Best way to protect new headlight housing?

09 Off Road... So I received a new set of headlights from my wife, because she knows that the failing headlights aggravate me. I'm currently on my second set since 2009, which have begun to fail and will be putting in these replacements this summer.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to extend the life of these housings. Film/wrap? Coating?
crashnburn80 any thought to long term care/protection?

 

I used 3m headlight clear coat.
Amazon only sells it in a 40x pack.
I just got to NAPA and buy the kit and use the wipes in it. ($10)
I do it once a year. So far I've been good for about 3 years now since I put my new set in.

Time will tell I guess?

3M typically makes good stuff. So I went with them.

 

Don't park it in direct sunlight.

 

After a lot of research and reviews including the pitfalls of do it yourself-applications, I just ended up using 303 protectant.

 

Here's an option:

https://www.headlightarmor.com/

https://www.headlightarmor.com/05-11-toyota-tacoma-lighting-film-kits.aspx

 

Cerkote headlight kit is the best on the market !

 

Wolfgang makes a really good headlight protectant wax. Their products are excellent all around.

 

Try Lamin-x protective film. I’ve used it on most of my previous vehicles. Also protects against rock chips, etc. $65 but it’s a one time deal…

https://lamin-x.com/search-magic.ht...t Covers&sort_method=selling_price.filter/asc

 

Many people do exactly this. But there's one big problem. 303 washes off in the first car wash or rain storm - rendering it useless.

 

easy to just re-apply

 

I use Xpel uv protective film. Installed it on my 07 when new. This is what they looked like after 16 years. Granted the truck is low milage (right now at 35,600 miles) but over half those years the truck was parked outside every day in the sun. These headlights had never had any headlight restoration products applied to them... just started to show some haze the last few years.

Back then the film was alot thicker. Just upgraded to new lights and installed the Xpel film on them... half the thickness now but alot easier to work with.

 

Get rid of the incandescent DRL if you have them and get LEDS instead. This will keep your lights from. Wing cooked from the inside. Also lots of options for coating. Clear coat spray, plastix spray etc…

 

Park in a garage, under some cover, or away from the sun.

UV is what is killing all plastic headlights.

Heck, come up with some sort of opaque cloth with magnets that you can use to cover them while you're parked at work and that would also do the trick.

Just keep them away from the sunlight.

 

STRONGLY disagree. Putting LED bulbs into a housing meant for halogen is a disaster and you're going to blind everyone on the road at night.

 

Stay away from trees.

 

it's for the DRLs, not the main headlight beam

 

The drls on 07-11 are also the turn signals as well so putting in leds would cause hyper flash, from what I remember reading in the past. It’s why I’ve never installed leds in mine

 

Depends on the arrangement of individual diodes, but in general yeah it can cause a problem with how the light exiting the headlight is distributed.

 

Hyperflashing is better than a couple of burned up headlight housings. Hyperflashing isn’t illegal just a tad annoying. You get over it as they look fantastic.

 

Can’t say if it works or not since both my headlights on my Tacoma and 4Runner are fairly new (OEM), but I wash and apply chemical guys headlight restore with UV protectant like once a month. Am in the same boat where I’m trying to preserve them as long as possible.