VF2 headlight housing melting

[Leon771]

Does anyone else with a VF, VF2 have issues with the front of their headlight housing melting? I had thought I'd seen something about this occurring with a VE but can't seem to locate that thread anywhere. I had a look at the front of our MY17 Redline this morning and the headlight housing a quite visibly melting and cracked. The car has only had halogen globes in it from new. The recent set put into the car were Narva 130%. The car is my wife's car and she tends to drive around during the day so the lights weren't really used to frequently. I've recently been recovering from a broken knee and have been using her car to get to and from work (~2.5 hours of dark driving per day).

In the picture below you can see the crazing in the housing as well as the large opaque bubble that has formed.

I will obviously have to change my headlights but I want to prevent this from happening again.
Is this a design flaw with the Commodore headlight design?
Should I stick to standard output globes?
Do those running HIDs in the standard housing have this problem?

 

[lmoengnr]

Does anyone else with a VF, VF2 have issues with the front of their headlight housing melting? I had thought I'd seen something about this occurring with a VE but can't seem to locate that thread anywhere. I had a look at the front of our MY17 Redline this morning and the headlight housing a quite visibly melting and cracked. The car has only had halogen globes in it from new. The recent set put into the car were Narva 130%. The car is my wife's car and she tends to drive around during the day so the lights weren't really used to frequently. I've recently been recovering from a broken knee and have been using her car to get to and from work (~2.5 hours of dark driving per day).

In the picture below you can see the crazing in the housing as well as the large opaque bubble that has formed.

I will obviously have to change my headlights but I want to prevent this from happening again.
Is this a design flaw with the Commodore headlight design?
Should I stick to standard output globes?
Do those running HIDs in the standard housing have this problem?

View attachment 242988

Just checked the left headlight (which uses HID's) on my Magnum, they're dirty, but no crazing like that.
Are both headlights like that? How many kms?

 

[Leon771]

Both headlights are like that. Left is the worst. Right isn’t as bad.
Car has done just under 160,000km. Haven’t noticed it until this weekend.

Globes were changed around 12 months ago.

 

[Forg]

Nothing like that for our MY14 ... still running the original globes it was delivered with.

IMHO plastic headlights is a **** idea, but you've got no choice these days ...

 

[Skylarking]

Hope that’s not a common occurrence on factory headlamp assemblies

But gotta ask the question… even though OP says “from new” because that can mean ”new to him” (= second hand car with unknown repair history)…

So are these actually factory headlamp assemblies or some aftermarket job (though not sure how to tell the difference if they are quality forgeries)?

Also, Narva 130% supposedly produces 30% more light. Since halogen are in essence an incandescen glob and produces lots of heat along with lots of light, presumably this means those Narva 130’s product at least 30% more heat and just what ”excess heat” headroom do the factory headlamp assemblies have? Can they cope with 30% or 50% or 100% more heat than factory globes put out? Where is the point where you fool them up?

If it is indeed a used car, maybe the headlamp assembly polycarbonate lens coating has degraded and was repaired and resprayed with a substandard clear coat?

Don’t know but it’s an interesting problem that one would want to get to the root cause of before outplaying lots of money on replacements

PS: may be worth also talking to the selling dealer as headlamp assemblies shouldn’t “melt” in such a manner. After all, it’s the stuff good will warranty repair are made of

 

[krusing]

Does anyone else with a VF, VF2 have issues with the front of their headlight housing melting? I had thought I'd seen something about this occurring with a VE but can't seem to locate that thread anywhere. I had a look at the front of our MY17 Redline this morning and the headlight housing a quite visibly melting and cracked. The car has only had halogen globes in it from new. The recent set put into the car were Narva 130%. The car is my wife's car and she tends to drive around during the day so the lights weren't really used to frequently. I've recently been recovering from a broken knee and have been using her car to get to and from work (~2.5 hours of dark driving per day).

In the picture below you can see the crazing in the housing as well as the large opaque bubble that has formed.

I will obviously have to change my headlights but I want to prevent this from happening again.
Is this a design flaw with the Commodore headlight design?
Should I stick to standard output globes?
Do those running HIDs in the standard housing have this problem?

View attachment 242988

I would say the globes wattage/output is too high,
being that the LH headlamp, and the light is projected to the centre of the car,
IMHO, I recon it's the brightness output that has caused that.

You mentioned Nava 130%
Hmm,
I'd stick with the H7 std wattage globes [I think they are 55w in the VE's & VF's].

 

[Z31na]

Bar about 10 months with LED’s. I’ve only had +120’s, +130’s or +150’s in the headlights for the time I’ve owned my VF (2nd hand in 2017). No crazing like that on either side in the centre. The RHS has started to crack and go yellow, but thats around the edges near the bonnet and is common as a car ages. Not like what the OP has.

Before going and spending out for a new assembly, try a headlight restore? They are relatively cheap compared to a new assembly. Meguires do a basic kit. It comes with x4 sand paper grits and a plastic polish. Their kit alone gets rid of most thats in the plastic but will leave fine scratches and wont stop UV reacting with the new surface. Next step is to get a pack of headlight wipes, (any brand will do). Normally they are a 2 stage pack. First wipe deals with the fine scratches. 2nd gives you the UV protection and the final transparent finish.

Tedious process but those two kits used together are pretty much what a trade pack comes with but cheaper because trade packs are designed for more than a single car. And if you screw it up or it doesn’t work, oh well because replacing the assembly was your only other option anyway.

 

[Commo64]

I reckon it has something to do with the globes you're using, or maybe the headlight covers are aftermarket (or both)

 

[stooge]

something not right there, the standard globes shouldn't do that.
i would be concerned about the wiring melting if you are using non standard bulbs, something also worth checking.

 

[panhead]

Is the damage through the entire thickness of the housing or just on the outer protective layer?

If it's just the outer layer then try to polish it out.







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