that would carry some risk of making it all worse, so wondering if it's worth the effort.

Thanks in advance.

[e90yyc]

Originally Posted by mb443

I ran some questionable quality eBay AE bulbs for a few months before coming to my senses and replacing them with LUX V7s.

When installing the LUX bulbs I noticed the end of one of the plastic AE rings that the bulbs shine into is discolored. There is no bubbling, just a very slight surface discoloration. After doing some more reading it sounds like this was caused by the cheap bulbs damaging the tip of the plastic. I'm lucky I didn't let this get worse to the point of needing replacement... Xenon+adaptive aint cheap.

The result is one ring is just slightly dimmer when viewed with higher ambient light levels, IE: full daylight, and that light output from that ring seems more sensitive to viewing angle (that could also just be that its the outside passengers-side AE so I'm always seeing the reflection from that ring at a wider angle than the others). Once the ambient light level drops a little it's almost impossible to notice, but I'm still interested in a fix if possible.

I'm wondering if anyone's has been successful in resolving this kind of thing by cleaning/polishing the tip of the plastic AE ring. Obviously that would carry some risk of making it all worse, so wondering if it's worth the effort.

Thanks in advance.

Got any pics by chance?

If it's what I'm imagining, then I'd say a light polishing with a q-tip and some machine polish or a "plastic polish" should remove any surface contamination that is present where the light enters the ring. I'd advise against using rubbing compound; it's probably overkill cut-wise, and puts you at greater risk of introducing dust into the headlight housing.

Now, this applies only if the "good" side has a glossy/smooth ring tip. Based on how fiber optics work I would assume this is the case, but I've never looked at mine so I don't know.